Today's plan: the Picasso Museum in the morning followed by a visit to Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece the Sagrada Familia.
We leave our hotel into a pleasant sunny morning. I am now wishing I had put my shorts on, but at least I have them in my bag today. A makers market in the Placa Reial detains us for a while but we are soon heading more or less directly to the Picasso Museum. Unfortunately it is sold out for today, we will have to book online for tomorrow
Not to be denied our culture fix, we retrace our steps to the nearby European Museum of Modern Art that we had noticed en route.
You never know what you are going to get with Modern Art, often it is completely bonkers. There were some nice sculptures in the foyer, but that might have been a decoy to lure in the unwary.
There was an exhibition of work by Jose Corrella, with some incredible hyperrealist paintings
And a mix of other work in their permanent exhibition. I changed into my shorts in the toilets
After this we headed to Gabriella's coffee shop, picking up some food at a market on the way. Unfortunately Gabriella wasn't due in until 3pm, so we would have to go back later. We headed slowly towards the Sagrada Familia, witnessing from a distance a man being arrested by the police. All of a sudden there was a lot of shouting, police came running, in cars, on motorbikes. The guy was taken away in a car and the streets returned to normal
We pass the Arc de Triomphe, built for the Universal Exhibition in 1888, and through more residential streets.
Our first glimpse of the basilica
Construction started in 1882, with the foundations of a fairly standard church being built. The original architect resigned after a year and Gaudi took over the project, spending the rest of his life designing and building the church. Work is expected to be complete in 2026. Or possibly later.
It is a building like no other I've ever seen. Crazy spires, no straight lines, covered in carvings, statues and symbols. And on a huge scale
Inside is equally amazing, the photos go nowhere near capturing what you experience. First is the light. The building is flooded with light. The columns arch and split like the trunks of trees. It is like being in a forest in early spring, with sunlight cascading down through the young canopy.
There is a very interesting museum under the basilica, containing plaster models used in the design process,
and a reconstruction of the string and sandbag model used to design the structure. The columns and branches are all formed from catenary arches, the shape of a rope hung from its two ends, and this model shows how this was designed. No complex calculations necessary!
We get the metro back to our hotel and have pizza in a small local pizzeria. Not the best, but relatively cheap and filling.
Then over to our favourite Mariatchi bar where there is live music and, as usual, a very friendly and international crowd, people from Afghanistan, Argentina, Denmark, Holland and another couple from Manchester
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