Barcelona

Art and Architecture

It’s time for our next big adventure, this time to Spain and southern France! Big adventures are harder these days now with a crazy 17 month old toddler in tow that has her own agenda which involves wiggling and causing chaos. Despite that, I still took a ton of pictures that necessitated breaking the trip into two posts!

  1. In line departing from Boston

Barcelona, Spain#

  1. Typical Barcelona block

So many interior corridors

  1. Barcelona's Arc de Triomf
  1. Ciutadella Park
  1. Ciutadella Park detail

Tower through the trees

  • Sagrada Familia at the Lego store
  • Lego Car

Barcelona is well known for its architecture and Casa Batlló is one of the centerpieces by Antoni Gaudí.

  1. Casa Batlló

The next day we went for a stroll on La Rambla and through the gothic quarter like all good tourists do when in Barcelona.

  1. Christopher Columbus Monument

On La Rambla

  1. Palau Güell
  1. Palau Güell detail and crazy iron work
  1. Palau Güell 2
  • Sticker graffiti
  • Pooping statues seem to be a thing
  • Guitars being made
  1. Harry Potter spreads far
  1. Peeking through alleys at the Cathedral of Barcelona
  1. Cathedral of Barcelona
  • Living statue in the heat

As a way to escape the mid day heat we went to the White Rabbit, “The Off-Museum of Barcelona” which ended up to be pretty fun and a good place for Quinn to play and get some energy out.

  1. Banksy was here

Yours, truly

  1. Eggs suspended in water jets
  1. Mirror rooms with screens
  1. Mirror rooms with screens 2

Hand cranked video projector

  1. Casa Milà

The Nautilus?

Next up was taking a tour of the unmistakable Sagrada Família, still not quite done after 143 years of construction.

  1. Walking up to Sagrada Família
  • Incredible details
  • Incredible sculpting
  1. Monumental ceilings

  1. The church is already in use in the crypt where Gaudí is entombed
  1. No door left unadorned
  1. Panoramic views of Barcelona from the towers
  1. Park below Sagrada Familia
  1. Everyone loves the spiral shot

The night before we didn’t sleep all that well since it turned out to be Saint John’s Eve which is enthusiastically celebrated by setting off fireworks until the wee hours of the morning.

Fireworks aftermath

  1. Block of discord
  1. Casa Amatller
  1. Casa Amatller interior
  1. Casa Amatller lights
  1. Casa Amatller and Casa Batlló competing
  1. Lovely little pedestrian only streets

That evening we took the bus up to Park Güell (pronounced “gway”) which has great views of the city and is one of the places Gaudí lived.

  1. Distant views of the coast
  2. A floating city arrives
  1. Park Güell main courtyard

Catalonia#

After a couple days it was time to pack back up and get a rental car to see some more of the country. On the way to our accommodations we stopped at the Clos D’Agon vineyard and winery for a picnic which was nice but pretty hot and sweaty. We almost had the whole place to ourselves though!

  1. Clos D'Agon showroom
  1. Clos D'Agon exterior

For the night we splurged on the wonderful Hotel Peralada for our anniversary which has such beautiful grounds, refreshing pool, delicious restaurant, and wine spa which we sadly did not get to try.

  1. Hotel Peralada view from our room
  1. Lobby
  1. Poolside bar
  1. Hotel Peralada pool
  1. Ancient olive trees
  2. Ancient olive trees
  1. Golf course
  1. Courtyard

Old olives

  1. Lovely sunset with dinner

The next morning we started with a short drive to visit the Salvador Dalí Museum in Figueres.

  1. Under the dome
  1. Main atrium
  1. As viewed from a specially placed lens

Outside courtyard

And then it was off to lunch!

Continue the adventure in part 2, where we make our way up to Collioure, France!

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