BARCELONA
Barcelona! Hooray, my chance to live the life of The Rentals has come! I left for Barcelona on a Thursday night, so I missed no class for this trip, hooray, and met up with some of the Santa Chiara, Italy Program K-State kids for an amazing 3 day weekend in the coastal paradise of Barcelona! I was immersed in the world of Antoni Gaudi, a now even more favorite architect of mine, I saw works by Norman Foster, Jean Nouvelle, Santiago Calatrava, and our group took it easy and made a traditional Spanish meal every night. This was truly a relaxing, feel-good, awesome weather, awesome location, type of trip. I lived out my dream trip here, and saw so much more than expected, and the seeing and getting in the sea for the first time was truly amazing. Let the journey begin:
SANT JUAME – my hostel was right behind here.
Directly across the square from SANT JUAME – I like the dome
Antoni Gaudi’s SAGRADA FAMILIA, his cathedral which has been under construction since 1882 and is predicted to be finished in 2026, the largest, most original and ornate masterpiece of our time.
Breath-taking still-not-roofed-in interior.
Climbing up one of the 4 great steeples.
Jean Nouvelle’s ‘BULLET’ building, apparently very cool at night.
CRISTOBAL COLON (Column of Christoper Colombus)
Gaudi’s CASA BATTLO, private residence, 6 floors, elevator, rooftop court, rear garden, amazing.
The CASA before and after Gaudi got ahold of it, I think it’s an improvement, you may disagree.
Outside the main living room.
Amazing living room ceiling/light.
One of the two light wells, perfectly placed and serving every purpose imagineable.
That’s right, this is just the attic!
Rooftop, oh yes
Across the street is Gaudi’s apartment complex, CASA MILA (LA PEDRERA)
LOBBY
ATTIC again
Huge light well
Rooftop, with fantastic roof vents and stair well tops.
My favorite vents on the complex.
PLACA ESPANYA – leads to Palace/Castle and Mies van der Rohe’s Pavilion.
As much as I hate to admit it, this architectural standard was actually impressive, I liked it a lot.
Calatrava’s Telecommunications Tower at the site of the 1992 Olympic Games
Barcelona’s ARC de TRIOMF
Gaudi’s world-famous Park Guell – a huge natural park, with the well-known stuff only at the very end.
The infamous Lizard of Park Guell, this guy is everywhere, on all the souvenirs, you name it.
On my way to THE BEACH!!!
BARCELONA, i love you, i miss you, i will come back for you!!!
