Ben and I woke up early to go ride the famous La Poma Bike Park, The largest Dirt Jump Park in Europe. Great for nerdy bike guys. We were a bit over zealous and arrived at 8:30AM to find it closed, their website did not have the hours. We meandered into town, about 1.5 KM away and had a nice breakfast at this café. The waiter was nice enough to help with contacting the park to get the hours so we knew to go back at 10.
Here is Ben on his rented jump bike. We quickly discovered how difficult it is to ride someone else's bike, we spend so much time riding our own the transition was quite difficult. This place is not for the indecisive, so having confidence on the bike is critical, I lesson I learned the hard way.
Ben on the warm up line, very tame by his standards.
And a bit more, with the unfamiliarity of the bikes Ben thankfully did not go big, a good controlled day for him. If we had another day to ride here he'd be riding on features I wouldn't even want to walk on.
Me on the other hand did not ride as confidently as Ben and I paid the price with a bit of road rash.
and a bit of hip bruising.
No this place wasn't for my wounds, it is for 'happy pills'. It's a fun candy bar in the Gothic district of Barcelona. This is where Ben and I met Molly, Finn, Maggie and the Grubers who were touring the old Gothic City while Ben and I were riding.
Lots to choose from, candy was packaged in a pill bottle that the kids can put a custom label on. Good solid mixed messages here. Ben proceeded to eat an entire jar of candy in one sitting.
As the sign clearly states, no short skirts, or in Maggie's case, no short shorts. She was promptly sent outside by the Guard at the Oldest Catholic cathedral in Barcelona.
It was a grand cathedral, this shot was what you saw right when coming thru the diminutive dark foyer. The nave was blocked, there was what seemed to be a one story structure built where the pews normally are.
Once on the other side this one story structure reveals itself. It is a 3 sided room open to the alter with these fantastic built in chairs ringing the walls. Definitely the first class seats in this place. I assume they are reserved for the Catholic dignitaries and such.
I think Molly found God, he's up there.
We went back to our apartments for an hours rest and then we met Lydia, out guide for the works of Gaudi in Barcelona. She met us at our place and the first building we saw was the Casa Mila which was right on our block. There are only a few buildings that I have very specific memories of studying in Architecture school, but this is one of them (along with Kimball Art Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas). What I didn't remember from my studies was the Gaudi was mocked for this building, the locals calling it 'the quarry'. His client and friend was embarrassed by this, little did they know thousands would tour this masterpiece 100 years later.
This is one of two interior courtyards, they made for great light in the interiors, although they were banal in comparison to the exterior façade.
Then there was the roof. This magical moon space of a roof is fantastic. Gaudi thought buildings should have hats. These fantastic elements were the chimneys, for both the plumbing stacks and the heating systems. Our guide Lydia, said that the theory is that George Lucas visited here before designing the storm trooper.
These are also Chimneys and legend has it their mosaic finish is from the wine bottles drunk at the projects completion.
My girls in front of a roof element, I think the top of the stair tower.
Good stuff and thanks Dr. Phingstag for the introduction to Mr. Gaudi 25 years ago.
Across the street is a building façade reacting to Casa Mila by a Japanese architect. The crazy thing about what may be the most interesting roof on earth is that it wasn't for the residents. Only servants drying clothes went out on it.
There is a museum in the attic under the roof filled with very cool models of Casa Mila.
And here is how Gaudi designed his masterpieces. He wanted open walls and needed perfect structure that would allow for many windows/views/air/ light. He used parabolic (catenary) arches. He developed his structure by hanging weighted strings or chains, the resulting arches are 'perfect'. The resulting design is a super efficient structure, he would measure these models and develop the drawings. Truly innovative.
No Square edges, ceiling sculpted, trim curved.
Built in enema station. Yup, you read that correctly.
We were then off to Park Guell. Our guide Lydia kept referring to Mr. Will, Gaudi's best client. I didn't put it together that is Mr. Guell, pronounced 'gwill' with a soft and very fast G. Duh.
The park was a speculative development built by Mr. Guell, he had planned for the wealthy of Barcelona to move up on to this mountain to get out of the filth of the city. For a host of reasons, primarily being too far from the city center, the project was a massive failure. There was only a house for Mr. Gaudi, Mr. Guell and Mr. Guell's attorney, not the dozens of the Barcelona elite they had planned on. What is did become is a fantastic park.
Gaudi's landscape rivaled his buildings. Everywhere you look a curved surface.
We are at the edge of the plaza overlooking the city. This massive plaza collected the rainwater thru the massive columns below and stored it in cisterns. This is also the place where a light went off in Ben's head, he realized he knew this place, he'd seen all the features here....in a Tony Hawk skateboard video game.
Gaudi's family was in the metal business, his heritage shows in much of his work.
This is where the rain is collected and then stored below the column bases.
The famous Gaudi salamander.
Even the tiles in the walls were curved. We left the park to head to the Sacred Family, or Sagrada Familia.
Most people know this building from the Barcelona Olympics. We did too, but not the entire back story. Gaudi was awarded this commission at 31 after the previous architect had been fired. He worked on it his entire life and when he died at 74 only the façade you see above was completed. The interior was completed in 2010 and the other side is underway now. The final façade and the 4 largest towers have yet to even start.
It is a wild LSD trip of a building, it's like Dr Seuss meets the modern art movement. But the design moves are rooted in tradition and the scripture. Every Element has meaning and each of the facades tells a different story, the Life of Christ, The ascension, and the yet to be finished apocalypse. What is so shocking is the stark difference in the exterior facades and the interior. It is a true wonder but it feels disjointed at the same time seemingly created by a madman, or a madman who changed over time.
The great iron doors were installed last year and have amazing level of detail, fully rendered leaves with bugs and lizards, bees above.
Lady bug.
Salamander and a self portrait.
The exterior is as strangely beautiful as the exterior. It is a mix of madness with religious iconography.
Even the unfinished parts of the interior are beautiful.
Bizarre knuckles as column capitals. No
coincidence that these look like trees. Gaudi was a naturalist.
And here is the other side, shockingly different than the front. It feels constructivist, almost communist. It lacks the organic embellishments of the other side.
The far left man in the sculpture is a Gaudi portrait.
After a long day we hit the restaurant on the street under out apartments. Mike, of course, got a ladies beer. He's so embarrassing.
And while eating dinner we thought we heard raindrops on the canopies above the tables on the sidewalk where we were sitting. We quickly realized there was no rain in the forecast. Those girls were 6 stories up spraying water on us. But then someone walking on the street seemed to get hit with something from above. Our girls again, but it wasn't water at all, they were throwing mini M and M's, and here is the evidence we pulled off our canopy...
Scooters planned for tomorrow...
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