The Dali Museum.
The Dali Museum. Built out of a 19th-century theater that was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. And now it has baguettes and an aquaman.
The long queue for the museum. Mostly Russians.
The courtyard inside the museum.
Inside the Dali Museum.
A funky bedroom.
A close-up of the Abe Lincoln mosaic.
An example of how stereo paintings work.
The Sant Roma church in Lloret-de-Mar.
The Lloret-de-Mar city hall.
On the ferry to Tossa-de-Mar.
The castle of Tossa-de-Mar.
Tossa-de-Mar.
Barcelona!
The Columbus monument.
The Rambla.
One of the several Gaudi houses in Barcelona. This one is near the Rambla and presently being transformed into a museum.
The Roman necropolis ruins uncovered near the Placa de Catalunya.
The Barcelona Cathedral.
The Barcelona Cathedral. The X cross symbols are ubiquitous throughout the cathedral, and refer to the way the cathedral's patron saint was crucified.
The cathedral also has a cloister always populated by 13 geese (marking the number of days the patron saint was tortured before crucifiction). These geese served as an alarm system against unwanted intruders.
Mont Taber: some Roman temple columns uncovered near the cathedral and administrative area.
Placa del Rei, right behind the cathedral. This was where the Catalan king sat before the area became part of Spain. Also where the local Inquisition was HQed. Finally, Columbus came here in 1493 after his first voyage to America to present the Spanish royalty with six native slaves and several gold statues. The Indians were baptized in the cathedral next door.
The Catalan Concert Hall.
Gaudi's Casa Mila, on Passeig de Gracia. Said to be Barcelona's quintessential Modernista building.
Inside Casa Mila.
The Casa Mila maintains a constant aquatic theme, with hardly a straight line to be found anywhere, and plenty of mosaics filtering sunlight from the outside.
Casa Mila.
Casa Mila. This stairwell was designed to allow more sunlight to penetrate the inside of the building. Gaudi tried to proportion everything so that all of the floors would get an even amount and consistent ambience. The windows at the top are consequently smaller than the ones at the bottom, and the top tiles are a much darker shade of blue than the lower ones.
Casa Mila's rooftop.
The Passion facade of the Sagrada Familia. Though the cathedral is known as Gaudi's final and unfinished project, it is today a community effort. Local artisans are known to volunteer several years of their lives in contribution to its completion after retirement. The cathedral is to have three entrance, but construction has not even begun yet on the third. Gaudi himself is burried beneath the cathedral--something typically reserved only for saints (though there is a movement to grant Gaudi the title). This entrance itself has been designed by a different architect, called Subirachs, after Gaudi's death. It relates the story of Christ's death from bottom right to top middle in a Z-like order.
The Passion facade of the Sagrada Familia.
The Passion facade of the Sagrada Familia. The crucified Jesus has a book for a head, representing God's Word.
The Nativity Facade. This one was Gaudi's doing and bears his characteristic "melting cake" style. Gaudi had it constructed before the cathedral's plans were anywhere close to being finished, as a way of raising funds for the tremendously expensive project. Sort of like how the Status of Liberty was financed.
Closer look at the Nativity Facade.
The Nave, also known as the construction zone.
The Temple de Sagrat Cor church, atop the Tibidabo mountain and in the center of the amusement park.
The Temple de Sagrat Cor.
Overlooking Barcelona from the first floor of the church.
Overlooking Barcelona from the first floor of the church. Note the ferris wheel. The amusement park atop the mountain and next to the church is Barcelona's oldest and retains most of its original rides.
The church from the first floor. Will be going all the way up to the Jesus status.
Going up the stairs to the Jesus statue.
The top sculpture.
A panaramic survey of Barcelona from atop the Temple de Sagrat Cor.
Gaudi's Park Guell.
Gaudi's Park Guell. It was originally intended to be a 60-residence, high-income housing project. Though it would probably succeed today, given the popularity of suburban villas, back in the day no one rich wanted to live outside the city, and the idea flopped to become a park.
The Hall of 100 Columns. Originally meant to house a produce market. Each of the columns is a bit different, made of concrete and rebar, and studded by broken bottles.
The Hall of 100 Columns.
The benches are ergonomically designed to fit perfectly the human back. They sort of work, since for a stone bench it's suprisingly comfortable. The mosaics are made up of various broken ceramics Gaudi found or recycled from other construction projects.
The pathway of columns, supporting a long arcade. Gaudi drew his inspiration for it from nature.
The pathway of columns.
Having a final look at Costa Brava from the Girona airport.
