Barcelona 10/21/2022

 Day 3  10/21 Friday Barcelona  La Sagrada Familia Under construction 130 years.  Gaudi’s masterwork-in-progress.  May be finished in 2026, which will be 100 years after Gaudi’s death.  Gaudi disliked straight lines as they do not occur naturally.  Nature in architecture.  Drive along Passeig de Gracia, a most luxurious, exclusive avenue and past Gaudi’s House of Bones

Visit Montjuic, site of the 1992 Olympic Games (view city harbor/ former fortress, garrison, prison, torture/ visit art museum, cemetery, botanical gardens, ethnology, archaeology and Olympics/Sports museum) and Mirador de l’Alcalde Park overlooks the sea and the city.  Mosaic paving, fountain, gardens, cable car/funicular, wartime bunkers, evening Magic Fountain lights up with music accompaniment.)

Pass Placa d’Espanya  (an important square), 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.  Venetian Towers, Magic Fountain.

Flamenco Show

Black Madonna - Montserrat

Neat entry of open air museum in Barcelona.  Buildings document the diversity of Spain.  Replicas of characteristic buildings from all parts of the country.  

La Sagrada Familia has been under construction for 130 years.  May be finished in 2026, which will be 100 years after Gaudi's death. 

Montserrat, multi peaked mountain range.  

View of Barcelona from the Open Air museum. Housing replicas of Spanish villages.

Montserrat cable car coming up the mountain as we went down.  Viewing the Llobregat River Valley.  

Museum of National Art of Catalonia.

Montserrat is a 9th century Benedictine abbey.  Home of Catalonia's statue of the Black Virgin of Montserrat.  1223 - Boys' Choir, 1409 - Independent Abbey, 1490 printing press, 1811 - 1814 destroyed by Napoleon, 1835 - all property was lost, 1858 Reconstruction began, 1947 - Celebration of the Enthronement of the Image of the Mother of God.   

There is a lot of graffiti in Barcelona.  Some areas it is fine to create graffiti, but someone could paint over yours the next day.

Barcelona former bull fighting ring converted to a mall with restaurants on the top level.  There are six floors, 115 shops, fitness center 12-screen cinema, a multi-functional hall.  This mall was right next to my hotel on the Place Espanya.