Barcelona, Spain

In January, Pete and I took a much needed trip without the kids.  We decided to go to Spain, mostly because we would have an easier time getting around using the language there than anywhere else.  Since Pete is fluent in Spanish (or Mexican, as he says), we both thought this would be a great trip.  

We went about planning it the wrong way, and if we did it again, we would do a few things different, but we still had so much fun.  Our first stop was Barcelona.

Now, Barcelona was amazing, and there was so much to see.  But the highlight for both of us was La Iglesia de Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy family).  We had read about it before our trip and knew that we wanted to see it.  We were in awe from the first minute we saw it.

A little history:

The foundation of this building dates back to 1866, but in 1883 Antonio Gaudi took over the construction of the church and turned it into this magnificent building.  The church is still under construction, and isn't expected to be finished until the middle of this century.  The thought that went into building the church is amazing, for example, the middle of the church lies in a spot that is an equal distance from the sea as it is from the mountains.  Neither one of the completed entrances to the church will be the main entrance; that hasn't been built yet.  When it is complete, the road facing that entrance will be gone, as well as the building facing the entrance.  

Every facade has a story; every carving is a part of Christ's life.  On what looks to be the front of the building, the last few days of Christ's life is told in 12 pictures or carvings.  The last carving is Christ ascending to Heaven. You can see him sitting between the two sets of pillars in the second picture. 

La Iglesia at night:

And it was just as beautiful during the day.

The building that you see here on the left will be knocked down to complete the construction.

These are the main entrance doors, at least for now.  The doors are covered in biblical versus concerning the last days of Christ's life.  

This cryptogram is found numerous times in the building.  There are 310 different combinations of numbers here that add up to 33, the age that Christ was when he died. 

This is the description of the Crucifixion, from a book we purchased:

"It is the crowning sculptural arrangement of the facade and its composition is deliberately asymmetrical, in order to underline the drama of the scene.  Mary Magdalene, kneeling, and the virgin, comforted by Saint John, are put to the left hand side of Christ.  The cross is made of two iron beams.  The profile of the front beam is highlighted with the color red in order to mark the first letter of 'INRI', the initials of 'Jesus From Nazareth, King of the Jews'.  At the foot of the cross, a skull symbolizes death, while to the right, the moon represents the darkness of night."

This is the other side of the church, at night.

And again, in the daylight.

This side of the church has so much going on, it's hard to describe, unless you write a book about it.  Each carving is a representation of something that happened during Christ's life.  

This is, by far, my favorite of the carvings.  It is the nativity.  

Again, the nativity.

Inside the church is just as amazing.  Again, hard to describe unless you write a book.  

Each pillar was made of a different material, depending on where in the building it was, and depending on what it was holding up.  Unlike all the Gothic churches that were going up at the time, this church focuses on light, and has many, many windows to allow the maximum amount of light in at any given time of the day.  

It was built to hold 1,000 choir members.

Can you tell we're tourists?

Pete was loving all the soccer stuff.  And yes, Pete bought an FC Barcelona shirt, and I bought a Real Madrid jersey.

We took an audio tour of the church.

We were told we HAD to have the paella, but I actually wasn't that impressed with mine.

Pete's, on the other hand, was awesome.  The black rice is made with squid ink.

We wandered downtown later in the day.

The Port.

This is one of the government buildings, the Postal Office if I remember correctly.