October 4th – Day 10 – Part 2 – Barcelona, Spain
La Sagrada Familia is one of Spain’s largest tourist attractions. The cathedral, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi began construction in 1882 and he worked on it until his death in 1926. The cathedral is still very much being built with an expected completion date of around 2025.
I saw a family take a photo similar to the above with their daughter in front of the cathedral and it looked like a fun opportunity, so I asked them to take the same picture with me in it. They smiled, and agreed pretty readily.
Being a tourist attraction, La Sagrada Familia has an expensive entry price of about 20 Euro. I was still broke from the previous day’s surprise train fees, but this was a once in a life time opportunity so I tried to track down a safe ATM machine. My recent luck gave me a “softer” opinion of Barcelona over all, but it was still a crime center, and withdrawing money from an ATM is a very vulnerable spot to be in.
Eventually, I found an enclosed ATM vestibule and withdrew enough money to explore the cathedral.
Security guard. I don’t entirely remember why I took this picture.
The cathedral design was heavily inspired by nature, and it looks kind of like a forest covered in cement.
The columns like tree roots
The image of Jesus has a very “blocky” look.
The windows look like honeycombs.
The interior is massive, and it needs to be seen to be believed.
As I said before, the building is still very much under construction.
A board describing the current construction plans.
Another shot of the beautiful ceiling.
As awe inspiring as the interior is, the exterior is incredible.
*The main pillars of the cathedral are resting on turtle statues. When I tried to feed the statue it bit me.
A statue I found behind the cathedral.
The basement of La Sagrada Familia acted as kind of a museum to the cathedral’s construction.
It had several models and paintings showcasing the cathedral. I believe the above model was the “final product” of what the interior columns would look like.
With my need for the close up viewing of Art Nouveau architecture fulfilled, and still a few hours left before my train for Italy left, I wandered the streets toward my next adventure.
* True story, one of my earliest memories was at about 4-years old when I visited a petting zoo with my family. I noticed a goat standing in the corner still enough that I thought it was a statue. Being a 4-year old at the time I figured it was a great idea to reach my hand in the goat’s mouth. Long story short, it bit my hand, I cried, and I got a good story to tell out of the deal.
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Check the previous entries section for a complete look at my backpacking adventure
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