La Sagrada Familia

We did something for the first time in our traveling experience — we hired a private tour guide.  José led us on a walking tour of Barcelona plus the Basílica de La Sagrada Familia.  We found our guide through Rick Steves of Public Television fame — his suggestions never disappoint. 

José met us at our door at 9:30 and we started with a walk of the oldest part of the city, which is just a couple blocks from our apartment. Barcelona was a Roman city in its infancy.  José showed us many things we would have never found on our own, many of which were over 1800 years old — including these original Roman columns. 

The famous architect Antoni Goudí — who designed Sagrada Familia — was the focus of the next part of the tour.  We saw several examples of his work like this building below which is called Casa Batlló.  

We have been to a good number of large, famous churches in the world.  In our opinion, nothing compares to Sagrada Familia. It’s design departs from traditional almost to the point of whimsy, but not overly so. Gaudí’s love of nature and irregular lines is immediately apparent on the inside. The pillars that support the top branch out like monumental trees and scalloped portions of the ceiling give the essence of the canopies of trees.  The design does not fit into any category other than Goudí. 









Splurging for a guide for half the day was not something we can do all the time, but it was worth all the unique conversation we had. José talked a little bit about Catalán, which is the co-official language of Catalonia, the region in which Barcelona sits. Everything official is in Catalán and Spanish — some things like signs in older parts of town are only Catalán. We noticed this as soon as we arrived at the airport a few days ago. While it has its similarities to Spanish, and some assume that it is a dialect of Spanish, it is not; it’s actually a different language.  In fact, it’s different enough to confuse us most of the time.  José spoke some for us; he, like most residents of the region speak both Catalán and Spanish. 

After visiting Sagrada Familia, we headed back to our apartment and lounged for the afternoon.  We then headed out to take a walk on two very busy boulevards: the Ramblas, a pedestrian promenade full of touristy shops just a block from our apartment that ends at the marina (think Pier 39), and the Passieg de Gràcia, a large street lined with more trendy and upscale shopping.

We decided to try a tapas restaurant that our guide suggested.  The tapas were quite a bit better than what we had in Madrid … much more gourmet. ¡Ricisima!

Final mileage for the day: 9.65 miles!