First Day in Spain!

We aren’t messing around. The first minute that the gangway opened up, we were out the door. We have to be ferried by bus from the port to the city, which is a short seven minute drive or so. They let us off at this towering statue that’s topped with a larger than life sized Christopher Columbus. It’s got angels and saints and the proudest sitting lions I have ever seen. Everywhere we turned there seemed to be things just like that. The architecture is what Europe is most proud of and you can tell. It’s pretty nuts when you see building and statues that are older than the United States and they’re all over like it’s no big deal.
We started out running. We already had our plan so we knew right where we were going. We started out going to a Mountain that overlooks the city of Barcelona. We found the metro and headed out. The mountain is called MontJuic, and you climb up to it from the city. There’s fountains flanking the road that leads up to a larger one that does light shows to music at night. We took some pictures, you’ll see eventually. We climbed up like a million stairs and finally came to this huge museum surrounded by fountains and different gardens. Behind the museum are like 5 different gardens. We walked through one that led out to a block that we walked down. We saw some spectacular views of the city. Everything was laid out right there. We climbed for prolly an hour and a half before we started down (note: we also got to use some mandarin when we bought a coke at the top of the mountain. The clerk was obviously oriental and we asked. So we spoke Chinese in Spain. Bridging gaps!). From MontJuic, we headed off for a city tour! We saw the majority of the biggest sights of Barcelona. Here’s a little list and a blurb for some:

La Sagrada Familia: I would google this one. It’s the monument of Barcelona and it’s not scheduled to be done until 2017. This gigantic structure is trying to be a place of worship for the 98% Catholic Spain. The architect (Gaudi) died before it was completed though, and his plans were destroyed. They’ve got a team currently working on completing it so parts of it look a little out of place because they’re obviously from different artists.
I have to say, while this thingy is absolutely stunning, it’s also absolutely terrifying. It’s hard to explain. The architecture is so strange. At night, it lights up and looks like human bone. It’s got strange shapes and random towers, and the texture of the building is like….something. You’ll have to google it. It’s a little grotesque, but at the same time, it’s intense and amazing. I’d say it’s pretty in the end, but a scary pretty if that makes sense.

Gaudi’s Houses: Gaudi was a Spanish architect who was a little nuts I think. He was commissioned to build for extremely wealthy families back in the 1900-1910’s. His buildings are…different. They’re supposed to look like scenes from nature. I don’t know what it is that they look like…but it’s definitely something. We took a few pictures.

MontJuic: Quick revisit.

Poble Espanol: This is literally a small village near the middle of MontJuic (I forgot, this is translated as the “Jewish Hill”, because there is a Jewish cemetery at the top. The Jews were driven out of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition though). The village is split up in construction. There are currently 17 different cultural districts of Spain, and there is architectural styles from all 17 throughout the city. Some are quite quaint. Some are strange, like the Moorish one that had punishment chains hanging from the walls. These are chains that officials would hang criminals from for days and starve when they were…in trouble? Kinda morbid, but at the same time, it’s history. I liked Poble Espanol. Bob Dylan was playing there that night so we got to see them setting up his set. We didn’t see him ☹ But he was totally in the same vicinity!

Gothic Quarter: We visited a Gothic Cathedral as well. To get in, you had to have your shoulders covered and your shorts had to come to your knees. They weren’t messing around. The cathedral was built in honor of the Patron Saint of Barcelona, a thirteen year girl who was tortured and crucified in the 1300’s in the streets of Barcelona. I can’t describe what a Gothic Cathedral is like in words. It’s massive. It’s beautiful. There are millions of candles and stained glass windows. There’s a roman burial underneath and also a Jewish masoleum. We went into a center area and sat in the room where the 49 elite knights would meet back in the 14th century with the King of Spain. They all had their own seats, including the king. The cathedral was intense. James says that Notre Dame is better, but I’m not sure how anything could beat that.

After the tour, we hit up this nice place called the Attic. It’s off La Ramblas (which is the central road in Barcelona. This is where EVERYthing happens. There are shops and bars and restaurants. It’s like congress or fourth or main (in Safford) on SUPER steroids. Like ULTRA steroids. Walking it is super intense, and we’ve prolly done it 15 times. That’s gotta be 12 miles. ☺
The Attic was very nice. Great food, and we wanted to have an experience like that. Afterwards we went back to MonJuic and saw the light show.
Super busy day! But we saw so much. Collapsed into bed, didn’t read, didn’t blog. Stupid exhausted, but satisfied.