Goudi and Barcelona, Spain

This is the second time I´ve traveled to Barcelona, the first being with Mom and Dad on the last cruise. As soon as I hopped off the shuttle from the ship, I paid the outrageous price for a ticket on the local double-decker¨”Bus Touristico” (16 Euros! I could buy a bus for that much in Malta…). I took the bus around the city, mostly to the parts I´d seen before, then switched from the blue line to the red line (the tourist busses in this town are pretty advanced, with three different lines).

I got off the Bus Touristic at the Sagrada Familia, which, according to my tourist booklet, has the exclusive distinction of being the only cathedral in the world that is still under construction. Whoo hoo! Now there´s something you want to hear after traveling 2000 miles to see the thing. Actually, I was ready for the construction-site-vibe after hearing about so many people´s disappointing visits to the cathedral. Armed with the knowledge that the building would be surrounded by cranes and such, I came with the right expectations. According, I believe that the Sagrada Familia must be one of the most interesting architectual masterpieces I´ve ever seen.

The cathedral was the brain child and life´s project of the famous Spanish Architect Goudí. Goudí built many famous buildings throughout Barcelona, and is famous for his smooth, rippled, stone facades that give onlookers the distinct feeling of movement in architecture. The Sagrada Familia construction began before his death in 1926, and continues still today with the money made from admissions tickets and the donations of devotees.

Well, that´s what the book says anyway. Personally I think that this is a pretty sweet scam. I mean, come on, they build half a building in the middle of a busy block, then charge people to come see the half-empty structure in order to pay for the building of the rest of it. “Come! See what we almost created!” Sounds like a sweet deal for them if you ask me. Also, I´d like to know where the heck all of the construction workers are. Why is it that I never see people working on things that are supposedly under construction. To me is looks like a case of “Hello! Please, give us €8 admission price so that we can afford to strategically place construction equipment around that half of the cathedral that we bothered to put up, and then line our pockets with the rest! Welcome!”

But, nevertheless, what they have constructed here in Barcelona is really quite amazing. I prefer modern art to the classics, and for the same reasons, I prefer the look of this cathedral to the look of most other medieval or gothic cathedrals I´ve seen. I look up at this one and I think “Now THAT´S what a cathedral is supposed to look like.” I even bought a t-shirt.

And now I´m in a Spanish internet cafe down the street from the Sagrada Familia. Just to make you all jealous, I will now type all of the letters that I have on this strange keyboard that you do not back home:

Ñ Ç ñ ç ï í € ¡ ¿ º ª

Oooooh, I bet your jealous.

If that doesn´t do it, well, then I´m have to mention how wonderful the weather is in the Mediterranean during the fall. Every port is in the high 70′s and sunny, with a cool breeze off of the sea. Some of the leaves are even changing, although it not as beautiful a sight as it is back home in the Midwest.