We sailed into Barcelona and it was actually the first day of the cruise that the weather decided not to cooperate. It was doing the traditional Mediterranean stormy weather of alternating complete downpours with light rain. Today we saw 2 famous artists that worked in Barcelona. The first was the painter Pablo Picasso and the second was the architect Antoni Gaudí. After boarding the bus we drove through Barcelona where guide pointed out some of the sights in the city. We drove by several of the buildings that Gaudí designed including Casa Batlló before arriving at the Picasso Museum.Arriving at the Picasso Museum was actually interesting. Our tour supposedly had a specific time where we could go through the museum, however the staff had apparently overbooked the museum that morning and we had to wait about 45 minutes before we were allowed entry. The Picasso museum primarily contains art from Picasso's early years. He started painting at a very young age. He actually painted a self portrait at the age of five. He had pretty much mastered all the popular art styles of the day by the time he was 15. The Picasso Museum contains much of this early art (which was primarily focused on realism). We saw some of his blue period and his work with the French prostitutes. There were also many pencil sketches when he started cubism as well as some large paintings from that period as well.
Next it was off to see the architecture of Gaudí (Factoid: Gaudy comes from mispronouncing Gaudí). Gaudí's style is actually very organic with many curves and flowing lines. Almost never a hard corner. The main building we saw containing his work was La Sagrada Familia. This church was started in 1880 and over the years work has started, stopped and been restarted due to financing. It is now financed by the state and construction costs approximately $10 million euros per year. Hopefully it will be finished by 2020. Gaudí had finished 3 major pieces of the church before he died and had a rough blue print of what he wanted to do everywhere else. After he died the state wasn't sure if they were going to finish it or not. Since several different architects have worked on the church many different types of architecture are represented in its construction. Luckily when we arrived, the rain had stopped so we were able to take some pictures. After spending about 20 minutes walking around the church we left for the park.
Next, we re-boarded the bus and headed for the Park Güell. This is a "garden city". Gaudí designed the park as a place for about 60 wealthy families to live. However this never actually happened as at the time it was too far from the city center for people to live. When we arrived there it was actually in the middle of a huge downpour so we waited in the bus for the rain to subside before heading into the park. Because of the rain, we headed to a place in the park with a bit of shelter that was designed to be place merchants could come and setup their wears for sale. We did get to see the Hansel and Gretel house however. We also saw the lizard that is the symbol of the park. Unfortunately, we did not get a good look at the rest of the park because of rain. This was our last stop before heading back to the ship.
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La Sagrada Familia - Church of the Family
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Park Güell - "Garden City"
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