No trip to Barcelona will ever be complete without a full
day of Gaudi and yesterday that was our day.
We started the day with breakfast at a little outdoor café in my
neighborhood where we could sit and enjoy the beautiful Gotic Cathedral. We had a lot more trouble ordering than we
should have but once we had nearly driven the waiter beyond his limit with
questions about the menu and how food was prepared we finally settled down and
ordered what turned out be a very delightful breakfast.
About noon we headed to the famous Sagrada Familia, Antoni
Gaudi’s incredible basilica located in the center of Barcelona. Upon are
arrival at the church we discovered a line that almost circled the building and
at first were discouraged but an eager guide assured us it would be no more
than 30 minutes and it wasn’t. We were
able to quickly agree that this was not a sight to short change and that we
wanted to purchase the audio tour and take our time to understand more about
one of the most intriguing buildings in the world. As you are driving down the street the church
appears suddenly down a side street and you immediately know that you are not
going to be able to get enough of this place.
There are certain sites in the world that are so amazing and you realize
you will be forever changed by viewing them.
The impact of visiting such a place is almost indescribable and that is
how I feel about Sagrada Familia! I won’t ever begin to describe the church,
complete books are written that fall short trying to do that.
We were all so awed that initially upon leaving the church we were quiet and kind of in our
own thoughts but as we rode the bus to our next stop, Gaudi Park, we suddenly
started chattering about everything we had just seen and couldn’t stop. Each of us wanting to jump in with our next
thought before the last person could finish theirs. I could write for days about this experience
but will only say if you ever have the chance you must go there.
Gaudi Park was the perfect next stop. Our heads were still full of all the thoughts
of the church and the complexity of every piece of Gaudi work so hitting the
park and the cool breeze that greeted us was just what we needed. The walk up the hill was promised to be a
short 10 minute walk but even before we started we knew it would be 20 minutes
straight up hill in the blazing sun. But
we were not going to be denied so up the hill we went. And then when we reached the park it was
busy and there was a constant line up to have your picture taken next to the
‘Gaudi Lizard’ but even that didn’t dampen our spirits in the least. We continued to be thrilled with each new
sight that made our eyes and imaginations dance as we made our way up to the
top of the park. At the top of the park we
enjoyed the great view out over the city to the beautiful blue Mediterranean
Sea while sharing a pitcher of sangria and continued our talk of all the
amazing things we had just seen.
As if Gaudi and Barcelona are not enough we’ve decided it
would be fun to ‘run over to Paris’ for a few days. Nothing like trying to put together a last
minute trip from one foreign country to another but we are a determined
trio! Nancy and I had tried to purchase
train tickets on the internet a couple of days ago and determined it was
impossible to do so. So when we left the
park we decided to go to the train station on our way home to try and figure
out what was going on. I’ve been in a
lot of train stations in my time and they are never all that easy to navigate
but this one may go down as the one with the least amount of directional
information ever! It was a bit like a
treasure hunt trying to find where we could purchase international travel
tickets but after questioning everyone who would talk to us and many wouldn’t,
we finally found the right area and even managed to get a ‘place in line
ticket’ out of the machine. Let’s see we
were number 333 and the board said they were serving number 167. Was that possible??? Unfortunately, the answer was yes! There was a small discussion about whether or
not Paris was worth it, the answer being ‘hell yes’ of course and then we
settled down for our wait. About a half
hour into our wait some girls approached us and offered their ticket of number 300
which we immediately snatched right out of their hands along with our biggest
‘gracas’ before they could change their minds!
Even with our good fortune of the new ticket we waited 5 minutes short
of two hours to buy our tickets. You can
only imagine that many people waiting that long……the crowd got restless, the
tickets agents short tempered and the drama more intense as the time went
on. We of course found this quite a
show.
But even that could not compare with our taxi ride back to
the apartment. As we exited the train
station there was a sea of black and yellow taxis but no why in hell to figure
out who was the next guy up. So as we
approached one taxi after another they simple drove off leaving us with our
mouths open. Finally through the process
of eliminate we managed to find the guy who shook his head yes and waved his
hand at his taxi. In we piled. My weak Spanish pronunciation gave us a
little trouble but the driver finally figured out where we wanted to go, gave
me a quick lesson in Spanish and jerked the taxi out into traffic. The driver
was maybe in his early 30s and as we sped along the roadway he turned up the
tunes on the radio several times. By now
we’re just rocking it out with him in the backseat when he starts to sing along
with the songs……..he has a pretty good voice and he gets encouraged by our
participatory attitude so now he is driving like a wild man and singing at the
top of his lungs to every song that come on.
And he knows every word of every song.
The last song that’s playing when we reach our plaza is in English. Nancy starts singing along with him as she is
getting out of the taxi but he doesn’t think she is saying the English words
correctly so now he is giving her a lesson in English pronunciation!!! We tip him well and he drives off happily waving
out the window of the cab and yelling adios……………
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