Day Twentyone

Today was my Gaudi tour day! I woke up late because my phone alarm didn't go off, but miraculously I made it to the meeting point at Placa Catalunya in record time to catch the tour bus.

I opted to do two Gaudi tours in one day, effectively dedicating my entire day to spectacular architecture. My first tour visited Casa Batlló and Colonia Guell, and the second visited Parc Guell and the Sagrada Familia.

We first visited Casa Batlló which was five minutes' drive from Placa Catalunya. Going through the house is a strange experience because your perception of it changes from your ascent to the rooftop, to your descent to the ground floor. From the outside, it seems to be a boney, concretey, mosaic-y puddle of elements, melting together. But the interior is so organic and ergonomically fit to the human body that everything seems to rest together naturally. The walls meld together in such a way that you forget they're there. The windows make you feel as if you're looking out of a cave, and there is so much natural light. The lower levels have a natural, tan colour scheme, and then you get to the staircase which is lined with shocking bright blue tiles and mosaic work. The stairs themselves appear like a spine. The middle two floors are inaccessible because they are privately owned, but we were allowed onto the back terrace of the house, the servant's quarters and the rooftop.

The terrace is excellent because you can see the extent of Gaudi's creative drive. The two houses next to Casa Battló have very decorative facades, but when you look at them from behind on the terrace, they are just as plain as modern apartment buildings. Casa Battló, however, continues its flamboyant mosaic work and bubbling concrete even though you can't see it from the street. It was really impressive and shows how much of a perfectionist Gaudi was.

Up in the servant's quarters, the walls are stark white and the layout is almost labyrinthine. When you see it for the first time, its arches look similar to that of a church. Then you get to the rooftop of the house where the roof is shaped almost like a dragon, and the tiles are shaped to look just like scales. It is apparently meant to signify the dragon slain by St George. After seeing the roof, you go down to the servant's quarters again and the white arched ceilings look like a ribcage. The stairs seem more like the spine of an animal, and the lower levels' natural colours and textural qualities seem like flesh. It makes you feel as if you're walking inside a living, breathing entity.

So I found Casa Battló both a beautiful piece of architecture and a really interesting perceptual experience. I could probably talk about it for ages but I won't!

Some of the tour group I was with just didn't get it though. One old American guy asked, "Do you think he meant to make it so wobbly?"

After Casa Battló, we took our bus to Colonia Guell. On the way, the tour guide explained Gaudi's philosophy: Straight lines don't exist in nature, so why use them in architecture? If God didn't create straight lines naturally, why do we feel compelled to improve on his design?

On the way to Colonia Guell we stopped at Pavellons Guell, which is now a part of a university in Barcelona, and contains a cast iron dragon gate that Gaudi designed to protect the park within.

We continued along to Colonia Guell, driving through the outskirts of the city and the industrial precinct. Colonia Guell was an industrial estate that housed more than seven thousand people at one time, had factories, houses for the workers, recreation areas, a theatre, a school for the children and an estate doctor who lived on the premises. It was designed by Gaudi to have a triangle between the three most important facets of life: work, education and spirituality. The church he was building there was half finished when he abandoned it because the senior Mr Guell passed away and his children didn't want to support Gaudi's eccentricities anymore. So only the church crypt was completed. But it's still really impressive despite being small. It's more melted, twisted and naturalistic than his other structures, keeping to the design elements of art nouveau. After we saw the church, we went to the town's museum where they gave us some sweet cava to drink! I hadn't had lunch by this point so it made me a bit dizzy.

That was the end of that tour, so we finished at Placa Catalunya and I had two hours to wander the city streets until my next tour began. I decided to go to Starbucks again (shame) so I could use the wifi there at the same time as having lunch (shame). So I spent some time doing a bit of emailing. Then I went to Topshop again and found some nice things!

The new tour started where the old one left off so I went to the meeting point again and boarded the bus. We headed straight for Parc Guell, which is where I accidentally walked on my first day in Barcelona. On the way, the tour guide explained the theory and practice of "modernisme" and art nouveau, which rests solely on taking all art/historic periods and mixing them, with lots of ornamentation and general nature themes.

So we got to Parc Guell and it was another sensory overload. Meant to be a residential estate for 60 families, the plans were abandoned after the beginning of the first world war. But that didn't stop Gaudi from living there until 6 months before his death. It is just a really beautiful place. Again, everything is engineered to look and feel natural, but everything man-made serves more than one purpose. Benches overlooking the city skyline also served to collect rainwater for the underground cisterns. A bridge also served as a shady area to sit on hot days and as a part of the plumbing system. It's a really clever place. And it goes without saying, the mosaic work is so beautiful.

The market space under the bench area with its neoclassical columns that all lent inwards was really interesting to see after visiting Rome and Athens and seeing ancient columns for real. It was fun to see Gaudi's interpretation of them.

Another old American lady didn't seem to get it, asking me randomly, "I wonder what people said when it was first built?" I replied, "I know, isn't it beautiful?" and she replied, "Well. It's certainly exotic." Not impressed?

Then we went to the Sagrada Familia, which is now a holy basilica as of five months ago, consecrated by the Pope. The tour guide explained that, as a historian by trade, the Sagrada Familia is sentimental to him because as the city has grown, so too has the basilica grown. Only eight out of the eighteen towers have been completed, and it is meant to be all finished by 2025. The tour guide advised us to be wary here because even though it is a holy place, because so many tourists visit every day, the Sagrada Familia has become a hotspot for pick-pockets, even inside. Except he said it like "pick-pockers" and it was really funny.

Before we went inside, quote of the day came from an old British couple. The old lady said, looking up at the Nativity facade, "It's got sort of a rough-hewn look to it, doesn't it." And her husband replied, "Well that's the nature business, that. See them palm trees."

I had seen photos of the Sagrada Familia from the outside but I'd never seen photos of the inside. I actually had no idea what to expect, as opposed to St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. But as I walked in, I think the Sagrada Familia had more of an effect on me than St Peter's did. The interior is minimal in design, with columns that reach up to the ceiling and explode into huge, stylised palm leaves. Each pair of columns has a subtly different colour because they've used different materials depending on how much weight the columns bear. The stained glass windows stand out because the walls are so plain, and you can really appreciate their colour and symbolism because your eyeballs aren't darting between stimuli. But I really think it was the ceiling that surprised and delighted me the most. It is so symmetrical and peculiar.

The facade above the front entrance of the basilica is definitely overwhelming though, and that's why I took my time to sit down and look at everything individually. Otherwise it just becomes confusing.

We exited the basilica and the sky had become grey and cloudy. I noted that this was the first time I hadn't seen a bright blue sky during my whole holiday! I haven't felt a drop of rain the whole time.

After the tour finished back at Placa Catalunya, I took the train back to Gracia and tried visiting a bookshop I'd been hoping to see while I'm here, but it was closed again.

I ended up going home and falling straight asleep without dinner, which has been all too common lately.

Tomorrow is my walking tour of the Gothic quarter of the city!