Day 51 Gaudy Gaudi (Barcelona)

If Barcelona was a creepy older looking man with pink hair, and I was an age-ambiguous short-legged dark-haired woman in a skort, this would be us right now.

Today was bike tour day!! Yeyah! I got a free t-shirt and everything, for doing all of the Fat Tire Bike Tours. That's right. I'm awesome. So here is Barcelona.

I've decided I'm just going to get a lot of money, and build a bunch of castles and crap around America, and just make up historical stories about them. And it will be awesome. I don't actually know anything about this one (which is not a castle, but it looks kind of like one), but I still love it.

This was the royal palace where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella lived. Ferdinand, from Catalonia, and Isabella, from southern Spain, who came in, put on the pants, and proceeded to stomp Catalonia into the ground. They don't like to talk about these parts of history in Barcelona.








The people of Barcelona don't even consider themselves Spanish. In fact, they hate Spain. Probably because Catalonia was it's own Empire, and it's own country for almost a thousand years before they got crushed. They still have their own language, which at certain times it was even illegal to speak, by penalty of being shot in the street by the police. I am all for Catalonia regaining its independence. Although that might be bad news for Spain, as economically speaking, it seems Catalonia is holding them up.

I told you a little bit about the Modernists yesterday. Basically Catalonia went through their sort of Renaissance, and everyone had a lot of money, and everyone was paying these architects to make fancy stuff all over the place. This is one of those. It is a music hall, and it is super radical. I think one of the things about these modernists that sticks out the most is their use of color, mostly in mosaic patterns around the buildings.

An ABC, as my Aussie friend would call it. Another Bloody Church. This is the cathedral. There is only 1 cathedral in any city. It is often referred to as a duomo, dom, dam, etc, depending on which country you are in.

This is the Arc di Triomph of Spain. It's not actually an Arc di Triomph, which is an arch to welcome back troops after a victory. During that glorious, rich renaissance period, Barcelona decided to throw a big party in honor of themselves. This was very popular in Europe at the time. So they wanted a huge monument thing to welcome people into the new part of the city they built. This was actually plan B. They had published the original idea in the papers, but the there was such a public uproar about it, they cancelled it. So Mr. Eiffel went and built his monument in Paris instead.

This is a super fab fountain. It is in a huge park that used to be a fascist fortress. Once Spain stopped crushing Catalonia so much, they celebrated by destroying the citadel, and making a huge glorious park. I think it was a good idea.

Sshhhh... Here we see the graceful Spanish mammoth in it's natural habitat. Don't worry. Mammoths from Barcelona are quite friendly, quiet creatures.

 This is Barcelona's bullfighting ring. The last bullfight ever here will be on September 25th. As of January, bullfighting in Barcelona will be illegal. Why? Because it's Spanish. And they are not. Remember? They hate Spain. Yeah I bet you thought it was for something sissy like animal rights or something.

Ok so I don't like bullfighting for those sissy reasons too, but I had to make the Catalans sound more hardcore, ok? Don't be mad.



Next is my favorite part of the tour. So Gaudi is a huge name here in Barcelona, and you see it everywhere. He was the most famous Modernist architect here. During their fancy renaissance, there was a sort of competition between all the rich people as to who could have the weirdest, coolest house. So they were all commissioning these architects to build their houses. Unfortunately, I did not get to see the homes, but I fully intend to either this trip or on another. Some of them look like they are made of dragon scales, have bones for pillars, fruit, all sort of crazy business. Look it up. You have google. Anyway, Gaudi had come from a small farming town, and was beginning to get a little tired of just building rich people homes. Gaudi was a very religious person as well, and it just so happened as Barcelona was growing, they needed a church built. So he drew up some crazy plans and showed it to Barcelona, and they loved it. They sent him off to the Vatican to get approval and funding to build this church. The Vatican didn't like it so much. They sent him packing, with no money and no approval. So what did Gaudi do? He built it anyway. He sold off almost everything he owned, and funded it with his own money, along with the money the public gave him for it, because they still totally wanted it. Since it couldn't be a "church", he decided to build a temple to the sacred family, or La Sagrada Familia. It's flippin awesome. Although to this day, it is technically not finished yet. Gaudi estimated it would take about 200 years to build. As it stands, Barcelona estimates it will be done around 2026 or so, but that seems doubtful.

It is massive and beautiful. Gaudi spent 32 years constructing just the front facade. He masoned the stone himself. He was literally building it himself. And it is breathtaking. The stone looks like it is melting, and builds up into a sort of growing tree with doves. I've never seen anything like it, and I doubt I ever will. Sadly, one of the few days that Gaudi went into the outside world, he was hit by a tram. Ironically, he had helped develop the tram system, so he probably should have seen it coming. Now Gaudi was a little crazy, and living kind of like a hobo, and was fairly unkempt at this point. So he was lying in the gutter for about a day and a half before somebody decided to move 'this bum' and send him to a hospital. There, at one of the worst hospitals ever, he was laying around for 2 days, not being treated (can you guess why they shut this hospital down?). Finally somebody recognized him, and was like Gaudi! You're famous, we will send you to the best hospital in town and take care of you! But Gaudi said no. He said his place was there with the people.

And then he died. His temple was very much unfinished, as it was just the front facade and one tower. He had left behind all his plans and models, so they continued work on it from these. However, as there was much political unrest in Barcelona, the anarchists were running around burning down churches. They tried to burn down this one, but alas, they found that stone doesn't burn so well. So they just burned out the inside, which included Gaudi's workshop. His plans destroyed, the people weren't sure how to continue work. So some young architects who had studied under Gaudi stepped up. They decided it would be an insult to try to continue it in his style, and it would obviously never be good enough, they continued on in each of their own styles. The back of it is completely different from the front.

It is very angular, and with much less detail. A lot of people don't like it, especially after seeing the front, which I completely understand. I, however, still like this part. I think it is interesting, and I definitely think they were right to not try to duplicate Gaudi's style. At this point in time, only 8 of the planned 18 towers are up. There is a lot left to do, and I think my tour guide was right in saying it probably won't be finished until about 2090, around 200 years from when Gaudi started.

BEACH TIME!!!
We had lunch at the beach. I swam in the sea, and ate my sammich. This was a good afternoon.

<--- This is the beach

This is my sammich ----->

Don't mix them up.






Then it was time to continue on.

 There was a point where Spain was left with no heir. So they looked to 2 places: France, and Austria. Spain was all like, hey, France is close by, and they're kind of like us, let's ask them. But the Austria said they would recognize Catalonia as separate from Spain, so the Catalan people were all like, hell yeah, let's go with Austria. This began a 14 year war knows as the War of the Spanish Succession. It was long, and difficult, and eventually Austria pulled out, and the Catalan people kept fighting to the bitter end. In the end, the last of the Catalan troops were lined up along a church wall, and executed for the public to see. That is this wall, and there is now a monument here.

That is a sad note to end on. So I will end on a happy one. Tonight I saw the Magic Fountain! And now you can too. All you have to do us pump up some 80's music, and scroll up and down the pictures below. Enjoy!