La Sagrada Familia and Pablo Picasso

Stairs at La Sagrada Familia

The second day consisted of two ever so popular tourist attractions, but I now understand why they are so popular. I think they are certainly underrated actually and need more attention/hype. These two places are La Sagrada Familia (which Alex struggles with remembering) and Pablo Picasso’s museum. La Sagrada Familia is a one of a kind cathedral designed and constructed by, once again, Antonio Gaudi. This place is unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. The structure, color, shapes, design, you name it, are SO exotic. After looking around and reading the information boards placed sporadically around the cathedral, I learned that nature influenced his ideas and designs tremendously. The inside was supposed to look like a forest. The spiral staircases were meant to simulate a shell. The thought process blows my mind. This church has been in construction since 1892 and it’s not expected to be finished until 2030.  The church presents a great depiction of “the relationship between man, nature, and religion through its architecture and façade sculptures”. Climbing one of its towers gave us a unique view of Barcelona. Yes, we had to pay for this but it was well worth it because we climbed the tower that Gaudi had constructed and completed before dying. This was awesome. We also were able to see close up views of the church’s exterior detailing. The amount of steps we had to climb down did not even seem real. I thought there was a mirror at the bottom reflecting up making the climb down look so much longer but nope! It was all real. The stairs represented the inside of a spiral shell so I was right! It was almost hypnotizing. I would come back to this cathedral over and over again if I could. It’s a structure that you can never get sick of EVER. After La Sagrada Familia, Alex and I took a quick metro ride to the Picasso museum which is free on Sundays after 3:30pm. SO many people were waiting on line. Alex originally did not want to stay, but I talked her into it which probably was her favorite thing the entire weekend.

The museum features Picasso’s painting from when he was 13 years old just starting his painting career all the way till his later life creating ceramics. The museum itself was a historical building with Gothic style architecture. There were an excessive amount of rooms. I never imagined Picasso to have that many works of art especially on display at once. Unfortunately photography is prohibited, but I was able to take a picture of one of the courtyards. This museum was the last stop of our tourist attractions in Barcelona. We left early Monday morning so we laid low the night before and I did some homework. I cannot wait until I sift through my photos! I am positive there are a few worth framing!

Barcelona with the Cousin

As I said goodbye to my parents on Saturday (Nov. 24^th), a whole new adventure was about to begin with my cousin, Alex. The two of us were off to Barcelona! Neither one of us had been there before which made the anticipation extra exciting. We booked a flight which was probably the best way to travel to Barcelona because the flight is only one hour and twenty minutes whereas a bus is around eight hours and a train is five hours. We also flew with another airline other than RYANAIR!!! Woooo. This meant we had to use terminal four instead of terminal one which is the usual terminal to travel out of. At security I completely forgot to take my laptop out of my backpack so the security lady asked me to put it back through separate once again. At this point I already had my boots on and she did not tell me I needed to keep them off until I asked her. I got mad because she literally watched me put them on only to tell me to take them off again. I then proceeded to ask her if she spoke English and she said no why do I need to speak English? So then I told her because you work in an airport with people coming from all over and everyone else that works here speaks at least a little bit of English. She continued to argue saying “But we’re in Spain”.  Eventually I stopped talking and put my stuff back through the X-ray machine with no problem. The funny part is that during this whole argument, Christmas ads and music was playing on the speakers IN ENGLISH! Anyways, a few hours later, Alex and I arrived in Barcelona. We checked into our hostel and got straight to sightseeing. We walked towards Las Ramblas which is a busy street with a lot of vendors. We stopped at the market as suggested by the receptionist at our hostel and had some amazing fruit smoothies. I also advised Alex that she needed to try jamón serano which is cured ham (ham preserved with salt and not cooked at all so essentially raw pig sushi). She loved it! I personally am sick of jamón. It’s everywhere including the flavor of a bag of Lay’s potato chips. In one of the shops we met a store-owner who can speak eight different languages. That is crazy!! We walked all the way down Las Ramblas to the water. The harbor was gorgeous with a ton of sailboats docked instead of the average motorboat or yacht. After that we shuttled our way via metro to Parque Güell which is a world famous park designed by Antonio Gaudí.

  The time of day we picked to visit was perfect because we were able to view the whole park during daylight, then watched the sunset from one of the various mountain views which overlooks the entire city of Barcelona. At the park we ran into this little boy who could not have been more than two years old. He said a mouth full of words in Spanish to us, but I couldn’t really understand. As he walked away with his family, I said adios! He said adios back and his family told him to blow us a kiss so that is just what he did. We blew him one back of course. This was the cutest thing ever. He melted my heart, but I am sure we did not melt his… While watching the sunset from the highest point in the park, these Asian people asked me to take their picture. Their way of thanking me was with a bow. I felt so special getting bowed to! I thought this only really happens with high authority people. Anyways, when exiting the metro to come home, we ran right into Casa Batllo. Casa Batlló is the result of a total restoration in 1904 of an old conventional house built in 1877.  Gaudí used for it the typical constructive elements of the Modernisme (Catalan Art Nouveau) that include ceramics, stone and forged iron.  Even though it was highly criticized by the city during construction for its radical design that broke all the bylaws of the city, in 1906 it was awarded by the Barcelona City Council as one of the three best buildings of the year. This was an awesome surprise!! It was lit up beautifully. After the park we went home, showered, and concluded the night with dinner and a taste of the night life! 

 

The Remainder of My Fam's Time in Madrid

Throughout the week I brought my family to all the major tourist spots worth visiting. We rowed boats in parque de retiro, ate dinner at the oldest restaurant in the WORLD, saw the cathedral and palace at night along with the Egyptian ruins of Templo Debod which are being preserved in Spain. 

Retiro Park

El Botin - oldest restaurant in the world

Templo Debod

We even did a little shopping in between! One night I took them to el Mercado de San Miguel which is an upscale version of Redding Terminal Market in Philly. I made them all try some paella which is a traditional Spanish dish and a MUST HAVE when you are in Spain. 

Paella from the market

 When my cousin Alex arrived a few days later from Boston, we all went out to one of the top flamenco dances/dinners in the WORLD too! The amount of muscle needed to flamenco dance is outrageous, not to mention how sweaty you ge3t from the nonstop small, but quick movements with your feet. Attending a flamenco show really submersed us in the Spanish culture. This was an excellent idea. Our waiter even allowed us to stay for the second show for free! Every show is different which is what makes this place so special. You never know what you’re going to get.   

Flamenco dinner

The next day I took everyone outside of Madrid to a small town called Toledo. I had been here before with Gloria so I knew what to expect. In fact, this was one of my favorite towns outside of Madrid that was not extremely far away. The trip there was about 45min which is very accommodating. From the moment we left the bus station in Toledo, my family fell in love with the town. I took them on the same route Gloria took me on and actually remembered where everything was extremely well! We headed towards the cathedral and purchased our tickets. The cathedral at this time was surprisingly empty so we did not have many people to move around and obstruct our observations. We quickly glimpsed through it and Alex was fascinated by all the Greco paintings in one specific church. After that, I took my family to eat lunch at the same place I previously ate lunch at. At first I almost forgot how to get there but had a general idea of where it was located and stumbled upon it once again. Lunch was delicious. The waiter hardly spoke English so I did my best to converse in Spanish. He was waiting on every single table in the restaurant which caused him to forget to charge Alex for her second glass of wine!  I even saw someone eat there that I knew from SLU Madrid. What a small world. After lunch, we had a specific set time to climb the bell tower of the cathedral. My mom already had it in her head that climbing all the steps would be a challenge when in reality, there weren’t very many steps at all!   Low and behold we all made it and got to see the panoramic views of Toledo. Once we finished climbing the bell tower, we headed back to the bus station but did a little shopping along the way. Alex and my family bought pottery and my sister bought some earrings. This day was an overall perfect day. We even ate dinner at my house with my señora. 

 She LOVES hosting people and having dinner parties so she went to town. She actually asked me what my favorite foods are that she has cooked for me and cooked them again that night for my family. I chose ride with walnuts and raisins, croquettes, and stuffed mushrooms. They were all thoroughly impressed by how exquisite her platters looked and how rich the food tastes. You would never know that she is vegan and vegetarian. Most of the foods taste like the real thing! We all spoke mostly in English but I, of course, talked to Gloria in Spanish since that is what she prefers and understands better. There was no better way to end my family’s trip to visit me in Spain than with a home cooked meal at my señora’s house.

Toledo