OMG!

Oh. My. Gaudi.

Ok, so yesterday we walked way too much and got way too lost to really appreciate much of the day.  For some reason, we never have a paper map of the cities we visit.  Typically, Jim just downloads a map or two onto his tablet and we take that with us.  However, with the amount of warnings we have received about looming pick-pocketers here in Barcelona, we thought it best to leave the valuable gadgets at home.  As a result, we got very, very lost and spent an entire day wandering through the streets of Barcelona in high, HIGH winds and cold temperatures looking for beautiful pieces of architecture created by the famous Gaudi.

We wrote down directions to the Sagrada Familia on paper and arrived there just fine. Along the way, we passed the Arc Del Triomf.  Jim also got the chance to stop at two or three comic shops along the way! 

Little Dougie checking out the Arc del Triomf.

One of the many comic shops Jim has had a chance to track down on this trip.

Now, while the enormously impressive Sagrada Familia was certainly awe-inspiring, it was also 50% covered with scaffolding, debris nets, and construction workers.  We couldn't really see much of the structure, which was hugely disappointing.  The line-up to get in, regardless of it being low season, looked like it could turn out to be at least a two-hour wait, so we passed.  The winds were blowing pieces of garbage and construction dust into every camera lens and backpack so we took off for Gaudi architecture number two.

The Sagrada Familia...

...in all its construction glory. Boo.

The Casa la Pedrera appeared on the map to be a mere eight blocks away to the west of the Sagrada.  So, based on where the front of the building appeared (key word here is appeared) to be situated, we walked eight blocks toward what we assumed was west.  It turned out we were actually walking north.  The downside is that we didn't find the La Pedrera.  The upside is that we happened to ask an old drunk man at a bus stop how to get to it and he gave us directions (along with a good  deal of political insight about the pipeline to the Gulf Coast and Harper's potential decisions about it) to the Parc Guell instead.

The Parc Guell was a piece of property set aside for Gaudi to construct a number of properties to house wealthy families.  It's located on a "mountain" and offers fantastic views of the entire city of Barcelona.  Again, we chose to not pay the fourteen Euros each to go on the roof terrace, but we did walk around the beautifully treed park and admired the architecture spread throughout.

Parc Guell

A fraction of Barcelona from Parc Guell in the north of the city.

These guys are in all the big public spaces.  They have some pretty creative ideas!

By that time I was getting fairly hangry and our feet were feeling slightly bruised.  So we made our way back towards Old Town and after several wrong and unnecessary turns we found our way home.  We used the rest of the evening to recover, eating our fried rice and previously-purchased hand-made empanadas.

I'm not sure what we will get up to today.  I do foresee the ocean in our future, so perhaps a jaunt down to the waterfront and maybe a trip to La Pedrera after all (with written directions!).