Plaza de Toros Monumental

 First, the area around the church, which had been pretty much wide open before, was now heavily built up, hemming in the site of the church. (Fortunately, a small area has been left open on the east and west sides.) Then the structure itself, which previously had been little more than a few odd looking spires, was filled with elaborate new additions. It finally looked like a church (though still an odd one).

Gaudi's design called for a total of eighteen spires, representing (from smallest to largest) the Twelve Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. This reminded us of the Orthodox churches we'd seen in Russia, where they did exactly the same thing with onion domes. We counted eight spires completed so far.

The Church was designed to have three grand facades. The Nativity facade (east) was built between 1894 and 1935 when work stopped. That was the only one Gaudi supervised personally and also the only one we'd seen before. The Passion facade (west) now appeared to be almost finished, too. Work began on the Glory facade (south) in 2002, but it has yet to be completed. That will be the front of the church and the main entrance. It's also one of the two sides where there is no open space, only the width of a street, from which to view the facade.


Although much of the interior had been finished, we couldn't get inside because of the huge lines. We walked around the block so we could see all sides of the exterior. We had a slight problem when Marie disappeared. After frantic searching, we found her shopping for postcards of the church rather than looking at the real thing.

The center of the Nativity facade was familiar to us, but much had been added on either side since last we saw it.. We had never seen the Glory facade, and there wasn't a lot to see now, either. It was covered with scaffolding, and the lack of open space prevented us from stepping back for a better view.



The Passion facade was much further along. In fact, the central part appeared to be finished. It was striking, but its angular (cubist?) sculptures bore no resemblance in style to those on the Nativity facade.


 

Entering Park Guell

From there the driver looped around to the "Diagonal," a major avenue, and took that back toward the city center. Turning down Grace Promenade (Passeig de Gracia), we stopped in front of Gaudi's Casa Mila (1912), known locally as La Pedrera, Catalan for 'The Quarry.' Typical of Gaudi, the building has no straight lines. Continuing a short way down the Promenade, we stopped at the Casa Batlló. This 1877 building was later restored by Gaudi (1904-6) and clearly bears his imprint. There were also many other "distinctive" buildings by other architects along the Grace Promenade. (Because our bus tour the next day took us down the same route, our photos of these buildings are on the next page with that tour.)

Plaza Catalunya & Rocamora House

Officially called the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, the church was constructed mostly in the 14th century. The neo-Gothic facade, however, was added in the 19th century. Among its many other features, the church is noted for the varied gargoyles on its roof.

By now, though, it was after 1:00 and we decided to have lunch on the square. As to be expected, the restaurant right on the square was quite expensive, but we were disappointed to find that the only tapas they served were really very substantial American-style sandwiches, and not very good ones at that. Then we went into the Cathedral. As is so often the case when visiting old landmarks, there was scaffolding on much of the Cathedral's facade and steeples. (We had to buy a postcard to see what it really looked like.)


 

The Cloister

When we were all back together, we left the Cathedral and walked along the remains of the old city walls next to it. Then we turned south through the Gothic Quarter (Barri Gothic). This old world district runs from the Cathedral to the port. We followed Bisbe Street (Carrer del Bisbe), one of the charming narrow streets, passing under a row of gargoyles, then a beautiful Gothic bridge between two buildings. There were many shops for tourists, selling a wide assortment of novelties.


We passed the City Hall (Ajuntament) and started angling across the Old Town (Ciutat Vella) toward the Ramblas, the main boulevard leading to the Columbus Monument at the entrance to the port. The Ramblas was lined with shops and bustling with activity. After walking a couple of blocks toward the port, we decided to take a taxi to the Noordam because it was such a long way from the Columbus Memorial (1888), which we were approaching. This memorial was built on the spot where Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Americas.

Columbus Monument

It was almost 5:00 when we boarded, so we'd been out for six hours. We just relaxed after dinner and went to bed early.