Barcelona

Immediately after school ended, I took off for the Spanish border and rode the train into Barcelona. I stayed there at el Instituto Bíblico y Seminario Teológico de España (a.k.a. IBSTE), by the good graces of my missionary friends, Dave and Penny Gallaugher.

Barcelona is an amazing city, especially in terms of architecture. You start with the remains of a temple dedicated to Caesar Augustus, go down into the Gothic quarter, through the broad boulevards of the Second Empire, and all the way up into some fascinating modern structures. Two World's Fairs have left it with an amazing amount of beautiful buildings and statuary, and many of the incomparable Antoni Gaudí's works— including his magnum opus, the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia— also reside therein.

Buildings on the Street

Okay, I should look up the names of these buildings, but all I can say about them is that they're incredibly cool and they're mostly really close to Gaudí's Casa Batlló, in an area known as the Plaza de Discordancia because of all the wild architecture. Unfortunately Casa Batlló was under serious reconstruction while I was there, but its neighbors are just as impressive.

• Some nice balconies on this corner.
• An incredibly ornate building that houses the Bagués Lotería.
• The façade of Casa Amatller, the one with a stairlike border on top.
• Some really impressive Neo-Baroquish balconies.
• A bit of Cátalan work that looks a bit like a gazebo.
• Now here's a nicely built theater!
• A building that looks rather like a castle, right downtown.
• A Chinese restaurant with some almost Gaudí-esque touches.
• One more interesting edifice.
• A veritable dollhouse!

Further down La Rambla

• An unidentifed but very spiffy civic building.
• The governor's mansion.
• The customs building.
• La Plaza Reial.
• Una otra vez.
• Y una más.
• Yet another spiffy modernist building.
• The Colisevm, now a movie theater.
• La Comedía from behind the fountain in the middle of the street.
• A castle-like building with red-tiled towers.
• The Church of St. Joan.
• A messily cobbled-together seven-picture panorama of a Barcelona street.
• A beautiful fountain in the Plaça Catalunya.
• El Palau de Música.
• The nicely built entrance thereof.

Cristobal Colón

This monument was erected for the 1892(?) Barcelona World's Fair, to commemorate the voyage of Cristobal Colón, known to us anglohablantes as "Christopher Columbus."

• The tower, with Colón on top, pointing out to sea.
• A close-up of the fine base of the tower.
• Part of the frieze around the bottom, depicting Colón's request for funding from Los Reyes Católicos, Fernando and Isabella.
• The southwest corner, I think.
• A view looking up at the tower from the front of it.

Cuarto Gótico

• Some pretty ornate streetlamps.
• City Hall, right across the square from the cathedral.
• The neo-gothic cathedral.
• Looking up at the front of it.
• A close-up of the central spire.
• The remnants of Barcelona's Roman wall.
• Statues of saints Andrew, Bartholomew, Simon the Zealot, and Judas stand in front of the cathedral.
• St. James the Younger, St. Thomas, St. Peter, and St. John.
• The previous four saints and the arch above them.
• A fountain with St. George slaying the dragon on top.
• The remains of the temple to Caesar Augustus.

Casa Milá (a.k.a. La Pedrera)

• The front entrance to Gaudí's massive apartment building.
• Looking down at part of the roof of Casa Milá.
• A two-picture view looking straight up from the central courtyard.
• Part of the roof of Casa Milá.

Arc de Triomf & World's Fair Park

• The Arc from an angle.
• The back of the Arc.
• The top of it.
• An ornate lamp post nearby.
• The view of the Arc from down the walkway.
• El Palacio de Justicia.
• A Victorian-era education building that reminds me of an above-ground hobbit hole because of its shape.
• A nice ornamental pond with griffins and an arch topped by Aurora in her chariot.
• Some ducks and turtles inhabit the pond.
• Arches in the structure overlooking the pond.

La Sagrada Familia

• The Sagrada Familia as seen from the top of La Pedrera.
• A view of the front from the opposite street corner.
• The marker commemorating the birth of the Temple, over 100 years ago.
• The Passion Façade and front four towers.
• The Passion Façade.
• Passion Façade detail: Christ before Pilate.
• Passion Façade detail: The Denial of Peter.
• One of the towers, with the word "Excelsis" in mosaic tiles on the side.
• A four-picture view over the city from the front towers' skybridge.
• Looking down from the bridge between the frontmost apostle towers.
• A view through a window of the apostles' towers in the back.
• A view down one tower's shaft to the landing below.
• Looking down the spiral staircase. (Compare it to the staircase of Paris's Arc de Triomphe.)
• Looking up at the side windows.
• Looking down over the side windows.
• The towers that loom over the Nativity Façade, as viewed from up and behind.
• The Nativity Façade, with the sun directly above it.
• A close-up of the Adoration of the Magi.
• A close-up of the Holy Family, the Slaughter of the Innocents, and other motifs on the Nativity Façade.
• The sanctuary, still under construction and made to look like an abstract forest.
• A sea turtle supports one of the pillars at the bottom of the Nativity Façade.
• A stray kitten gets himself stuck on a ledge inside.

Parc Güell

• A four-picture panorama of the city. (Parc Güell is considerably higher than the rest of Barcelona.)
• One of Gaudí's natural inspirations?
• An interesting border to the walking path.
• ...Which acquires a nice array of flowers to go with it.
• A raised walkway.
• A colonnade just above the entrance to the park.
• The view down the stairs from said colonnade.
• Gaudí's "friendly dragon" waterspout graces the steps.
• Looking back on the entrance.
• Parc Güell's gift shop. It's like Disneyland, only real!
• A close-up of the gift shop's roof.

La Plaça Espanya

• La Plaça Espanya.
• The large monument in the middle of it.
• Two towers guard the entrance to the Palau Nacional.
• El Palau (Palacio) Nacional, home to the Catalán Museu Nacional d'Art y Cultura.
• The building silhouetted against the sky.
• I kept taking pictures as I approached it.
• There's a nice view from the terrace, too!

Otras Cosas

• The sunset on the drive back to Castelldefels.
• El Instituto Bíblico y Seminario Teológico de España, a.k.a., IBSTE (pronounced 'Eebstay,' to you anglohablantes), where I stayed for four nights.
• A swoopy modern spire up near the 1992 Olympic Park.
• Dave and Penny Gallaugher, my missionary hosts during my stay.