Websites, books and fellow travelers claim the Sagrada Familia to be the number one site to see in Barcelona, having seen it, I can confirm that it is a spectacular work of art. It is astonishing to think that we, man kind have the ability to build such a ginormous, majestic, stunning building. Sagrada Familia’s architecture has been crafted with precision, care and intense thought – it’s exterior decor is coated with sculptures of people, nature and religious figures.
Walking through the leaf covered grand double doors into the geometrically perfect cathedral you will be astounded by the colours radiating from the stain glass windows. Bright barcelonian sun light beams through the rainbow windows creating naturally colourful light. Columns in the cathedral emulate nature, you can see the resemblance of trees, forests and the great outdoors.
The architect – Antonio Gaudi said ‘it is more worthwhile to study nature directly’. Gaudi was born in 1825 and in 1883 was tasked with building the Sagrada Familia temple. He worked on the project for 43 years and in his last 10 dedicated his work to God’s glory. He was tragically killed in a car accident in 1926. Today, the cathedral is still being built with a predicted end date of 2026 to mark the centenary of Gaudi’s death. Once completed the cathedral will be the tallest in Barcelona. Specific sandstone is shipped from Yorkshire, England, for the final towers to be built. Yorkshire is one of the few places in the world where the correct stone is extracted.
After checking out the cathedral and museum, you can hop on the metro or grab a 7 euro taxi to park Guell. You can opt to pay for a ticket allowing you access to the Guadi sculptures and museum in the park or you can simply roam around the park at your own accord. The park is stunning, stroll along the paths, grab an ice-cream and sit under one of the arch structures listening to buscars play their guitars. If you so wish you can get your caricature drawn.
It is entertaining watching the street vendors sell their tat in the park and getting chased away by the police. The park itself is stunning.
After a busy day of site seeing we returned to the hotel to get ready for a spot of dinner. We went back to the ramblas to find a good feed, there are plenty of lively, busy restaurants off the ramblas main street. Remember in Spain people eat later, so to get the Spanish vibe go out at 8.30/9pm for food. After a spot of dinner we went to Stoke bar for a drink of Sangria. It was a fun bar with an international hostel feel. Being fairly cheap, the sangria was poured from a tap and was not as delicious as we had tasted in nicer restaurants but for 3 euros we could barely complain. One of the bar staff showed us a few card magic tricks with a deck we brought. We couldn’t for the life of us work out how he did it, totally baffled and relaxed from sangria we returned to the hotel and slept very well.
We are going on a bear hunt 
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