Barcelona!

Mom and I went to Barcelona on a Go Ahead Tour and here are some pictures I took.

I'm not sure what this sculpture signifies, other than a lizard chained to the stand, but I liked it.

Antoni Gaudi was a Spanish architect of Catalonian decent and I took a lot of pictures of buildings he designed.  The buildings are cool, the style is a little dated, but Gaudi died in 1926, so the style was new when he was doing it.

La Sagrada Familia is a big church Gaudi finished designing before he died, but it's still being built.  It's awesome.

I want to know what the JHS stand for, but I am rather irreverent.

Some of the building was constructed in the first third of the previous century.  How did they DO this?

And the stained windows inside look like this.

Gaudi didn't like flying buttresses, so he had his arches branch out, like trees.

On the back of the cathedral are more modern style sculptures.

Other pictures of sculptures on the other side of La Sagrada Familia.

Here are two views of Barcelona from a museum on the edge of the city, with La Sagrada Familia dominating the skyline.

Pedicab drivers, taking a break.

A folk singer and guys selling t-shirts.

Park Guell is on the edge of Barcelona.   It is a public park, but there are areas that require you to pay a fee.  

Two buildings at the entrance of the Park..

Pictures from Park Guelle.

Tree roots growing outward!

It was Sunday, so I'm guessing this was a wedding party, however informal.

The hospital campus.

A tunnel connecting building within the hospital campus, so patients can avoid the elements.

They were having a Zumba class at the hospital while we were there.  I think Mom and I wanted to join.

A waiting room at the hospital

And from the hospital people can see La Sagrada Familia.

Much of the Spanish Civil War took place on the streets of Barcelona;  it remains a very politically active city.

We're not sure what this sign means, because we're NOT in Manhattan, nowhere near it.

I thought these were pretty.

Here's a view of the Monastery of Montserrat (the Serrated Mountain) from the tram that you must take to get there

and a closer view  (without the tram).

The tram was clearly just placed on the mountain, as you can see here.

In front of the monastery is a sculpture of a woman's head, and below my pictures of that is a photograph explaining the theory behind the sculpture.

Evidence that the monastery was pretty much dropped in the middle of the rocks.

Here is evidence of damage caused by bombing during the Spanish Civil War, mentioned in Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.  The Spanish Government doesn't want to fix it so it reminds people what damage war (and political corruption) can do.

This headline just amused me, because I'm  sure I wouldn't see it in the US.

Yes, that translates to "Hugo Chavez ordered "to flood the US with cocaine from the FARC."

MEALS

I was being a tourist.  Nowadays that means taking pictures of my meals.

Spain is where you can find fried calamari on a steam table (with stuffed eggplant)

Tapas with Mom.

.

The vineyard where I was introduced to Cava,

and its products.

This vineyard tries to reuse and recycle as much as it can.

Cava bottles, with sugar and yeast doing their thing to create the bubbles.

Apparently sheep are very good at grazing in vineyards;  they don't like the grapes, but they'll eat the leaves, which makes picking the grapes easier.

But sometimes I just take pictures of markets.  This is a display of honey and fig cakes.

Backgrounds (or scenery)

Pictures from the vineyard.

Here are some pictures of the Montserrat range.

There are faces in these mountains, too.

Or sometimes just an ear.

The Mediterranean, over on the other side of Barcelona.

A view of Barcelona from the Park Guelle.

Interesting trees on the sidewalk.