Barcelona Day 5 - Unfinished Business

Unfortunately, after our late night at the soccer game we had to be up and early Sunday morning to make our tour time back at the Sagrada Familia.

Sagrada Familia

I mentioned before that its designer, Gaudi, was odd. Make that Odd. He put together these detailed, extensive plans for this magnificent church. Construction began in 1886, and it is nowhere near complete. Right now, they estimate it will be done in 2026. I wouldn't bet on it. And Gaudi croaked in 1926, so he doesn't care.

Inside church, looking up

It's taken so long because the design is so intricate. Carvings, mosaics, stained glass...you name it. The choir loft is three stories up from the church floor and can seat 1000 singers. Really, Gaudi? A thousand singers? The Mo-Tab Choir doesn't even need that much space.

Just a couple of turistas

It's really an impressive undertaking, funded now by the admission paid by tourists like us to see the inside and take funky photos. As Jorge commented, once they finish the construction, it'll probably take another three years to wash and clean it all up to get ready for the grand opening.



I had to laugh when one of the animals carved beneath the nativity scene on the outer church wall was most definitely a turkey - that "so American bird" that you can't find on the menu anywhere over here. So I guess they have heard of turkeys...they just don't know they are delicious to eat, apparently.

We decided to skip the bus and walk back to our apartment, taking the opportunity to see more of the city as we strolled. We wandered across Barca's answer to "auto row" and stumbled across the only gas station we saw during our entire visit. Just where DO they gas up?

A few words about our place - it's great! Like our London place, Ally found this via the Airbnb website. Or landlady is Gloria, who even bought us bread, cheese, ham, salad and a bottle of bubbly knowing that we were arriving late in the evening from London and would likely be hungry.

This place is much larger than the London flat - we have two bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a large living room with a comfy sofa, nice kitchen and a terrace. It's a longer walk to the metro station than we had in London, but having wi-fi more than makes up for it.

The only drawback is there are only Spanish language stations on TV. The Discovery Channel is the only channel we've found with any English language shows, so we have watched a lot of "How it's Made" shows...amazing what goes into making the cones for ice cream cones. 

Oh yeah...before I forget...it is really nice to have two Spanish speakers in the group. So far we haven't met a sign or a menu they couldn't decipher.