Cathedrals, A Fairy, and a Spider Web

Trip Start Jun 07, 2008
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Trip End Jun 28, 2009


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Flag of Spain and Canary Islands  ,
Saturday, August 30, 2008

We went to the coolest church ever today - the Sagrada de la Familia, which was designed by the architect Gaudi in the 1800's which is kind of amazing because most churches were made thousands of years ago (the ones we have seen so far) and this one is not even finished yet! It looks like a giant dripping sand castle from far away, but up close you can see all the cool things he put on it, like Roman soldiers who look like knights, and the story of the life of Jesus, and lots of animals from the Mediterranean, like iganas, sea turtles, snakes, alligators and things.

Gaudi looked in nature to decide how to build his buildings. He put trees, berries, and buds on top of the cathedral, which no one had ever done. He put the flowers and plants he found on the site where he built the buildings into the building, like putting palm fronds onto a building and lavender on the church. And he looked at how plants and trees grow and how crystals are formed to decide how to build the church - some of the columns look like tree trunks. He used real people as models for lots of the sculptures. He died before he saw the church finished, but they hope to finish it by 2050! I can bring my children and grandchildren and it might not be finished yet.

After the cathedral, we went to the beach and a great lunch right on the sand. We got to play on a giant spider web that was on the beach and tried to read the Catalan signs on the beach - it is different from Spanish. I also saw a sign for hot chocolate in six languages. Tonight we are going to find the best chocolate cake in Barcelona.
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