As usual a Toc hostal doesn't let me down, and a big feed from the breakfast buffet sets me on my way, into another day of blue skies and pleasant temperatures in search of Gaudi and his architectural art!
I like art neuveau almost every time but the three casa I visited were just too trippy.... LSD in Gaudis day? Certainly looked that way!
Firstly casa Batlo sat next to a really nice gothic property.....
melting concrete and metal weren't for me, the Chinese were certainly lapping it up tho!
Onto the next Casa Mila where you could pay a ridiculous sum to explore it's exhibits.....
Not for me.
The final one Casa Comalot didn't really have much touristy about it,
i did like it's front door!
i was trying to appreciate them but once again another nearby property was more to my taste!
gothic seems to be my thing this morning!
Until completely by accident I pass this gorgeous building. it had previously been three houses built for three daughters but now it was just offices! Not that I minded
it's called casa de les Punxes in Catalan meaning accurately house of spikes!
The next building also Gaudi was
The Basilica de la Sagrada familia, 'the Holy family'
Now this was absolutely my reason to come to Barcelona and I didn't want to dilute my first reaction to seeing this , so I carefully plotted my route through the gridwork of blocks that the town in this area is laid out in, as planned turning the last corner got me!
'incredible, beyond words, mind blowing, stunning, beautiful..... I could keep going on indefinitely!'
I'm so pleased I came!
To make the moment perfect I was knelt down taking a pic and a street entertainer let loose a flood of bubbles across my shot!
I think I would have paid any price to enter here and would not be disappointed!
Yes I was impressed with the external view, inside was another level of stunning!!! I've never walked into a building and just stopped in awe!!!
This is pure fantasy nature beauty colour a perfect grandeur that does not rely on gold and precious relics to wow it's the perfect recreation of nature in crafted media, smooth columns reaching into the flower like vaulted ceilings so far above you can only stare!
Spiraling stairs set within windowed columns which I would soon experience
as I mentioned the colours!!!!
They are cast across the side aisles in imitations of light through summer leaves and the blue of the sky outside
the reds and oranges of autumn leaves are not forgotten and obviously the stained glass has it's Christian themes to, but to me they lack the meaning without losing the effect of the whole temple to light, to life..... This has had an effect on me!
if anywhere could convert someone to this belief it's here, in some ways I was already there...
Back to the practicalities of the visit, I'd paid to view the 'Passion (of Christ) towers' warnings for people with fears of height and trying to put asthma suffers off didn't deter me!
Happily the ascent is in a very well concealed lift! Stepping out is another thing tho this is bloody high!
stone masons are suspended on ropes chiseling away I don't envy them their jobs!
below amidst the ant like people below I can just make out the bubble man from earlier
you'll have to zoom in!
So far the spiraling steps had been no problem, then I encountered a tight stairwell that Gaudi had deliberately designed to look like the many spirals you find in nature..... Dear god this nearly stopped me!
seemingly twisting into infinity my sweating palms gripping the hand rail I edge down here! Thankfully on my own!
No shame in fear but I prefer to face this demon alone!
And I do.... Breathing a sigh of relief as the door at the bottom lets me back out into the transept...
And then into daylight to take in the towing spires in which I'd been sweating so recently!
Nerves calmed I enter the attached museum to the construction of the Basilica (I'll use it's real name!) amongst the displays is a video with a quote from Gaudi 'This tree outside my studio is my master!' a great display of modesty from this man who's work in the three casa's I'd so recently been unimpressed by!
Impressed still isn't the word for this work...
There is no adequate word......
And I couldn't bring myself to pay to enter the the next building I'd listed to visit..... It couldn't make an impression on me after the basilica
Beautiful as it was!
So I wander with no great concern for direction, just content.
It's times like this that the most unexpected of places make an impression, and for me it was a temple to the common man in the form of a market! Quite a building for such a purpose
Faceted mirrors form the roof sadly my lense cap was still covering the image somewhat but you can still see the relevance!
It did give me the opportunity for a selfie of sorts!
i am there I promise 😁
Walking through I see a stall selling bags I've been after a passport and cash card security pack that I can wear under my shirt, somehow between my gestures and his reading of them I got exactly what I was needing! He wanted 8 euros, in appreciation I gave more, he earned it!!
Heading in a too southerly direction from the market than I'd intended I find myself at yet another arc de Triomf all cities should have one! 😄
from here I correct my path and head NNW through the gothic sector as they call the old town, there's a strange beauty in twisting tiny roads with people's washing hanging down! Odd I know but it's there even in this much more urban version of an old town than I've seen up to yet
graffiti and people skate boarding in the plaza's doesn't take from this zone it's just what it is a blend of modern and old which works.
A quick grocery shop and I'm back at the hostel with food for dinner and tomorrow's mid day snack.... Then/now I'm sat in bar at the hostel writing up this blog!
a very good start to the days trip!
getting into rougher ground there are snow capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the left and lower peaks tho still impressive to the right, regular tunnels take us under these peaks with unknown weights of minerals above.
Catching this limestone tower.... Wish I could say where but I was lucky to just snap the pic!, into the Estacion Madrid Puerta de Atocha for an hour's wait before my train leaves which it of course does, my seat doesn't exactly have the best window! 
still I manage with views over the most arid land I've seen! The land is really rugged and your can see why religion here kept the villages linked there's nothing else to link between the tiny villages set in small flat valleys with miles of rugged mountain roads between them! 
you can see the village church here if you zoom in, it's the highest point of the village, no one, no matter what they did would miss this during their day to day activities , a focus for the locals, maintaining their beliefs no doubt with it's ever present authority. 
the train enters Barcelona and I disembark and start the usual metropolitan challenge of figuring out the metro machine and getting the right card with zero knowledge of what I'm buying! 
i woke a Frenchman laughing when I say it! Luckily a nice guy! 