Mount Juic Gardens

On the way up Mount Juic or the Mountain of the Jew (didn't get the story behind the name) there are beautiful gardens. Here are the steps with lily ponds that cascade down the slope. Quite the serene spot.

Guell Park

Guell Park is the park up in the hills of Barcelona that Gaudi designed.  It is a breathtaking blend of nature and the man made.  There is a surreal feeling of being in the blended wilderness while in this park.  Most of the Park has beautiful trails that overlook the city.  Above is a section of the worlds largest bench.  It is made of tile and there are beautiful mosaics all along it.  There is a dirt plaza surrounded by the bench where people can mingle and perform.

Here is a close up of the tiled bench.  It looks really uncomfortable, but on the contrary its comparable to the comfort of an Eames chair.  I later learned at the Gaudi museum that Gaudi studied the human body and designed this bench to match the curve of the spine.

Here is a hall that looks like a wave crashing over into the pillars of the left.  All of the curves and round features gave a very easy flowing feel through the park.

In somewhat of a juxtaposition there is a hall of pillars under the plaza of dirt that is surrounded by the bench.  Each of the pillars acts as a hollow funnel of rainwater from the plaza down to the fountains below.

The wave hall that you saw before has many pillars, the outside of each has some type of pattern or sculpture on the out facing side.  Each and every one is unique, this one looks like Aunt Jemima.  Unfortunately there was no syrup to be found.

Here is a whole series of pillars, click on the photo to see the patterns and sculptures close up.

Notice the swirling spiraled pillars in the top peer of this out look.  It is incredible how organic Gaudi was able to make stone work look.

Here is the famous mosaic lizard fountain that is fed by reclaimed rain water from the dirt plaza.

Along the main staircase the walls are covered with tiles of beautiful mosaic patterns.  Below the lizard is this fountain that reminds the visitors of the importance and beauty of nature.

At the lower entrance of the park the gates are flanked by two houses that are of the late nineteenth century gingerbread style.  One houses the gift shop and the other houses the park offices.  Guell Park is a must for anyone visiting Barcelona.

Huge City

Click on this picture to make it bigger, you can see a lot of what I have written about and you can see about one third of the city.  The right of the two main streets you can see is Las Ramblas, where the market is as well as a fun place to walk with lots of people.  On the left is the water utilities building.  In the middle center is La Sagrada Familia.  Further in the back you can see the two largest buildings in spain that are along the water front.  This picture was taken from high up in Guell Park.

Brilliant

We were in Barcelona at the end of october and it was in the high seventies.  I cannot imagine the heat in the summer.  Since Barcelona is very hilly the city has been nice enough to provide escalators for the weary masses to make the pilgrimage up to Guell Park to see more of Gaudi's brilliance.

Its Gaudy not Gaudy

So this is la Sagrada Familia, one of Gaudi's greatest works.  Its a massive church that has been under construction for about 150 years and will continue to be under construction for a while longer.  Once completed there will be about fourteen spires with the largest being a little taller then the empire state building.  Gaudi was a master of blending art and nature, his design is a brand of art nouveau.  As you can see above, the at a little under half the final height the front facade is very impressive, even with all the cranes and construction about.

Along the front their are little look out balconies that really put the massive size of this project into perspective.

Here is the main theme of the front facade, the tree of life. (or a Christmas tree?)  From this branch there is a network of intertwining branches that run down the front of the church, there are lots of animals and lifelike people in scenes of merryment.  All very nature oriented and organically carved into the stone.

Along the side of the church which is much more sober than the main front the spires are toped by baskets full of fruits.  Good for family sangria (get it, get it?)

Here is the opposite facade of La Sagrada Familia.  It is the complete opposite of its more famous other half.  This side is much more sober, somber and straight laced.  It shows scenes from the later part of Jesus' life.  

Here you can see that the nature is gone, the lines are more straight and its entirely inorganic.

The one nice thing about this facade is that all of the figures are cubist sculpture which is pretty neat.  There is an interesting juxtaposition between the flow of the capes and the boxy figures.

Here is cubist Jesus that hangs at the top of the cubist side of La Sagrada Familia.

Utilities Buildings in Barcelona

This gleaming glass structure is the natural gas company in Barcelona.  It almost looks like a glacier made out of glass, I love all the different angles used.  It would be incredible to see the view from one of the offices above.

Another great utilities building is the water utility building.  Its shaped like a giant cucumber and at night it has a crazy lighting system that makes it glow red and blue in different patterns.  The coolest thing about it is that the whole lighting system uses an absurdly efficient hydro dynamic power system, To light the whole outside of the building it takes as much power as it does to run a refrigerator.

Barcelona Medical School

This beautiful building, called the wheel off cheese by the locals is the medical school of Barcelona.  The hospital is directly to the left, so its sort of a medical complex.  The wood slat exterior is neat looking and it also provides some wind and sun protection on all of the balconies around the building.