July 02 Barcelona

July 02
The first place we visited on our second day is the most stunning building in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia. This is a church designed by Antoni Gaudi, and is considered his greatest work. The construction was started in 1882 and is still ongoing! It is expected to be finished in 2030.

Notice the scaffolding (in white) in the ceiling. All of the carvings are hand made, which is why it is taking so long.

Just to put a scale to the size, notice the construction workers on the main floor.

Some of work around the windows.

A lot of the detailed work is on the outside of the building. The crane that is visible at the top is used in the building of the main steeple, which will dwarf the existing steeples already in place.

Note the two construction workers actually climbing the building.

The street above is the Passeig de Gracia, where you can see more Gaudi buildings, as well other beautiful buildings. The one with the cross is a Gaudi building.

Paulette and Claude standing in one of the city squares, the Placa Catalunya.

This is La Boqueria, one of the biggest food markets in Europe.

There are many shops, selling pretty much anything that can be eaten.

Seafood stalls include many species that we don't normally eat in Canada.

For that matter so does the meat stalls! We think these are goat or sheep heads, couldn't read the Spanish.

We then visited the Bari Gothic, which is the medieval section of Barcelona. The streets are old and very narrow. Darlene and Paulette are taking a quick break in front of an art gallary in the Bari Gothic.

This beautiful building is close to our hotel, away from the downtown area. Just another example of the incredible architecture that you see all over the city.

Paulette staying cool, the way Spanish women do it.

Dressed for dinner. In Spain, they eat dinner later then any other country in Europe. The restaurants don't even open until 08:30 pm and most locals don't show up until well past 09:00. We thought this might be a problem for us, but we got used to it surpringly fast. We had a great meal at a restaurant recommended to us by the hotel staff, just a few blocks away, called the Meatea.