{"id":3496,"date":"2014-11-19T02:17:48","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T10:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3496"},"modified":"2014-11-19T02:17:48","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T10:17:48","slug":"ramblin-barcelona-spain-11182014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3496","title":{"rendered":"Ramblin\u2019 \u2013 Barcelona, Spain \u2013 [11\/18\/2014]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Interior\"<\/a>I would love to say that I adored Barcelona the first time that I set foot in it, but in reality the first time I was in Barcelona I hardly saw it all, every time I was there it was a turn around port, which meant I had time to take the shuttle to town, walk half way up the street, take a grand total of ten pictures and head back to work.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t truly see or grasp the beauty of Barcelona until my Big Brother \u201cgave\u201d it to me for my birthday last year (\u201cwhat did you get for your birthday Shaughnessy?\u201d \u201coh nothing\u2026just Barcelona\u201d). That\u2019s a whole other blog entry that is.<\/p>\n

Anyway, since I had an entire afternoon off, and Kitkat is essentially not working right now (she\u2019s youth staff, and there\u2019s only one teen on board who prefers to hang out with her dad) \u2013 we had time. Now, I am not my Big Brother, when Amras drags me out, he has a plan – I\u2026do not. I didn\u2019t even have a map, I mean I had a general<\/em> idea of where I was going though\u2026once I figured out which direction was once (although with Barcelona, it\u2019s hard to get lost because the main street is well\u2026a very obvious straight line).<\/p>\n

Sadly, we did have a bit<\/em> of a false start\u2026as I\u2019m standing at the information center securing directions on which metro line to take to get to where I knew we wanted to go, Kitkat comes up to me looking completely stricken.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a memory card in my camera<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2026what???<\/em><\/p>\n

I forgot to put the memory card in my camera! I only just checked and noticed it! So none of the pictures I took so far saved! None of them! Not one!<\/em><\/p>\n

Well I can\u2019t take you to the cathedral without a camera!!<\/em><\/p>\n

So back to the ship we went, and then back out we went. I had hoped to stumble on the Irish pub I knew was around somewhere<\/em>, but for the life of me I couldn\u2019t find it (though as it turned out I walked right past it, we saw it on the way back\u2026d\u2019oh!) \u2013 though in my defense the last time I saw that place it was the small hours of the morning\u2026one doesn\u2019t tend to register much in the way of landmarks at that hour.<\/p>\n

Aaanyway\u2026<\/p>\n

We were the only ones in the place we did go for lunch, which wasn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing \u2013 quiet can be really good sometimes. And the pizza was yummy\u2026<\/p>\n

We were in the midst of shopping (well, kind of shopping) when I asked KitKat what time it was<\/p>\n

We should go if I want to get you to the church<\/em><\/p>\n

Is it really that important?<\/em><\/p>\n

YES!<\/em><\/p>\n

Sagrada Fam\u00edlia<\/span>– otherwise known as the Gaudi Church \u2013 is only perhaps a fifteen minute metro trip away from the Las Ramblas; once we figured out which ticket was which, it wasn\u2019t that difficult. Except for my near panic attack when the train stopped<\/em> mid-trip\u2026I\u2019m totally fine on subways if they\u2019re moving, if they get stuck where they\u2019re not supposed to my heart starts racing. This was when I suddenly became super aware of the fact that KitKat works with kids, I think if she hadn\u2019t have been there to calm me down I may well have actually<\/em> freaked out. But the stall was only for a few minutes, probably less than five, and then we trundled on our way again.<\/p>\n

This is one of those times when I suppose things are passed on down the line. I introduced Kitkat to Sagrada Fam\u00edlia<\/span> the same way Amras introduced it to me\u2026and really, it is the best way\u2026<\/p>\n

The metro station lets out in such a way that when you climb the stairs the church is behind<\/em> you\u2026therefore. So I stand there for a second at the top of the stairs, and drop an arm around my \u2018twin\u2019s\u2019 shoulders and say:<\/p>\n

Now then, I wonder where this thing could be\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

And then I take her by both shoulders and turn her around<\/p>\n

Whoa\u2026that\u2026that is\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah\u2026I know..<\/em><\/p>\n

How do you even \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t\u2026now come on\u2026or are you just going to stand there?<\/em><\/p>\n

As we were making our way around the front of the building I noticed something unusual \u2013 really unusual. The courtyard, normally thronged with tours so that you can\u2019t even see the doors, is almost empty.<\/p>\n

Kit\u2026look how few people there are\u2026that\u2019s\u2026it\u2019s never like this<\/em><\/p>\n

So we make our way around the back of the building, and stop when we see that the normally hours long ticket line is\u2026short. And moving<\/em>. This is a line that normally wraps around the building. When Amras and I were here we didn\u2019t even try\u2026it wasn\u2019t worth it.<\/p>\n

This time? Ten minute wait\u2026<\/p>\n

We got in\u2026<\/p>\n

Oh. My. Lord.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long time since a building made me cry, but my eyes were wet. It was an instinctive response. The Basilica is like nothing I\u2019ve ever seen, or experienced. It was\u2026it was like walking into a forest. That\u2019s\u2019 what it felt like, I suspect that\u2019s what it was meant to feel like. It was awe inspiring in a completely different way than any other religious building I had set foot in. It\u2019s said that Gaudi created his buildings to look as if they had grown, as if they were of the earth\u2026if that was in fact his goal, he succeeded beyond measure. I was so stunned, that I completely forgot I should have shed my hat at the door until one of the staff came up to remind me.<\/p>\n

We had paid extra for the opportunity to take the tour up to the top of one of the soaring towers at the front of the building, so we were presented with a view of Spain that takes your breath away, and the chance to see some of the details of the building that you simply can\u2019t take in from a distance, in fact you can barely take them in close up! Even the spiral staircase that wound tightly back down to ground floor felt like something out of a fairy tale.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the stairway that doesn\u2019t end!<\/em><\/p>\n

I know I\u2019m getting dizzy!<\/em><\/p>\n

Look at who we are, look at what we can build, look at what we can be<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I understand now, a bit more of what Gaudi meant when he supposedly responded to criticism and query that the church\u2019s completion would never be seen within his own lifetime.<\/p>\n

My client is in no hurry<\/em><\/p>\n

He said.<\/p>\n

This place, was not meant to be rushed, or taken in in a hurry, this place, was meant to entrance you enough to stop<\/em>. And not enough places \u2013 or people \u2013 do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would love to say that I adored Barcelona the first time that I set foot in it, but in reality the first time I was in Barcelona I hardly saw it all, every time I was there it was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[77,12,16,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-east-coast-adventures-2014","category-historical-sites","category-ports-of-call","category-summer-contracts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-Uo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3498,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions\/3498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}