Day 6: Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Port Vell & the Coast

Wednesday, we got up and headed toward the famous “La Sagrada Familia” a church mostly designed by Antoni Guadi. Plans and construction began in 1883 and it is projected to be completed between 2020-2040. It was full of beautiful stain glass windows and pictures carved out of stone but I think the pictures will do a much better job than any words I can come up with to describe this Gothic church. Josh took the girls to the park across the street so that Jeremy and I could go up the Nativity Façade tower. Again, there are really no words describe the details or the views from the top of the tower. We must have been pretty high because my legs got a little shaky and don’t know if that has ever happened! The spiral staircase was pretty incredible and just made my legs even shaker because there was nothing to the left to hold on… except the bottom of the above stairs. It was quite an experience.

Nativity Scene: Mary, Joseph, & baby Jesus are in the middle, angels surrounding the top, the Wise Men on the right, and the Shepherds on the left.

Waiting for the elevator up in the rose section.

Oh geez! We are high!! Check out the views!

We soon found Josh and the girls and tried another Cheerios place which was actually known for them and I think much better. The girls greatly enjoyed them again. What a crazy breakfast food!

Josh and Annie blowing off the hot chocolate.

We hopped on to the Metro and headed toward Park Guell another creation of Antoni Guadi. We actually came up the back of the park. Josh warned us he remembered that there was a bit of a steep hill we had to climb. I’d say it’s pretty steep when they have to add escalators on the hill to help you climb it! But you can judge according to the pictures. Praise the Lord for escalators!

After entering the park, we headed to a high point to take pictures. It was a very pretty area.

Jeremy took this picture from the highest point where he was taking all the scenic pictures before and after this shot. We were pretty far down from his advantage.

The girls and I on the high point... I was gripping them so hard because I was still a bit shaky!

After we got all of our pictures, we headed down the park in search of the famous dragon-lizard. Thanks to “Little Einsteins” Lillie even knew about his famous mosaic dragon-lizard who keeps guard of the “Sala Hipostilla” – a forest of 88 stone columns… that Josh, Lillie, and Annie played hide ‘n seek between the different columns. The top of the “Sala Hipostila” is a broad open space that is surrounded by the “Banc de Trencadis”. It was a beautiful tiled bench curving around the perimeter. They were perfect for a rest after climbing up and down the back of the park. The open space was full of people enjoying the day, sightseeing, and selling different trinkets. The girls picked out two glass necklaces for my birthday just before the police came and they all scurried away. It was a bit of an amusing scene once we realized what was going on and why they gathered their things and ran up the hill.

The dragon... we finally found it!

The front of the Park Guell

After the park, we headed toward some lunch. We found a little sandwiches and pizza places and rested for a bit. Jeremy and I split a cured ham & cheese sub and Lillie had a bikini (plain ham & cheese grilled sandwich). Annie had fallen asleep on our lunch journey and we were in no hurry to rouse her. Lillie had fun coloring her placemat while we all relaxed for a bit.

We decided we had seen all that we had wanted to so we decided to go back to the beach. Lillie loved it so much and it was about 60 degrees! Lillie and Annie had fun searching for shells and playing in the sand. We all had fun watching the locals and/or visitors enjoying the sun. We even saw a little too much of one particular local… apparently, it was a clothing optional beach! No fear… we did not take pictures! J

For dinner, we ate Seafood Palella near the boardwalk. It is a Spanish/Catalina dish that is a lot like our Jambalaya. It was seasoned rice with different kinds of seafood (shrimp, mussels, clams, crawfish, and squid). It was very tasty. We of course had a pitcher of Sangria and apparently at this place they give lemon liquor as a night cap.

Port Vell at night