We woke up on our final day praying for clear skies. The night before, there was a 50% chance of showers. We had several sites around the city that we hadn’t seen and it would have been more difficult to get to them if it were raining. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and we were off to the subway.
First on the list was Sagrada Familia – the massive church that has been under construction for over century and is slated to go for another 20 years. We tried to tour it earlier in the trip but they were closing down for the day and we would have only had 25 mins. The line to get in this time was very long. This is partially because the Pope (El Papa) had consecrated the site the day before and partially because we got there at 11(peak tourist time). We stood in line for an hour and fifteen minutes; it was well worth it.
Once inside, I was blown away at the height of the ceiling. Gaudi made the columns that support the roof look more similar to trees than Romanesque columns. The detail throughout is amazing. It has almost only natural light from tiny windows (some stain glass) all over the place.
The feel inside of the church is not like other cathedrals that I’ve been in. It is more like a museum with people talking and lacked the reverence I’d expected. Britt and I concluded that this is a function of it primarily being a museum as opposed to a place of worship. I think this will change once they get pews in there and have a more organized schedule to the tours. They open the floodgates for tourists now to help fund the project (funding is the primary reason it’s taken so long to complete). I certainly plan on returning to see this venue once they complete the other towers and entrance that they are currently working on.
After Sagrada, we jumped back into the subway (huge fan of it in BCN; NY should take notes) and headed down to the “Old City” area, where the Cathedral and Picasso Museum are located. This area is the oldest part of the city – portions of the old Roman wall still remain in a few places. Unfortunately, the Picasso Museum is closed on Mondays. Not a huge deal as I don’t feel that you have to see a museum to experience a city, which was our primary goal for the trip. With that said, Brittany did decide that we should replace this Picasso dude with something more tangible. The Chocolate Museum filled the void and then some. Nothing overly cool here but they did have a chocolate fountain.
Our final tourist stop was the Cathedral. It was a very neat and more like what I expected in a church. It’s not nearly as amazing as Sagrada but classic and old.
I was feeling a bit drained at this point from cruising around the city all day. Britt, however, had Euros in her wallet and time on her hands. I dipped into a bar while she went to the 5th Ave of BCN. I have one takeaway from that portion of the trip - Iberia Ham is much better than Prosciutto. Random I know, but when you spend two hours with a Spanish bar tender who speaks broken ingles, at best, and a non-bilingual American, you resort to conversation topics that involve props. His prop was an Iberia Ham, which he was butchering. Mine was the beer I had in my hand. He explained to me that Iberia Ham is wild boar where as Prosciutto is farm raised. I claimed to not understand and so we had a taste test. The Iberia Ham costs about twice as much and is well worth the premium. The flavor is fairly similar but the texture is the rub. Iberia Ham melts in your mouth; prosciutto is more like a Lays potato chip (good but just different). I will be investigating if we have Iberia Ham at any of the groceries in B’ham.
We topped off the night in style. Our dinner reservations were at 9:00 at Moo. That seems crazy to we Americans but eating at 9 there is like a 6:30 dinner in the US. The restaurant was very modern and in the Hotel Oom. Moo is hands down the most expensive restaurant I’ve ever eaten at . The food was awesome and the wine was even better. They had 3 options of courses (ranging from 5 to 8 different sequences of courses). I went with the mid-price option. Each course has it’s own glass of wine. The service was excellent; the Somali would explain where each wine was from – all in and around the Iberian Peninsula. I tried a few dishes I’d never experienced before, which I love, and I even convinced Britt to be a bit adventurous (with some rabbit pudding that was delicious). Once we received the bill, I wished Brittany a very Merry Christmas and we turned in for the night.
Outside the Sagrada Familia:
The sculpted bronze doors of the Passion Facade are inscribed with the Gospels of Matthew and John:
Inside the Sagrada Familia:
The chocolate museum:
Inside The Cathedral:
They love vintage Vespas in Barcelona! We are going to own one of these one day.
