Barcelona

Back in April I visited Spain for a few days. At least, it was only meant to be a few days for a conference. The night before I left, there was a volcanic ash eruption in Iceland. Maybe you heard about it. All flights into the UK were canceled, and the trains were packed. In any case, there were a couple of us stuck in Barcelona with nothing to do.

It turns out that Barcelona was put on the map by this guy named Antoni Gaudi. He was an awesome artist, and if you go to Barcelona, his works are the main attractions. We visited the Casa Batllo and Sagrada Familia, and lots of other little places around the city. Here are some pictures:

Casa Batllo

The Casa Batllo is an artist house created by Gaudi. Its on the World Heritage list, which means that you can think of it as a significant contribution to world history, accessible at a significant price. It was 18 euros, or about $23 per person. But it was very interesting, even for the cost. One main point of the house is that it doesn't have any straight lines - check out the pictures below.

This is meant to be like the inside of a ribcage!

Sagrada Familia

 The Sagrada Familia is a big cathedral that has been in progress since 1882 and isn't expected to be finished until 2026. Gaudi built the beginnings of it and left some plans so that others could finish the work. The stone entrance (see second picture) is awesome - it tells the story of the last few days of Jesus' life and is filled with symbolism. The third picture is the back of the cathedral and tells the story of the nativity.

We also took a bike tour of the city through Fat Tire Bikes. We saw and learned tons about the city, and the best part was that we ended the tour with lunch on the Olympic beach.

Though being stuck in an unfamiliar city with nothing to do did actually get boring after a while (and I won't be having Spanish Taps anytime soon), 5 extra days wasn't too bad!