Sagrada Família

We woke up bright and early again (June 4th, 2019) to get in line at the Sagrada Família, the iconic church in Barcelona. We stopped at a bakery along the way for breakfast and hopped on the metro headed to the church. We arrived 10 minutes before it opened and took in the beautiful, massive church. We eventually found where to get tickets, only to find out all of today's tickets were sold out. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. First the Colosseum and now this!

The Nativity façade

Hunter and I went and sat on a park bench and searched the internet to try and find tickets. We were not able to find anything, despite him scrolling through dozens of pages on increasingly sketchy websites. After a while, I finally went and asked one of the nearby tourist information booths if they had any ideas of how we could get in. Low and behold, they had two tickets with audio guide tours for the 9:30 to 10 am time slot (it was 9:40 already). We quickly said yes and paid for the tickets. They only were charging three euros more than they would have cost from the official website, an amazing deal compared to not getting in at all! We were both so excited. Quickly, we paid and headed to the entrance. The line moved quickly and we went through a small security checkpoint then went to pick up the audio guides. There were 7 stations on the tour. It started outside and slowly moved into the church and around the inside. There was a lot of information and the church, which is still in construction, will be completed in 2026. Construction began in 1882 by Gaudí and he died in a crash with a tram in 1926. Their goal is to complete the church by the 100th anniversary of his death. Gaudí has a very specific style and Gaudí design can be seen throughout Barcelona and Spain.

The Nativity Facade over the current entrance

Leaf Covered Door Design

Crazy Gaudi Inspired Stained Glass

Ceiling with Tree Inspired Columns

The Immense Space

Gaudi paid special attention to how light would filter through

Morning light and colors

Evening aligned windows for sunset colors

Eventual design of entry door

Crazy shapes looking up

The Altarpiece

Highly graduated light

Panoramic!

Figures on the Passion Facade

When we were listening to the audio guide, it told us about these turtles at the front, so we walked back through after seeing both sides to come see the turtles. One of the turtles was hidden by renovations though. 

The schools

We ended in a museum under the church and learned all about the history of the Sagrada Família. It was so neat to learn about the structure and how it has come to be.

Appreciating a model of one of the sides (Glory Facade) of the church that is currently in construction

The floor plan of the church

A model of a hyperboloid that I was enjoying playing with. Hunter and I were discussing how we could determine the volume of it. Gotta love math/science!

Weight bearing model of the Sagrada Familia -- Without complex computer monitoring, Gaudi had to come up with a creative way to determine if his complex fanciful designs could even be built. This model was one of his solutions, the sandbags are tiny weights representing scaled loads on the building while the lines represent supports. the model being able to hang like this indefinitely illustrates the design is solid and architecturally possible.

We walked in many circles just enjoying and seeing everything the church had

back inside one last time

The stained glass was amazing and even the photos  Hunter's camera can take don't do it justice

Outside in the park across the church

After the church, we headed to Park Güell which was also designed by Gaudí. We took the metro, which turned out to be an adventure as where it stopped was at the bottom of the hill where the park is located. By the end, this hill felt more like a mountain! Hunter and I walked up a ton of stairs and hills to finally get into the public park area. We tried to find where to buy tickets but had no luck. We did get to see the famous benches from afar and were glad we didn't buy tickets into the park as half of it was under construction. The hype around the park we found was exaggerated and while we enjoyed walking around the free spaces, were happy to just enjoy what we could for free. We spent a couple hours here then headed for lunch as we were both extremely hungry and Hunter's blood sugar was running low.

After walking up all the stairs, we sat on a bench and watched people walk past us and constantly stop and take pictures down this road (we couldn't see it from where we were sitting after climbing all the stairs). We eventually got our energy back and went to see what all the fuss was about. We were presented with this amazing view all the way down to the beach miles away.

The park (and yes dress+running shoes = fashion statement)

Almost gingerbread house like buildings designed by Gaudi

messy hair don't care

a stone bridge type thing we walked under

For lunch, Hunter and I headed to Barceloneta, the popular beach area with the big W hotel that looks like a sail. We went to a recommended hole in the wall seafood place, Can Mano. To start we ordered french fries and tomato bread. We then ordered fried calamari and prawns. The calamari came out first and was very delicious. The prawns came out last and were fresh full prawns. We had assumed they would be fried ones, but nope. I had never eaten prawns like this and was a bit saddened as it was not what I expected and didn't want to pay nine euros for it. Hunter did enjoy them though, so that was good.

Finding the restaurant for lunch

Waiting for our food

The restaurant sign

After eating we went and walked along the beach and enjoyed the sun. It was hot out so we tried to stay in the shade where we could. I still managed to get my shoulders sunburned. It was interesting to people watch while we walked. There were all sorts from fully clothed in a sweater to only a thong bottom on female sunbathers.

The W hotel seen from the beach, someday maybe!

Art

After walking and walking and walking, we headed back to our hotel for a little siesta. We stopped at a bakery nearby and bought a little cake. Hunter and I were expecting it to cost about 3 or 4 euros as in Canada or the US it would have been about $6, but the lady said one euro. We quickly asked for another slice and happily left with our mini cakes for 2 euros. When we got back to our hotel, we ate them and OH MY GOSH they were delicious. It was like eating a cloud. I was amazed at how good a one euro slice of cake could be. The bakery was Moroccan and we left glowing Google reviews for future travelers.

While I worked on my blog, Hunter looked at where we should go for dinner. He eventually found a tiny fish and chips place that we headed to around 8pm. We sat in the crowded restaurant (only about 15 people could fit max) and ordered a fish and chips cone and calamari cone to share. It also came with three different sauces that turned out to all be delicious.

Delicious fish and sauce with our friendly waiter/cook/restraunt owner in the background

Tender and flaky fish!

After dinner, we stopped by a market store and got a bottle of sparkling water. We both found that we were dehydrated much of our trip, partially because everywhere we went, they wanted to charge for water as they didn't serve tap water. We found a large two-liter bottle and then headed back to the hotel to pack up as we were leaving tomorrow morning. I packed up most of our things and got our clothes out for flying. We set alarms for 7am and headed to bed.

A horse lamp at our hotel

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Another early morning (June 5th, 2019), we quickly headed to the airport. Our route turned out to be a bit slow and Hunter became worried we were going to miss our flight, but we eventually arrived at the airport at around 9 am. When we got in, I found two people to give our metro cards to because they were still valid until 9pm that night. I was happy I could pay it forward and not waste the passes.

We headed to the United counters to be faced with a giant line at the check-in kiosks. Hunter further became stressed as our plane was starting to board at 10:25 and it was already 9:30. We waited, checked in, and headed towards security. As we were walking, I looked at the boarding passes and found I had the dreaded quad s on my boarding pass. SSSS is extra security screening and normally when we see one of us has it, we can just cancel the reservation and make another, but because we left the kiosks, we didn't have time to change it. We quickly passed through security and then customs where we got a Barcelona passport stamp. We made it to our gate just as they called me on the PA system. We headed up expecting to be given seats, but instead, they said I needed to wait here alone for the extra security screening. Hunter also asked about the stickers we normally get on our passports and they were shocked we didn't already have them, but there was nowhere for us to do the exit interview when we arrived at the gate. The lady took our passports and then returned and took Hunter aside and asked him a bunch of questions. It was quite funny because in the end, Hunter ended up being asked more questions that I was. Finally, they hearded up the group of extra security people and brought us to a holding pen across the airport. When it was my turn, they just made me take my laptop out of my bag, and did a wipe test on my hands and luggage, then returned and told me to go. It seemed like such a waste of time. Other people in the area had to have the contents of their bags inspected and things were everywhere. In Europe, racial profiling happens more often than in the US, so I was probably looked at as not even close to a threat. When I was done, I went back and found Hunter at our gate. We finally got given our seats and boarded shortly after. We were going to be across the aisle from each other, but the guy beside me offered to move so Hunter and I could sit beside each other. Our plane was a 787-10 and virtually brand new, the 10, abbreviated B781or B78X is the largest Dreamliner with 44 of united's new Polaris seats. The airplane was delivered at the end of March so it was only about 2 months old.  The seats are really nice and similar to the ones on the 777-300 we took to Japan a few weeks ago. This time we had odd-numbered seats which meant we were much much closer to each other.

Hunter's classic plane picture, first 787-10!

I got cold so I wrapped my blankets around me and Hunter called me a burrito

Getting to be much closer to each other in the odd number middle seats

When we got seated, we started a movie called "They shall not Grow Old", an award-winning WW1 documentary with a lot of restored film shots and special effects. Our dinner order was then taken and both Hunter and I ordered the salmon. We finished dinner with ice cream and I had some tarts too. Our movie finished shortly after and we both went to sleep.

The starter (Hunter likes to use portrait mode on the food which is why it sometimes looks blurry)

The salmon, rice, and veggies

Dessert

I woke up about two and a half hours from Newark. I was incredibly thirsty and felt a bit dehydrated. I drank my bottle of water and got another diet coke. I also started another movie, The Black Panther. Before I knew it, we were being served our arrival meal. We had options of pizza, beef stew, or vegetarian chili. I got the beef stew and Hunter got the veggie chili. Mine was ok and Hunter liked his.

Beef stew

Hunter's chili

We landed at 1:35. Both Hunter and I had tight connections so we needed to go go go. We were able to quickly pass through customs with our amazing mobile passport app. We followed signs for connecting flights and eventually got spit out into a TSA Pre only checkpoint. Unfortunately, we do not have TSA Pre, so we needed to quickly find the normal security. We walked around and couldn't find it and basically had to go all the way back to where we first got spit out and then walk around more till we finally found it. When we arrived though, we found out my gate changed from C gates to A gates and we were worried I would not make it because we didn't know if the C gates connect to A and if they didn't, I had a ways to go. While waiting in the long lines that made it seem like we were going to miss our flights, we found out that I could access the A gates from the C so I was going to be able to hopefully make my flight back to Ottawa and Hunter should be able to make his flight back to Vegas. We cleared security and Hunter and I hugged and headed our separate ways. I made it to my gate just as boarding was beginning and was already given a seat. Hunter made his flight as well.

We both made it back to our homes safe and sound, although I beat Hunter by a few hours.

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BONUS PICTURE: addition to our model plane collection, the Vueling A320 we rode from Rome to Barcelona

Date: June 4-5, 2019