Barcelona. Wow.

We're back home in Seattle now (yay!) and the cats seem to remember who we are. ("Hey, there's the two guys that used to feed us!")


Our final four days were in Barcelona. Neither of us had ever been to Spain before. But now we know why every time we mentioned going to Barcelona to someone who had already been, without fail they would all say, "Ahhh, Barcelona!"

Here are some random photos that help illustrate why they say that:

We stayed in the neighborhood called Barceloneta which is on a wonderful beach that's part of the city. Really great places to eat tapas around here.

John examines a sand dragon. 

Another fun translation. This was on the toilet in our hotel room.

Probably the most famous attraction in Barcelona is the Sagrada Familia Basilica. A work in progress since 1882, by Antoni Gaudi', a master of the Modernisme style.

Breathtaking, and it's nowhere near finished. More towers are on the way,
including the tallest church spire ever to be built, at 560 feet. (These you see here are about 350 feet tall.) And they have to tear down a block of apartments to expand the main aisle of the church.

Here's an angel rocking out on a bassoon on the Nativity Facade side of the church.

This is the Passion facade, with more recent sculptures by Josep Maria Subirachs. (Gaudi' left no designs for this facade, so they were given to someone else to do.) Check out Jesus's hair. It's the pages of an open book. (And check out the storm troopers/Romans.)

Facing the altar, from the entrance to the church. The columns are intended 
to look like stylized trees with branches.

The vault above the altar is 250 feet high. That's equivalent to a 25 story building.

My camera couldn't begin to do justice to the incredible color streaming in from the stained glass windows.

More color

A closer look at the blue windows.

Closer still

Light from the stained glass plays across the floor. 

Then we were off to explore more of Barcelona.

Another building in the Modernisme style.

The Music Hall

The interior of the Music Hall. We attended a piano concert. Check out that ceiling!

Very cool building on Las Ramblas.

Barcelona is famous for these tiny balconies.

Fun stucco work, c. 1900.

Here's one of Barcelona's two versions of the Pike Place Market. This is the less touristy one, Santa Caterina.

As you can imagine, "I'll have a tomato" leads to a very long discussion.

Park Guell, featuring more work by Gaudi'.

This lizard is one of the unofficial symbols of Barcelona.

An apartment complex, designed by Gaudi'.

Not Gaudi', just very cool Art Nouveau.

At a different, smaller church in Barcelona.

If you get started on this right now, your centerpiece for Thanksgiving might be ready in time.

This was a chapel dedicated to sports. Seriously. Don't you just love the facepalm guy? "The agony of defeat," I suppose.

Remember the Jesus with the tiny hands? Well, here's Mary with ENORMOUS hands. Look closely. No thumbs. Had this sculptor ever even looked at his own hands? I'm guessing he was somebody's nephew.

Pretty floor mosaic.

I'm guessing this is Saint Bouillon, the patron saint of soups.

Various celebrities in a toy shop window. Lots of old rockers and House, from the medical drama. And Woody Allen in two sizes at the far right. Go figure.  

What to give the person who has everything. This is about seven feet tall.

The National Museum of Catalan Art, on Montjuic, a hill overlooking Barcelona.

Here's the view from the front steps of this building that was originally built for the 1929 Exposition.

This is Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a Medieval Romanesque fresco. 
She looks like a character from Popeye to me. 

Saint Stephen, who was stoned to death. Those aren't potatoes on his head and shoulders. 

And continuing with the pleasant depictions of martyrdom, here we have the following, clockwise starting in the upper left:
1. Being sawn in half - The patron saint of magicians.
2. Having nails hammered into your head - The patron saint of hangovers.
3. Being stabbed repeatedly - The patron saint of tailors. (Think pincushions.)
4. Being boiled in oil - The patron saints of southern cooking.

This is one of the original posters later made famous in dorm rooms across the US.

A gorgeous Art Nouveau dressing mirror.

Stained glass by a contemporary of Tiffany in Barcelona over 100 years ago. This is about six feet tall by nine feet wide.

The huge auditorium in the museum, originally an ice skating rink.

And as we bid a fond "adéu" to Barcelona (That's Catalan for good-bye), we enjoy the view from the rooftop terrace of our hotel. 

More Jesus, big feet, Mary, Laser Tag, Martinis, Nero, Mussolini and attitude

And we're off:

Mary hated Laser Tag because the angels always ganged up on her.

Does this halo look like a film reel, or what?

These are supposed to be Jesus's footprints from when he and Peter had their "Quo vadis" moment.
I put my shoe next to this to get a comparison. Jesus apparently was about a size 10.

What the heck does this mean??!!

Remember our friend Saint Sebastian? Basically an excuse for sculptors and
painters to do a near-nude male in a sacred setting.

Here's the cool bridge we had to cross to get to the Centrale Montemartini museum.

The Centrale Montemartini is a decomissioned power plant
that is now a showcase for some ancient Roman sculptures.

It has nothing to do with martinis, but that does remind me of a joke.

Roman soldier to bartender: "I'll have a martinus."

Bartender: "Do you mean martini?"

Roman soldier: "Hey, if I wanted two I would have asked for two."

Thank you.

We also went to the Domus Aurea, only recently opened to the public, and only on weekends so it's a really hot ticket. Speaking of hot, it's the massive house that Nero had built for his guests right after the huge fire that destroyed so much of Rome.

They give us these lovely hairnets and construction helmets,
always a favorite combination of mine.

Apparently we have to wear these helmets because some of the workers have slippery hands.
This sign says "Falling material from above".

We were led through some really massive vaulted areas in the house
which is now completely underground, thanks to Trajan who decided to build some baths on top of it.

A lot of the rooms still have their fresco decorations.

The condition of some of these frescoes is amazing.

It's hard to get a sense of the angle of this, but it's a ceiling panel that's parallel to the floor beneath.
When the archaeologists came across it they pronounced it a miracle that it hadn't collapsed
and that the decoration was almost pristine.

Water continues to flow in, causing calcium deposits and other problems.

Still, some pretty incredible stuff. The plan is to have it all secured and cleaned within four years.

Here's the masterpiece. A huge round room with a circular opening overhead.
It's believed that Nero entertained guests here on a giant rotating platform.
And remember, this is all currently underground.

Next we were off to the Baths of Caracalla, south of the center of Rome.

It's the scale of the place that is so unexpected.

This one reminded me of Escher.

See the little tiny person in red? She's not even under that arch yet.

They also stage operas here in the summer.

And there's a lovely garden as well.

On a completely different front, one thing that's interesting, especially in Rome, is how often you can still come across Mussolini's legacy.

It's a little hard to read, but this obelisk has Mussolini's name carved vertically on it.
It's on the same grounds as the Italian Open tennis tournament going on now.

There are mosaics of a crowd yelling "Duce, Duce" and giving the fascist salute.

And mosaics saying "Finally, Italy has its empire!"
referring to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

And there are bizarre fascist slogans such as this one:
"Many enemies
Much honor"

And this one:
"It is necessary to win
But it is more necessary to fight."

And there's the fascist style of sculpture as well, also on the same grounds as the tennis tournament.

Some of the statues are very earnest in their pose.

And some are almost regal (despite the fact that he's apparently a naked Alpine skier).

And then there's my personal favorite -
The hand on the hip.
The sweater tied around the hips.
And serving out attitude for days.

That's it for now. Tomorrow we leave for two days in Assisi, then four days in Barcelona.