Barcelona
Posted by Martin Orr on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 at 10:01
After Nîmes, I spent a week in Barcelona, meeting my parents who had flown out there. It was very hot but I enjoyed it a lot (I also enjoyed having parents to look after me again). It was surprising how limiting it was to get along with none of us having any idea of the language (either Spanish or Catalan) - I'm sure I found it easier in Italy.
The Modernist architecture is particularly impressive. Sometimes it is a bit ugly, but I liked most of it - and sometimes it was hard to believe that the buildings were built as places for people to live in. I liked the Sagrada Familia's innovative take on a Gothic plan, and think it will be a wonderful building when it's finished. Being full of construction equipment, it didn't have much of the feeling of a place of God at the moment. It was interesting to see a cathedral in the middle of construction, and think of this as a process spanning centuries - just as it did in medieval times - and inspiring to see the church building on such a vast scale.