We were so intrigued by Casa Batllo when we passed it on Monday, that we decided coming back and going inside was a can't-miss. So we bought some tickets online and headed there first thing on Wednesday.
This tour came with a really neat handheld video guide that helped you visualize what the spaces looked like originally furnished (and also provided lots of great audio information for the tour). Bonus: everyone got one of their own, including the littles. I'm not sure they got much out of it, but it definitely kept them more occupied than otherwise. I'm not sure that any pictures can really do this place justice, but Tim's are very very good. The building was impressive.
This ceiling was typical of the kinds of things we saw, all of which evoked dynamic sea and water forms.
This light well in the center of the building was a typical feature of the time... a way to allow light and air to the interior of the large Barcelona buildings. This one is (clearly) special, however. For instance, it is covered with carefully broken tiles to aid in covering the Gaudi-style curved walls. Also, the blue tiles change in shade from the top to the bottom, with darker tiles at the top and lighter one at the bottom. Thus, when the light shines on them (more at the top and less at the bottom), they appear to be all of the same shade. Similarly, the windows at the top of the light well are smaller and those at the bottom are larger; this helped keep the lighting even throughout all of the floors of the building.
The patio out back was also gorgeously sinuous.
The back of the house a couple of doors down, again, beautiful on any other block, pretty much pales in comparison.
The next few photos are of the attic. Nothing up here but washing machines, mostly, and yet, the structure really highlights Gaudi's style and capabilities. Beautiful.
We also got to go out on the roof, which made it possible to examine the tiles on the roof more carefully. The kids really enjoyed trying to imagine the dragon's tail and scales and Saint Jordi's sword.
The stairwell (and elevator shaft) rose up through the light well. The half walls of the stairwell were done in this clear water style glass through which you could see the blue tiles of the light well, again evoking the sea theme from throughout the entire house.
From here, we headed to lunch. We found a nice little tapas place and ate al fresco (again, a beautiful day). The food was good (not excellent, but good and typical).
Just down the street from lunch was the church of Santa Maria del Mar. We were losing the littlest of the kids, so Tim took the big girls in so the three of them could see the church and Maya and Milena could find the items on their scavenger hunt.
On the door outside the church, they found the icons of the porters, the workers who transported the stones to build the church on their backs (2 points).
While scavenger hunting inside, the girls found the wooden boat that is the symbol of Santa Maria (2 points) and some paving stones with skulls and crossbones to indicate graves underfoot (2 points).
The girls found the city's coat of arms on the ceiling (3 points).
Inside the rose shaped stained glass window, the girls identified several different colors of glass (4 points).
We all met up again in the Gothic Quarter. The girls ran off some energy with Cooper from Syracuse.
We then wandered through the Gothic Quarter to catch the metro again; Cora found a handy door pull...
We found this unexplained twisted metal sculpture...
And you may not take fists or knives down this alley...
We took the metro up to the Tibidabo. Ok, so that's not true. We took the metro to Av. Tibadabo. Then we took the bus 196 to Placa JFK. Then we took a funicular to Tibadabo. There's an amusement park there. We told the kids they couldn't ride any rides (we didn't really have time) and no one cried. We bought them ice cream. We walked up to look out over the city from in front of the big church. The amusement park is actually kind of awesome. It's over 100 years old (older than the church), and several of the rides dangle out over the edge of the mountain. It would have been cool to spend some time on the rides, had we had more time. Alas, we headed back down on the funicular/bus/metro.
The girls also got points in their scavenger hunt for finding an FC Barcelona jersey (one point) and FC Barcelona soccer ball (one point); neither of these were at all difficult to find.
Tim kept the little kids for dinner, and we took the big girls out for a really fun and delicious dinner of tapas in the Port Vell area.
Contrary to her face, I think Amy actually liked the octopus.
I am absolutely certain that Maya liked her chocolate coulant. She did get a point for trying Spanish tortilla at dinner but refused the point she could have gotten for trying Crema Catalana.
Scavenger Hunt Scorecard: 15 points for the day; grand total: 109.5
No comments:
Post a Comment