Day 3

Barcelona  Day 3

Today’s itinerary is a change in the Gaudi schedule. We ventured a little further out of the city today to visit a building designed by one of my absolute favourite architects, Mies Van Der Rohe. The Barcelona/German pavilion is a building that I have never visited before however I have seen the scale model of it (which is housed in the Bauhaus Archive Museum, Berlin) three times! As you can imagine I am very excited to see the real thing. As we exit the metro station I am already very pleasantly surprised by what I can see. Here are some pictures from the surrounding area.

                 I absolutely love the carvings of the sheep like creature on the pillar above.

Whilst walking around and enjoying the surroundings I am pleased that the Pavilion is not too far away and am very excited when I see it from the corner of my eye. It is not as I would have expected to find it. It is serenely tucked away in a corner of the square, which seems quite fitting. You have to stand and wait to be served by the attendant, who sits there in a Mies Van Der Rohe designed cantilever chair.

As a lesser known attraction there weren’t many people around which was great, but I still had to wait ages to get the shots I wanted.The Barcelona chair, (and stool) my personal favourite in chair design history. This chair was designed specifically for the pavilion in 1929 by Mies Van Der Rohe in collaboration with another designer, Lilly Reich.We spent longer than expected at the pavilion and in the shop! After we left we thought we might try and find the Olympic Telecommunications tower (or the white sculpture thingy as I had been referring to it). As we came out of the station I saw it on the skyline and it’s something that had previously caught my eye, not only that I was sure that I had seen it in the 1001 building book.

We walked further and further and further up the hill. As I finally saw it in full view I decided that it could not be that far away and I’d come this far… there was no going back now. I also hoped/dreamed that there would be a cafe up here. I was wrong!!!We made it to the sculpture and we walked around the olympic park areaBy the sweetest of coincidences we then found a shack with a few chairs so we were able to sit and have some water and an ice cream.I found this bell (next to the ice cream shack) quite interesting.

I have since found out that not only is the telecommunications tower in the book but It was designed by a famous architect, Santiago Calatrava. Calatrava is an architect that I learnt about at university. I have seen many pictures and am very interested in his work.What is also very interesting about his tower is its fan shaped white base.It didn’t occur to me at the time what its purpose was or why it was there. I have since found out from the book ‘1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die’ that Calatrava designed this base using the ‘Trencadis’ approach (a technique developed by Gaudi) with white mosaic tiles to pay homage to work of Gaudi.

I found this incredibly moving, what better way to reflect the city than with a beautiful contemporary monument but with the added tribute to the city’s architectural and Catalonian born master Antoni Gaudi.

On our way back down the hill after failing to flag a taxi down we followed signs to a metro station and came across an escalator….…. And anotherUntil we end up hereWhich is actually here!And there is another escalator (look to the right hand side, by the trees) right down to the bottom. why walk up a hill/ mountain (Mount Montjuic) when you can get an escalator! Hindsight is a Wonderful thing!

Some more pictures and details from this lovely area.

The rest of our afternoon was spent back in the Gothic Quarter.

A few more samples of what the gothic quarter has to offer.

We went back to our hotel early today to have a little rest before going out again this evening on a trip to another mountain.

This is it (as seen from near our hotel)We got a taxi up to Tibidabo, (which was surprisingly cheap). When we got up there there was snow on the ground, I know it’s high up but I didn’t realise it was that high up. It was a beautiful and hot sunny day in the city!

Although very chilly it was worth it to see the cathedral, (the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) and to get some great views of the city.

          Another highly detailed, beautiful cathedral.

Stunning view of the city.Doesn’t look like such a big hill now!I thought I could get to this observatory, looked quite close, I can see now it’s miles away.And of course I can never resist the urge to take a picture of my fav!

Well that’s it for another day but I have to say I’m very impressed by what we have achieved. Two mountains and two buildings from the book. Great day.