Weekend Trip: Barcelona

When we first thought about living in Spain, we thought it would be in Barcelona. On many top-10 lists of world cities, Barcelona is beautiful, clean, full of history, character and modern amenities, and has gorgeous ocean, mountains and tons of character. We only decided against living there when we discovered that the local language is Catalan! As of a few years ago, public school is taught in 100% Catalan, with Spanish as a second language, so that was a deal-breaker for our family. We were excited to squeeze in a weekend there as our last hoorah in Spain.

We read a children's book about Antoní Gaudí and the Modernism movement of the early 20th Century. Gaudí was a devout Catholic, and believed the the highest Artistic expression was found in copying Nature.

I had really looked forward to visiting Gaudí's Basilica de la Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family), after reading about Gaudí's life and works, and seeing Erik's parents' videos of their time in Spain. The outside of the basilica looks in places like drippy sand art. Our tour guide Cristina was wonderful at describing the stories behind the structure, and after a few minutes walking slowly around the exterior and studying the sculptures carefully I felt like I began to really love it.

I immediately loved the interior. Especially after thinking and writing so much about cathedrals last week, I was in a place where I could really feel Gaudí's departure from the past and his own unique vision of what God's house should look like. When I saw the simple, modern statue of Christ in the middle, surrounded by lights representing the Holy Spirit, I was very touched.

Whereas older cathedrals are dark, this one is filled with light. The columns are tree trunks, branching above into canopies and skylights and rainbow colored stained glass. The whole building looks clean and bright and organic. "The straight line is of Man; the curved line is of God," said Gaudí. 

The front door is a beautiful Lord's Prayer in Catalan, with the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread" in many other languages in the background

I loved these beautiful rainbow windows, which projected cheerfully onto the white pillars

After the cathedral we explored the Christmas markets

And learned about a Catalunyan Christmas tradition: a friendly log is brought home and painted with a face. The children cover him with a blanket and keep him warm and leave cookies out for him at night, which he eats while they're asleep. Then on Christmas morning, the children find a pile of candy waiting for him... right under his back end, from which he has produced them. Charming.

The Spanish Arc d'Triomphe

We had not yet seen any Picasso, and Barcelona houses the biggest Picasso collection. He attended school and lived much of his life in Barcelona.

Catalan is similar enough to Spanish to be understood most of the time, but sounds very very different - softer and Frenchy sounding (the French border is just a couple of hours away)

Yummy foods everywhere

We were talking about the log producing the Christmas candy for Catalunyan children, and about Spanish children receiving  gifts not from Santa but from the Three Kings in January... and suddenly Lucy's mind started churning and it sparked a deep, detailed conversation about Santa Claus. We decided to take a picture of the moment - it was a pretty memorable setting to have this conversation. 

Another Christmas tradition: a Moor spitting candy out of his mouth. You think your kids are scared of the Santa at the mall!!

These log characters are everywhere!

Walking tour through the Gothic Neighborhood - the wall of the cathedral uses the ancient Roman wall and aqueduct

An ancient town square, pock-marked by bomb shrapnel from the Spanish Civil War in 1936. One of the buildings demolished on this square was an orphanage.

The beautiful, amazingly-preserved streets

I got to see another Medieval Synagogue!

The oldest artifacts in Barcelona - workers were digging to build an apartment building, and they happened upon these 2,000 year old columns from a Roman temple.

The inscription at the base of the colunn

Lindsay and Lucy rubbing the good-luck turtle

The Picasso Museum is house inside a Medieval palace - 13th Century princesses walked up and down these stairs

The circles under their feet are holes dug in the floor during Roman times to keep food cold

Sophie and Stone weren't in any of the pictures because they begged to stay home with the Koh family. Our dear sweet friend Ana and her daughter Carolina took care of them - they said it was one of the funnest weekends of the whole trip. (We came home to find gingerbread houses they had made together).

And now, Wednesday night, Erik and I are packing the last socks and pens and nailclippers into our suitcases to prepare for our flight to London tomorrow. Time to say "Adios" to Spain. We can't believe it!