Barcelona D4

Park Guell

Entrance to Park Guell

Catalan Vault or adhering tiles is a traditional technique of construction using several layers of tiles, and shows great flexibility for adopting a variety of forms

There is a fountain in the form of a snake's head, then the very brightly coloured dragon. At the upper part, there is a tripod that appears to be formed by 3 snakes, in front of a circular bench that offers a fine perspective of the whole.
Indeed an impressive entrance..

gotta take more photos of it...

Close up with the dragon...

Hypostyle Room
Covered space which could serve as a market for the estate
The ceiling is formed of small domes

Austria Gardens
This was one of the zones of the residential estate that was meant to be divided into plots of houses but was instead occupied by a municipal plant nursery when Barcelona City council opened the park to the public in 1926.

At the bench at Nature Square
The space here is meant for holding open air shows.
This square is partly dug into the mountain and partly held up by the Hypostyle Room.
The undulating bench that we are sitting on runs around it

Trencadis is a decorative system that was much loved by Gaudi
It involved cladding the surfaces with small pieces of broken tiles.

Portico of the Washerwoman
Gaudi resolved the dialogue between architecture and nature in a dramatic and exceptional manner
I would love to have a resort  built to be like nature
In fact, the birds love the place... with many holes designed for them to rest

The Portico of the Washerwoman ends in a spiral ramp with helicodal columns showing great formal boldness
The layout of the whole creates a very elegant dual height structure, merging the upper and lower balconies.

The impressive dual height structure

The porter's lodge
With everything very typical of Gaudi's style

The porter's lodge which now houses the souvenir shop

Finished touring Park Guell faster than expected
Hence we had time to sit down and enjoy coffee
Again.. it is great to sit down and watch the world goes by..

One last shot of the place before leaving
Gaudi never fails to amaze us..
Never gonna find such a talent every again..
And how one man can cause so much influence that years after he died, one of the good reasons pple Barcelona is to appreciate his work!!

Randomly chose a restaurant far from the tourist area
And ended up with really good food

Daddy's lasagna

 

Very satisfying indeed!
And this also taught us to buy souvenirs from the shop furthest from the main tourist spot
And indeed we bought quite a few things at a great discounted price!

Randomly walked around to look for Picasso museum
But ended up lost in streets with great shops!
Found good shops (non branded) selling great leather products

Picasso Museum

Daddy really like this work of Picasso
But I am not sure what the art therapist would think of it
Somehow does not make me feel comfortable

Passed up a church and witnessed a wedding

Explored more of the area and was trying to control ourselves not to buy too many things as we still need to lug our luggages to Venice

Another celebration going on

"pasar malam"

This is one of the best days ever.. with great shopping
It is great to get lost sometimes and end up in one of the greatest area ever!
A mixture of Gaudi's architecture, art and shopping, it cannot get better!
And as we walked and walked, we did not realize that we actually ended up back in Catalunya
Just nice.. and we took the metro back to hotel...