I had been awake since 4 a.m. due to the jet lag. So when 6 a.m. rolls around I was happy to go ahead and get up and get ready for the 7:30 a.m. breakfast. I felt as though I need to eat and run since I had a 9 a.m. entrance time to the Sagrada Familia. Breakfast was downstairs in the basement. The lady were attending to the breakfast was still putting out items. I filled a bowl with chocolate Cocoa Puffs and looked for the machine to put milk on my cereal. As I started eating I noticed that the milk had turned into chocolate milk due to the Cocoa Puffs.

As usual there was the cold cuts and cheese and white bread so that I can make myself a sandwich. I’m not sure what the correct way of eating these cold cuts either by themselves or on a bread. However I did the way that I wanted to eat it and made a sandwich for myself. I also posted some bread on a conveyor toaster oven and put strawberry jelly on it. It would be very unusual to see any type of grape jelly in Europe has most all grapes are used in the winemaking process. Instead you see strawberry and Peach jelly for toast.

I caught the subway direct to the Sagrada Familia stop. Ever so often when I’m in Europe I have one of those epiphany moments where it dawns on me that I’m in a foreign country whenever I see an iconic building. I had it before whenever I was in Berlin and saw the Brandenburg gate. I also had it whenever I saw the Colosseum in Rome. And just like when I saw Big Ben in London as I was coming off of the subway so was the same reaction whenever I saw the Sagrada Familia as I came up the Subway’s escalator.

It was old and massive. I stood in awe of it. I took some photos and also took advantage of the neighborhood’s Wi-Fi signal and posted some pictures to social media. I was still very early for my appointment. It was only about 8:15 and the church did not even open until 9 a.m.

There was really no activity the front of the church. I saw signs pointing to the ticket office so I decided to walk around to make sure I was at the right entrance. That lady at the ticket boots said that I could use my Pro online purchase ticket to get in at the designated time of 9 a.m. whenever I buy tickets ahead of time I’m always apprehensive about being there at the designated time and bypassing the line to get in. after some more picture taking presented my ticket to the workers checking the tickets. They let me through the roped-off Section to get in. There’s a security guy checking bags as we went in. We queued up at the stairs.

I noticed it’s this insurance it seemed to proclaim the nativity scene with Joseph Mary and Jesus and the wise men. It was very intricate. You could tell that this portion of the building was much older than the newer letter portion of the building.

At around 9 a.m. we were allowed to go in. I mistakenly follow the crowd to get the audio guide which I have not purchased. Instead I decided to take group tour at 9:30 a.m. I usually don’t enjoy audio guides because they seem less personal than real life guide.

Within the church it has quite a few stained glass. If you look carefully one side is very green on the other side has more warm colors such as orange and red. The blues and greens on the Nativity side Proclaim life such as the green of plants and the blue of water.

On the opposite side of the Nativity side is the passion side which represents Jesus’s death on the cross. The pillars of the church are designed to look like palm trees. There’s so many of them one would think that it is a forest. Our tour guide pointed out that the palm tree leaves were used on Palm Sunday. During the time that the church was built churches were to represent life to those who had much less material blessings. It was the stained glass that drew people to the church building.

I was surprised to see how contemporary the stained glass was. Most the time stained glass within European churches are pretty old.

It’s at this point that I began to wonder about all the money that has been spent on this particular Cathedral and whether or not this was good use of funds meant to serve God. The Church was so big and massive that one could only think is it too big? I grew up in the Church of Christ whose churches are not all that special and even a bit drab. And I’ve always been told not to spend too much on material blessings and instead keep my treasure in spiritual blessings. And sometimes I think that the Catholic Church puts too much emphasis on ornate Cathedrals without necessarily thinking about better ways to spend the money. Even the Sagrada Familia is temporal. One day it will burn up like the rest of the Earth. So why not use the money intended to make such an ornate Church into helping the poor and getting others to respond to the gospel? Certainly a church this big would probably draw in people to become Christians but I am not sure how deep their faith is when something temporal like a cathedral draws someone in.

As mentioned before opposite the Nativity entrance is the passion entrance. The sculptures and statues on that side we’re in somewhat of a block or cubism format. Everything looks so blunt and harsh format. Everything looks so blunt and harsh. But maybe that’s how it was meant to be showing something so terrible like the cruise affection of Jesus has been rough brush and blunt.

I saw depictions of The Last Supper, the denial of Peter, and the presentation of Jesus by Pontius Pilate. At the top of the sculpture shows Jesus on the crucifix naked. This is unusual in that most all the depictions of Jesus on the cross show him clothed with a loincloth.

I am getting little bit ahead of myself as most all of the description and a few paragraphs above were given by our tour guide named Oliver. I had waited a while at the inside of the church instead the tour actually started on the outside of the church. When the tour started we were given headphones well our tour guide spoke the headset microphone. It turned out really well as no matter where you were in the group you could always here with the tour guide said.

Oliver was good. He made jokes about the sculptures claimbing one was Darth Vader. He said Catalans had a unique sense of humor much like the British.

The biggest entrance of the church is not complete. It is called The Glory entrance and will feature Jesus’s resurrection.

The church is said to be completed in 2026 the 100 year anniversary of Antoni Gaudi’s death. The church will feature a huge Tower with a cross atop it. It will serve as a lighthouse to those coming in on cruise ships and the airplane to be able to see the church for many miles away. Oliver was kind enough to invite us back in 2026 when the church was completed. I would imagine in the year 2026 Barcelona will experience an increase tourists that year.

During the Spanish Civil War Gaudi’s plans for the church were destroyed. It also made plaster sculptures which were also destroyed or at least broken into several pieces. Therefore in some ways the church was designed based on some drawings left behind by Gaudi.  our tour guide mentioned that a Japanese sculpture had taken over much of the design of the church after Guadi’s passing. This Japanese sculpturer had been Buddhist but had since converted to Christianity. I thought it was just as well to have Ave Christian design one of the greatest churches on Earth rather than a Buddhist.

It was around 11 a.m. and I decided that it would be best to find the tour group office that was giving me a tour of France and Andorra tomorrow. The instructions on my reservation said to call the tour group the day before. However my hotel room is so sparse there is not actually a phone in my room nor one in the lobby.

I took the subway to what I thought was the office of the tour group. I was wrong and spit a few extra minutes trying to find a non-existent or group company.

Barcelona boast of having free Wi-Fi available but the service is somewhat spotty and can be difficult to get online. In this situation I could have used it  promptly. I finally made it over to the tour company at around noon. They gave me instructions and reminded me to bring my passport. I probably would have forgotten it had they not reminded me. I guess they need it in order to verify identity and we might actually go through some sort of Customs when we hit France or Andorra.

It was about 12:30 and I really needed to try and find lunch before heading off to Park Guell. A Google map that showed there was a Burger King nearby which I headed straight to. I ended up getting the Numero Uno Whopper meal. The server gave me a very large cup for my drink. I was glad that the fountain drinks were available on the outside which meant free refills an abnormality within Europe.

I ate and ran. Not sure how exactly I was to get to Park Guell I wandered around Barcelona looking for a free Wi-Fi signal. I finally found one which help me navigate VIA Google Maps. Google Maps showed that I needed to ride the subway to a particular stop and then get off and ride a bus to another stop. I can do Subway navigation fairly easily but buses are hit-and-miss. I rode the subway to the appropriate stop and got out and looked for the bus stop. It was supposed to be bus 116. I finally figured it out and got on the correct bus. It was another 11 stops ahead of me but eventually I made it up to the park and got dropped off right in front of it. It was only 1:15 and my ticket was good for 2 p.m. I did find where the entrance for the park was. I did verify with the young lady at the entrance that this was where I should be at 2 p.m. I spent the rest of the time walking up to the non roped-off area of the Park. It was pretty sparse. There were vendors selling cheap trinkets and musicians playing for spare change. During one memorable exchange one lady’s dog was nosing around in a musicians stuff. The musicians stop playing long enough to complain in Catalan to the owner of the dog.
By this time my phone’s battery was running low so I decided to cut it off and go based on what I felt the time was whenever it was time to queue up to enter the monument Zone at 2 p.m.

The monument Zone basically has two buildings I’m in somewhat of a gingerbread Style. One of the buildings as a museum and the other is a gift shop. 

Park Guell is somewhat of an iconic place due to these gingerbread buildings. And it’s a ballet of selfies. I haven’t seen this much charge to film selfies since the Sears Tower in 2013. Him from looking at the way these people are taking selfies I really wonder about the quality of selfies. Selfie sticks Lauren Hunt numbers at this location. I had to wait my turn just like everyone else but did manage to get some good shots.

I wandered around the monument area before exiting and going to see the rest of the park. The rest of the park is nothing to write home about. In fact it’s pretty sparse. On one of the Palm leaves I noticed people had been carving their initials. Who actually even wants to carve their initials on a plant leaf?

After a while I began to grow weary and decided to head back to the hotel. There were signs indicating where the next subway stop was. I would have tried to catch the bus but the park’s Wi-Fi signal was not all that great and therefore I could not get a good enough signal to administer a Google map search.

So I walked down hill browsing through the numerous souvenir stands along the way. One shop worker was very responsive to my inquiries and I ended up buying a couple of Christmas ornaments from him. I also bought a patch which is an ongoing tradition of mine. Ever since I stayed in Germany in 2010 I tried to buy patches for each of the Cities that I visit.

I stumbled upon a Subway restaurant and decided it would be a good time to eat supper. Even though I had Subway for lunch the day before this particular time it was quick, easy and convenient.

At this point I faced an ongoing problem. It was not being able to secure a Wi-Fi signal to try and find my way back home. I did eventually find a metro station and followed the maps to get to my destination. On my way back I bought a chocolate muffin for a evening snack.

Tomorrow be a bit less stressful as I am taking a tour of  Baga, Spain, Mont-Louis, France, and Andorra de Ville. Being on his horror means that I don’t have to think and rush in order to get to a particular Monument of particular time period the only thing I have to worry about is being back to the bus when it departs.