Sienna Moonfire Designs

We really didn't have enough time for Barcelona. We stayed for only two nights, but it's okay - we could have spent the whole month there & still missed a lot. We concentrated on Gaudí & I'm going to try not to go on & on about how incredibly fantastic his work is, but instead let the pictures speak for him.

We rushed through the Parc Güell as the sun set on our last day in Barcelona. I didn't want to leave. I can't remember the last time I didn't want to leave a city after spending a few days there.

Just after I stood on the bench to get the oft-taken picture on the right, the girl hiding behind her boyfriend stood up & ruined it. He told her & she immediately became as small as she could - it was hard for me to keep her in the picture, but I had to. One nice thing about a city is that you can blend in easily even with a camera -- they are clearly used to tourists clicking away at their unique surroundings.

There should be more here. Two pages of Barcelona & I haven't even mentioned Gaudí's masterpiece, the unfinished cathedral: La Sagrada Familia.

One of the cathedral's entrances shows an ornate Nativity with more animals than there were on the scene, with columns on the backs of tortoises, lizards perching on corners, as well as the ox & ass in their position of honor. The other entrance shows a much more simply styled, yet more intricately felt Passion sequence. I was out of film when I looked that one over so the only pictures are in my mind.

Gaudí thought of the tree outside of his workshop window as his master. His work is positively inspired. Living on the West Coast, where even more than most places in the States -- let alone Europe -- the buildings seem to come out of boxes, I am no architecture buff. A few more like Gaudí, supported by such beautiful cities as Barcelona, would make me a believer fast.

Like I said, you'll just have to go.