Tuesday - Overcast

My phone woke us up this morning, it was the bank. They weren't calling in regards to my broken log in device. It was fraud detection, they were calling to see if it was me using my debit card overseas. It was good of them to call me for once. They usually don't call you at all, they just put the card on hold, until you make the expensive call to them and answer a bunch of questions.

The bank has done this a number of time to Kim and I while traveling over here. Kim's card just got cancelled last week! We even gave the bank a list of all countries and the dates that we will be in each country, but they still cancelled the card! Last time they screwed with my card I was in Egypt, and I absolutely lost my s*** with the bank. I told them never to cancel the card before they pick up the phone and give ME a call first! That seemed to of worked. A bank actually listened! I think they are doing the right thing with monitoring all the transactions and looking for anything suspicious, but don't just cancel the card without trying to contact the owner first! Crickey!

Once I finished with the fraud agency I asked to be transferred to someone who could help me with my other matter that was discovered yesterday.

Once all that annoying stuff was sorted, we got a knock on the door by a hostel worker. She suggested that we move to a bigger room. The room we were currently in had bunk beds, which I thought was fun, it felt like Kim and I were best mates having a sleep over. the new room has nice garden view window which offered much better ventilation.

We put our bags in the new room and then hit the streets, looking for a specific type of ATM that is able to print out certain event tickets. We had pre purchased tickets to go inside Sagrada Familia and to climb one of church's towers.

We had some trouble with the ATMs actually, we walked around to a few and for some reason we couldn't get any of them to work, but we could see that weren't the only people having trouble. We ended up just going to the church's ticket office to get our tickets, no problem there.

We walked around the church and sat down in one of the parks looking back up at the strange wondrous building for awhile. After 131 years it's still currently under heavy construction, there are cranes and scaffolding setup with lots of hammering and grinding going on. All the construction work that was going on still didn't affect us visualising what the crazy finished product will be. It also made me slightly jealous!

One year after construction started in 1882 Antoni Gaudi (a very influential Modernisme architect, who has seven of his works declared a World Heritage sites) became involved and gave it plenty of the strange gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms that are visible today and is what he was all about.

Gaudi devoted his last years to the project, and until he was struck down by a tram in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete.

After Gaudi's death Sagrada Familia's construction progressed slowed. It relied solely on private donations and also was interrupted in 1936 when parts of the unfinished basilica, Gaudi's models and workshop were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War by anarchists.

Construction only passed its midpoint in 2010 and is estimated to be complete in 2026, 100 years after Gaudi's death. The present design is based on reconstructed versions of the plans that were burned. The original design calls for a total of 18 spires, representing the 12 Apostles, the 4 Evangelists (writers of the 4 gospels), the Virgin Mary and, tallest spire Jesus Christ. So far 8 spires have been built, and a giant cross on the central spire is going to have a total height of 170m! So when the church is finally completed, it will be the tallest church the world!

The Church will have three grand facades. The Nativity facade to the East, the Passion facade to the West, and the Glory facade to the South (currently in construction, since 02).

The Nativity Facade was built before work was interrupted in 1936 and represents the birth of Jesus and definitely shows Gaudi's influence. The Passion facade was the first facade we came across and is very unique, with its straight lines and its bareness compared to the Nativity facade. Its not completely bare, there are a few alien like characters, including a dangly figure of Jesus on the crucifix. The Glory facade, will be the main entry and the largest of the three. It will represent the journey to God and also show various scenes and elements such as Hell, Purgatory, Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Heavenly Virtues.

Told you its impressive! We soon headed inside the huge church for a look on the inside. Holy moly the inside of the church is just a crazy as the outside! I've never seen anything like it before, it's certainly a very different looking church!

Besides being overwhelmed by the sheer size of the inside, my eyes couldn't stop following the spider web of arches and columns branching out supporting their loads. Its like there isn't a flat surface in the joint.

I read that the simplest way to explain whats going on on the inside is you start with square base column which evolves into an octagon as it rises, then a sixteen sided column, then to a circle, which continues to rise up and branches off into a ceiling full of domes. Mental! It must be so hard to concentrate and stop looking around at the ever changing surfaces, countless intersections of different shapes and forms during mass, and not to mention all the stained glass!

Our tickets included a trip up one of the towers, but not to the crypt below. Which tower you go up is chosen for you at random apparently. We got to go up the passion tower, which was ok, but I would recommend trying to go up the nativity tower, I think the view of the city would be better.

After our visit to the church, we went and bought some lunch to have in a park on our way down to the beach. We used a map to find the park, and followed the roads down towards a building that looks like a colourful version to the gherkin in London.

However when we arrived to what looked like a park on the map it turned out not to be a park, but an auditorium and the national theatre. We ended up eating out the front of the theatre, on the grass in the shade underneath some olive trees.

After a good rest we continued towards the beach. Walking through the 1992 olympic village then arriving at port olympic on the northern end of the main beach strip.

There were a few surfers out today, but the swell was hardly worth getting the board out of the car for. We walked along the beach and had a nice break on some rocks while the sun was out. We then walked to the end of the beach up past the big hotel on the point, for another break.

The walk around port Vell and along the boardwalk was nice. We passed the Columbus monument, then up La Rambla. Which is a tree lined pedestrian mall that stretches for 1.2kms. The strip is full off shops and restaurants, as well as heaps of really cool street performers. All the narrow side streets are part of the Gothic quarter, which has many of Barcelona's other fascinating sights.

However the other sights will have to wait for another day, because after 9hrs of strolling around town we were spent. We got to the end of the touristy strip and then headed home, but not before a quick pit stop at a shop for some dinner.