Barcelona!
Dec. 10th, 2018 05:11 pmThe weekend before this past, the group-trip-on-a-whim to Barcelona that ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moominmolly whipped into existence happened. It was pretty great!
Whencinnabarine and I went to Barcelona a couple years ago, and missed seeing La Sagrada Familia due to misscheduling (you have to get tickets a bit in advance), I got careful coaching on what to say to pretend I'd seen it, because apparently it's such a stereotypical tourist experience there. This time, we actually got in. And... honestly, it lived up to its considerable hype. moominmolly was comparing it to the Taj Mahal, another building that is widely described as breathtakingly beautiful but (apparently-- she's been inside it, I have not) even with that description turns out in person to be much more beautiful than you could possibly have imagined.
In daylight, the inside of La Sagrada Familia looks like you're in a video game-- it has this "they're tweaking up the saturation levels on the ambient light to make everything look more stunning" thing going on. Maybe a very gay video game-- everything is in rainbow colors.
It also has in multiples an issue that I tend to have with cathedrals in general: I keep looking at the multilevel galleries and wondering what everything is for. Like, okay, that balcony is for the chorus, great, fine acoustics from there. Now, the little balconies on either side of that that are only big enough for one person at a time to stand in, who's meant to stand there, and when? Why does that person need an isolated balcony of their own? And why are there five more of them on each side, each one on a higher storey?
I think Gaudi was especially into balconies.
I was also impressed that underneath the grand chapel is a cavern the size of an entire church building, with another chapel inside it. Seemed very Lovecraftian somehow.
The rest of the city was also cool. :) Food in Barcelona is both excellent and inexpensive, and we spent at least one day just wandering the city, stopping to eat every couple of hours. Next door to our hotel was an adorable bakery/coffee shop which everyone in the neighborhood seemed to stop in at on their way to work, and they carried meringues bigger than my fist. Yum.
moominmolly whipped into existence happened. It was pretty great!When
cinnabarine and I went to Barcelona a couple years ago, and missed seeing La Sagrada Familia due to misscheduling (you have to get tickets a bit in advance), I got careful coaching on what to say to pretend I'd seen it, because apparently it's such a stereotypical tourist experience there. This time, we actually got in. And... honestly, it lived up to its considerable hype. moominmolly was comparing it to the Taj Mahal, another building that is widely described as breathtakingly beautiful but (apparently-- she's been inside it, I have not) even with that description turns out in person to be much more beautiful than you could possibly have imagined.In daylight, the inside of La Sagrada Familia looks like you're in a video game-- it has this "they're tweaking up the saturation levels on the ambient light to make everything look more stunning" thing going on. Maybe a very gay video game-- everything is in rainbow colors.
It also has in multiples an issue that I tend to have with cathedrals in general: I keep looking at the multilevel galleries and wondering what everything is for. Like, okay, that balcony is for the chorus, great, fine acoustics from there. Now, the little balconies on either side of that that are only big enough for one person at a time to stand in, who's meant to stand there, and when? Why does that person need an isolated balcony of their own? And why are there five more of them on each side, each one on a higher storey?
I think Gaudi was especially into balconies.
I was also impressed that underneath the grand chapel is a cavern the size of an entire church building, with another chapel inside it. Seemed very Lovecraftian somehow.
The rest of the city was also cool. :) Food in Barcelona is both excellent and inexpensive, and we spent at least one day just wandering the city, stopping to eat every couple of hours. Next door to our hotel was an adorable bakery/coffee shop which everyone in the neighborhood seemed to stop in at on their way to work, and they carried meringues bigger than my fist. Yum.
