Highlights from our Recent Trip to Barcelona
Ok, so I am in love with Barcelona. I loved all of the Gaudi buildings, Gothic architecture and whatever the buildings are that look like the French Quarter in New Orleans (I searched google for a while and couldn’t find anything besides “Spanish Architecture”, so if you know what style it is, please tell me!) Inspiration was literally everywhere I looked. I’ve posted a few of my favorites here.
The New Orleans/Spanish Architecture – what is this called?
The Gaudi Buildings
Casa Batllo – The dining room was gorgeous! I loved the windows and the ceiling.
Major flooring inspiration in all of his buildings. I’d love to do something like this as a feature wall in someone’s shower. My version would be more structured and with larger tiles. Less frenetic.
Here is the facade of the Casa Batllo, the second floor is the dining room, which where I was standing when I took the first photo
La Pedrera – This place is nuts. The hilly rooftop was very distorting, and it didn’t help that the audioguide was playing trippy music. Gaudi grouped the chimney stacks together to form more sculptural, meaningful elements. Here is one, they look like soldier helmets.
More flooring inspiration! It would cost quite a bit to do these days, but is super cool. The wood is cut into triangular strips then placed together to form hexagonal tiles.
This vanity is pretty fancy, but is so pretty! In real life, I’d tone it down a little and use more straight lines…something that Gaudi did not do.
Casa Sagrada Familia – A church that has been under construction since 1882 and won’t be completed until 2022. Here is a photo of the light coming in through the stained glass. I love the chromatic wash on the ceiling, it was so pretty…no filter needed.
Here is a view on the roof.
Park Guell – The park is great and I learned about it in Architecture History, so was cool to see in person, but I’d skip this if you are in a pinch. I would have chosen a day trip over this, probably to Monstserrat for the landscape and the vineyards.
More flooring inspiration at Gaudi’s personal home which is located inside the park. More hexagonal tile, but this is textured. I imagine it would be hard to clean with a broom only…pretty cool nonetheless.
Palau de la Musica Catalana – we saw Tchaikovsky’s 4th here. I thought the music was going to be a little harder (I call it heavy metal symphony) but it was pretty light. I was tired from walking around all day, so I dozed off as soon as the lights were dimmed. Regardless, the building is gorgeous and it is definitely worth seeing.
Random Bits of Inspiration
I love the way the tiles are set on the wall.
The windows are framed in an interesting way
More flooring inspiration! This was in the locker area at the Picasso Museum. This could easily be done today, I wouldn’t mix the brown marble in with the black and white tho.
This staircase! So many spiral staircases in Barcelona.
We spent about 5 days there and just got back last week. This is the first time I’ve done a short trip internationally and have decided that it is ok, but it at least has to be 7 days so I have enough time for a day trip. We had lots of great food, but our favorite was definitely Llamber, which was recommended by a client. We went to a Paella cooking class too, which was a lot of fun. We met a woman that goes to south america for different companies to buy bovine tounge root. Did you know this is used in all cheeses? It gives cheese its flavor. So weird. We also met a cool family that shared their sparking rosé purchased from a vineyard in Monserrat the day before.
Also check out this guy singing near La Catedral in Barri Gotic, he is singing both parts of an opera. His voice is gorgeous.
I’d love to visit Barcelona again, and could definitely live there, but I think my next trip will either be to London or New Zealand. Have you been to BCN? I would love to hear about your trip!
