Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Hola!

I'm loving Barcelona. It's a very pedestrian friendly city with lots of streets closed to cars. The architecture is stunning. When I was a teenager I had a boyfriend who introduced me to Antonio Gaudi - not in the flesh of course, I'm not that old - and I've wanted to go to Barcelona ever since . I've dreamed of seeing his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia . I knew it's been under construction forever but I had no idea the interior remained so undone. The target date for completion is 2030 so it's unlikely I'll ever see it finished. I enjoyed the tour of his Casa Mila much more. Like all the other gawking tourists I'm getting a stiff neck from craning to see all the interesting spires and chimneys on the rooftops.
A big surprise was the large colony of wild parrots that we've seen all over the place. They add a certain exotic touch but unfortunately they moved too quickly for me to get any pics.
Here's a little of what I've seen so far - make sure to click on them to biggify:






Do you like the dog with the mohawk? The owner had another dog that was shaved like a lion but it preferred running on the beach to posing for photos.
It's adios to Barcelona tomorrow when we travel up the coast to Banyuls in France where we've rented a house for 10 days.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:45 pm

    Really extraordinary architecture! Beautiful and sensuous.

    Bon voyage en France.

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  2. Anonymous8:40 pm

    If you go to the park next to the Sagrada Familia you'll see those quakers on the ground eating with the pigeons...

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  3. I saw them there first and then I saw many more at Park Guell.

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  4. Anonymous5:13 pm

    My wife and I speculated that the nests would span all the way across Park Guell in a few more years if somethine wasn't done.

    Word has it that Barcelona will be exterminating the poor creatures...

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  5. They've tried to pass bills in San Francisco to eradicate the parrots there and are currently trying to pass a bill banning feeding of the parrots. Have you seen the film "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill"? It's a great story about those birds. Go to http://www.markbittner.net/parrots_central.html

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