Barcelona is, from what I’ve seen, possibly Spain’s most famous city. There’s the food, the ocean, the culture and the churches.
This past weekend, the friend of one of the program’s participants visited, to introduce her to Spain, our group decided to go see the city and get a little bit of warmth.
Madrid is in full spring mode, but it can still get pretty cold, so we all agreed it was time to visit one of Spain’s warmer cities.
There’s an abundance of things to do in Barcelona, so time had to be carefully planned. Much as it was in Paris, we had to pick and choose which things we could see and those for which we would have to come back.
As I’m quickly learning, at the end of the day, there just isn’t enough time to see a whole city in two days.More reasons to come back.
But if you decide to go to the city, please, for the sake of the traveling gods, see the Sagrada Familia.
It is a cathedral, a massive, beehive-looking structure in the southern part of the city. When you walk up to it, certain parts look careworn and faded, and certain parts look brand new. That’s because it was started in 1882, according to its website, and is still under construction.
It was designed by Antoni Gaudi. His buildings, easily recognizable for their incredible detail, size and creativity, are all throughout Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia is his most impressive, but more so, in my opinion, for what is inside rather than what ?is out.
The walls of the cathedral are lighter and whiter than is typical. Massive stained glass windows line the altar and walls, and the way in which the sunlight hits them floods the 150-foot-tall inside of the church with colored light.
It is impressive what people can do with light and space. As a group of students traveling through Europe, we see more than our fair share of cathedrals and basilicas. Each one, depending on how old it is, is beautiful and detailed but dark and austere.
It was a stark break from what we have become accustomed to, and it was indicative for me of the breadth of human capability. We can construct something as serious as a medieval cathedral, and something as light as the Sagrada Familia. It’s the same task but with two very different outcomes.
Not a bad takeaway from a good weekend abroad.
ewenning@indiana.edu
