Barcelona - Sagrada Familia Basilica

Staying another few days to make sure we saw the inside of the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family, I believe) was such a good decision.  We missed our first chance when we bought tickets to enter during a strike and found all entrances to the Sagrada closed due to a sit-in.  Our accommodations noware not as nice as we had before (unfortunately, the Spain smell is back in force with this apartment), but the Sagrada Familia makes it all worthwhile.  This is the Catholic cathedral that Antoni Gaudi designed and did not live to see completed.  In fact, many of us will not live to see it completed, either.  Construction began in 1882 in the Eixample (ee-shampla) neighborhood, the working class extension of the city that connected Barcelona with some of the surrounding villages.  Gaudi was working with the original designer, but had to take over the project in 1883 when the designer died suddenly.  Gaudi significantly influenced the construction of this building until 1926 when he died after being hit by a tram in Barcelona.  Construction was expected to be completed in 2026, but we shall see.

Here is a pale imitation of what I saw yesterday.

The setting sun side

Then, the sun started to set and the light came through the stained glass and reflected splashes of the rainbow over every surface, including us.

Setting sun side

Morning sun side

Selfies just didn't seem to catch the colour; probably the angle

Then, after the sun was almost down, the alter (where the crucifix is hanging from a strange parachute arrangement) is the place of calm and focus.  The colours that Gaudi chose for the setting sun side of the sanctuary were red and yellow at the back and purple and blue toward the altar.  On the rising sun side, he had all the calm colours: green, blue, aqua.  The mornings must be another, soothing kind of colour experience.  But, afternoons, you went from fire and brimstone to calm and focused.  I'm really no Christian, but it is a moving and exhilarating experience and you must be there to feel it.  These photos don't do it justice.  I'm so glad we went.

Afterward, we walked out into the last rays of the sunset.

It was magical and I will never, ever forget it.  Now, we have one more day (well most of a day because I sat in bed and posted on my blog).  We'll do errands and see what we can.  Then, we fly out to Malta (where the Warm is) tomorrow morning at 11:45am on Veuling Airlines.  There are cheap flights available in Europe to Europe, but we are nervous.  That last EasyJet flight to Madrid did a wing wobble thing as we landed that made us both feel a little insecure.  I hope this one will be better.