A Last Look at Barcelona...

Stretching it out a bit, I suppose, so that the feeling of being there lasts a very long time!  What a truly amazing and beautiful city--I dreamed of visiting Barcelona for many years to see Antoni Gaudi's work, but discovered so much more.  And of course, so much more to return to see!

The most well-known of Gaudi's buildings is La Sagrada Familia, the great cathedral that has been a work in progress for 131 years, being entirely built from donations...
I was so fortunate to get a free ticket to the Sunday afternoon International Mass from my hotel--I came in expecting to sit in the back to sketch, but was instead kindly ushered up to the front!  This is an indescribably moving place--a church of nature unlike anything else...

Gaudi's Park Guell is an enchanted world...a place where I could spend many days.  Musicians are playing all over the park, which adds to its magic.  I sat for a long in the shade of the rocky colonnade listening to the hypnotic sound of a "hang", which looks and sounds a bit like a Caribbean steel drum...

Gaudi lived in the house at right from 1906 to 1926, on the left is one of the delightful "gingerbread" houses at the entrance to Park Guell, sketched from the outdoor cafe...

Gaudi's Casa Batllo, sketched as day turned into night, so its iridescent beauty became even more shadowy and mysterious...































                                           



The day after the Symposium, some of my fellow sketchers and I set off at a more relaxed pace to the Parc del Laberint d'Horta--the Labyrinth Park, a historical garden with a maze, palace and pavilions--lovely!  (Made me think a bit of a more exotic Huntington Gardens...)






















And a couple of quick evening sketches...a view at dusk from Montjuic of the city below and La Sagrada Familia, and the Moorish fortress on Montjuic lit up at night...