We left the campground early to catch the bus to Barcelona. We had tickets to go up one of the spires at the Sagrada Familia, a church I first read about in the National Geographic. Gaudi, the architect, was fascinated by the the structures of nature, and designed buildings, parks and this church based on their design. Gaudi knew he wouldn't live to see the church finished, in fact it won't be done for another 50 years.

The outside of the church is unrefined and has a rough clay like appearance. When you get closer all the details become obvious. Darius and I thought it looked smaller than we expected, Tim noticed the colorful mosaic fruits on the mini spires, Belia saw Jesus on the cross, the entire passion facade caught Brennin's eye, and Mariah was distracted by all the construction and thought it took away from the church. There are cranes all over and workers suspended from the building. The base of a new spire is being constructed. Close up we noticed sculpted turtles, hens and chicks and other animals. The figures in the nativity and passion facades are smooth boxy stone carvings. Even without being carved in detail the figures communicate emotion.

We went to the elevator to go up one of the spires. The spire itself is 110 meters, and we got off the elevator into the spire at about 80 meters. We looked out from openings in the spire, and in some places you could stand on a mini balcony (big enough for two people), seeing a sea of red and yellow Barcelona apartment buildings. Tim said it was very "inspiring" lol. Darius though it was cool that he could just barely fit his head out through part of the balcony holes, of course we didn't think it was cool, imagining him stuck in the Sagrada Familia needing to be chiseled out, or remain there as a new decoration! We walked down a narrow spiral staircase with openings to the outside, and one small opening in the middle of the staircase where you could look all the way down. Belia was freaked out by the staircase so we did a lot of encouraging. We crossed an enclosed bridge from one spire to the other, and kept descending. One of the best parts of the view was seeing details on the church up close. Mariah saw the word Gloria. I could see the colorful fruit, as well as white doves with green olive branches.

Inside the church is surprising because it doesn't match the style of the exterior. Another surprise is that the inside looks much bigger than we expected. Massive tree trunk columns, made of white polished stone, tower high meeting the ceiling in bloom; floral structures are at the top of each column. Natural light streams in through stain glass windows making bursts of color. Choir seating is up high close to the stain glass windows, lining both sides of the church. The altar is unusual, above it a colorful umbrella hangs from the roof with a crucifix suspended below it. To me the outside seems to reflect humanity and the inside God, a completely unique space.

We crossed the street to have lunch in a park. The trees were umbrella shaped with purple blooms. A street performer making gigantic bubbles caught the kids attention. We watched for a bit but everyone was getting hungry and tired. We ate, and then made our way to the underground to find Park Guëll.

The underground map seemed simple compared to London and Paris, but we found it funny that we had to walk through endless tunnels to get to the right train - it felt like we walked half way to where we were going.

Popping out of the underground we could see that the streets were on an incline. With the heat the kids were tired and wanted to know how much further. Not a good thing because we had a ways to go. We kept climbing the narrow streets, piggy backing Belia, until we saw escalators in the middle of the street. We rode a few escalators, then there were a few flights of stairs, then escalators again. This went on for a while till we reached the summit and entered the park. This part of the park was paths and green trees, not a lot different than any other park, we were wondering if walking in the heat was worth it. After stopping for a rest we followed the sound of a music band playing nearby. The band, microguagua, was a lot of fun! Chello, trombone, guitar, drum and cymbol; it sounded like Spanish Regge and the musicians had a lot of charisma. They had everyone grooving. We bought their CD and moved on feeling lighter on our feet. The park quickly became interesting. Gaudi's designs reminded us of Dr.Suess. His bridges twist and lean, underneath are seats built into the chunky rock pillars. From under the bridge we had views of the garden. On top of the bridge we could see over the garden into Barcelona.

A path lead us to Gaudi's house, a pink wavy gingerbread looking place. It was originally his show home, for a community he designed, that failed - not enough people were interested in it. Funny because today people come from all over to see his homes. Further down two more of the quirky houses stand with gift shops inside. People hang out the windows on the second floor getting their pictures taken. It's a great place to explore.

We walked back down the street, much easier going down than up. The kids pointed out a Gaudi 4D experience theatre. We went in and watched a 20 minute 4D show based on where Gaudi got his inspirations from. We had on 3D glasses, our chairs moved, and mist sprayed out at us. Darius loved Gaudi's imagination, especially the way he incorporated dragons into his architecture.

From the underground we went to the Rumbla, a street with restaurants and shops down the middle as far as you can see. We sat down for some tapas, but they were not as generous with their portions as the restaurant at our campground.

We walked until we reached the marina finding a market. Brennin was interested in the WW2 relics, and Tim and I had our eye on some enamels (Tim's grandpa use to make enamel art and it is a tedious process, difficult and requires a kiln.). The lady selling them was great to talk to, she told us a lot about the artists, making the piece we were looking at that much more interesting. We couldn't decide and ended up leaving without it. We were disappointed to leave because the atmosphere was so nice, but the last bus to the campground was leaving soon, so we rushed to meet the bus.

At home we played a game of cards, and then called it a day.