Sagrada Familia, Sant Pau and Park Guell

 On Friday, September 16th, we took the 8:11 fast train to Barcelona Sants.  We had trouble with the machines getting a pair of T-Casual transit cards, but eventually got them from the booth, and eventually figured our way to the train to Plaça Catalunya.  Our hotel room, at Room Mate Pau, half a block away, on the same block as the El Corte Inglés department store, was not yet ready, and probably wouldn't be until 2 p.m..  Since we had timed reservations for Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, this meant that we wouldn't be able to get into the room before around 6:00.  So, we left our luggage there and went out to explore the city.  

First, was breakfast, at the cafeteria on the ninth floor of El Corte Inglés.  This was a gourmet cafeteria, with a view.

 

We walked up to the Passeig de Gracia metro station and took the Blue line to Sagrada Familia.  According to Wikipedia:

"The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, is a church in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and is currently the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, his work on Sagrada Família is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site."

This would be my third visit to Sagrada Familia and Mary Joy's second.  Although still a building zone, it is much closer to completion than it was when we were last there, in 2005.  The ceiling is in place and it actually functions as a working church.  

We had bought tickets online for the 12:15 English-language tour, and got there by noon to go through security, during which I misplaced Mary Joy's ticket, leading to a frantic, if ultimately successful online search.

At 1:45, we were in line for our Tower Tour.  We went up the elevator in the Nativity Tower, walked up a little higher, then came down all the stairs to the ground floor.  The staircase was a narrow spiral, much of it in darkness.

We visited the museum in the crypt, then went for a late lunch (sandwiches) on the street outside of the nearby Enrique Tomás Jamonería.  Then, we walked to the Recinte Modernista Sant Pau, a former hospital campus, designed by Lluis Domènech i Montaner.

We had an online ticket for Park Guell, the Gaudi-designed housing development that didn't pan out.  The best way to get there, it seemed, was to take a taxi.  There is a website showing the location of Barcelona taxi stands.  I had checked out a number of them in the vicinity on Google Street View, and, indeed, they all had Taxi street signs with black-and-orange Barcelona cabs parked in front of them.  I found the nearest stand, and lo and behold, there was a taxi ready to go!  So, we went.

Park Guell, like Sant Pau, was unusual, but not exciting.  Having seen each of them once, I wouldn't bother seeing either again (unlike Sagrada Familia!).

We took a taxi from the stand below the park and finally got into our room at Room Mate Pau.

We had a reservation for dinner at Virens, a restaurant with a classy dining room and unusual food.  I had the Menu Gastrobotánico, which was vegetarian, good, and a little bizarre.