La Sagrada Familia - Barcelona

I don't even know where to start with the Sagrada Familia.  I knew we had to go if we were in Barcelona, and I remember sitting in art history class learning about it for hours but I'll just say my excitement for it was nothing compared to the Picasso Museum.  I have to say it was one of the top experiences of our trip to Spain.  I was completely speechless when I walked in, Gaudi really out did himself on this one and I will forever be inspired by it.  I had only seen a few photos of the inside online here and there but being there in person really made such a big impact on me.  I can keep going on and on about it, but I'll just say it was up there with the Taj Mahal, both were kind of "overkill tourist sites" in my mind but when you see them in person you're speechless and in complete awe. 

Continue for lots and lots of more photos!!  :)

I'm not much of an audio tour person, my ADD gets the better of me and I lose interest within the first .5 seconds of it but with the Sagrada Familia I say it's a must! I learned so much and my appreciation for Gaudi's design multiplied by a million while listening to it.  There is a reason for everything in his design and it made the entire experience a lot better.

The stained glass was one of my favorite parts.  I felt it was so modern even though it was designed so long ago, nothing compared to the other cathedrals I've visited in Europe. The light it would cast against the pillars was beautiful and created more shapes throughout the cathedral. After seeing these I told Landon we need to have one in our future dream house...lol probably will never happen but I can dream.

The ceiling.  I won't spoil the interesting details about everything just in case  you go there and listen to the audio tour :)

One side of the cathedral had these warm stained glass colors and the other side had cool blues and greens.  My favorite was the yellow warm tones, Landon's favorite was the blue tones.

The entrance wall, the doors are right at the bottom of this. 

I loved the strong lines in Gaudi's design in the ceiling, no other cathedral designed in the 1880's had such a modern design.  He wanted the pillars to act as trees and the top of the ceiling to act as the leaves or foliage.

The trees are more easily seen here.

I did my research before coming and heard that you can go up one of the towers in the Sagrada Familia.  I read that the Nativity tower had more diverse views of the city so we went with that one. They only allowed 8 people up at once.  They had an elevator to go up to the top and then we descended using super narrow stairs.  Here is the entrance to the Nativity facade.

We were 164 ft up in the narrowest little tower. I usually don't mind this stuff, but since I was pregnant and I know how more clumsy I am, I was freaking out a little. I kept thinking I was going to drop my phone or camera out of the window.  

The stairway down... it was hard getting a photo when I had a trail of people waiting for me to go down.  I already was going super slow because there was nothing to hold on to but I got my photo and that's all that matters! 

The view looking up once we reached the bottom.  And again, I waited until I couldn't see anyone and had people waiting behind me. The things you don't know behind the photo!

Wide angle lover selfie!

So there was a museum attached showing the design behind it all and what they are still creating to finish the building.  I decided to save all those photos for me to remember because they're boring but this was pretty intense. Gaudi suspended strings with attached sand bags and used gravity to create the design he wanted with the curves and lines. He then installed a mirror above it so that he could see what it looked like standing upright. I know I didn't describe this good, it's some kind of architectural technique he created but I don't remember the name...and I know nothing about architecture... But I just want to show how genius he was.

Across the street was this murky green pond, made for fun photos but was impossible getting a spot with so many tourists!!

Reflection shot at night.

And for the iPhone shots! Half the time we don't want to mess with finding someone to take our photo and the other half of the time I don't trust anyone holding my camera so the iPhone selfies will have to do!

Overall thoughts, Sagrada Familia is a MUST!