Beautiful day to catch a taxi to Park Guell. Had a guided tour of the Monument section of the Park Which covered all the history of the park and the buildings and was excellent.
Park Guell was an estate Guell asked Gaudi to create in 1900 where 60 wealthy families could live away from the pollution and disease of the city. Park Guell has roads (viaducts), extensive paths and interconnecting stairs and extensive interconnecting paths with lots of seating areas. After building 3 houses Guell realised none of the wealthy Barcelonians were interested in living isolated from the city. So, in 1922 it was sold to the City of Barcelona. In 1984 it was world heritage listed. We could see Three Crosses Hill at Barangelli in the distance.
One of the viaducts:
A viaduct from below. They were built of brick (for economics and speed) and then covered in stone to make them look more natural:
Another viaduct:
Gaudi's house from 1906 to 1926:
Entrance and Porter's Lodge
Side view of the Hypostyle Room showing the columns and underside of the Nature Square:
Entrance and Porter's Lodge
Close up of the mosaics created by smashing recycled tiles and fixing them to the curved walls:
Monumental Flight of Stairs leading to the Salamander and the Hypostyle Room showing the columns that support the Nature Square:
The salamander
The Carriage turning circle. They obviously chose the turning circle on the tiniest carriage available at the time it was designed (1900) because it is an incredibly tight turn:
Up the monumental flight of stairs is the Hypostyle Room whichis a collection of columns supporting the Nature Plaza above. The ceiling is plain white mosaic tiles and there are one of these murals for each season. This is summer - with the bright yellow, hot sun:
The Portico of the Washer Woman. Those little sinks on the right hand side are where they were supposed to wash the clothes! It is also a retaining wall for the rest of the park and the columns support the viaduct above:
This is the view over Barcelona from the Nature Square. We are sitting on the ergonomically designed seats which are curved so small groups can easily talk together:
This shows the curved seating:
We had lunch in the park. View over Barcelona from above the nature Square with Sagrada Familia in the background to the left (covered in cranes):
Visited Picasso Museum. Excellent display of paintings showing his development as a painter through a myriad of styles all of which he seemed to have excelled at. My only complaint was all of his great paintings are hanging elsewhere.
Dinner Bacoa Burger Bar at the beach.
