Gaudí, Dear Friends and Seafood

 Barcelona[--After 16 years we walked once again the aisles of Sagrada Familia, the huge Gaudí basilica that towers over its neighborhood in central Barcelona.  Nearly finished--it's missing towers and a south front--the place is a masterpiece.  Not completely Gaudí because he died leaving incomplete designs, it is so totally different to any architectural masterpiece because of the way the building is arched, the light inside and the various styles of adornment since styles have changed since the 1880s when construction began.  It should be finished within the next 10 to 15 years as the final towers are put in place.   

It was quite amazing to walk an almost completed building compared to the scaffolding and dust we faced in the first decade of the 2000s.  Now the altar and windows show light everywhere, the organ is in place, though we did not hear it, and the crowds stand in awe or sit just admiring the place.

We also had an excellent tour of the Park Güell, pronounced Way, that Gaudí built on a hilltop as a gated community that was never successful.  With a magnificent, though hazy, view of Barcelona, the whimsy and naturalism of his designs show through the construction.   Our guide Cesar, was excellent and gave us a much better tour than our visit in 2006.

We got back to the hotel and spent the afternoon in a shaded restaurant with old friends Tony and Christine.  John has known Tony since 1949 and they have been long-term friends.  Chat from family to travels to aging made for an interesting and fun afternoon.

In the evening we checked out a few of the local restaurants, then decided to go the opening night of a new restaurant in the hotel--Batea Bar Marisqueria.  It's a venture of friends who want to bring the seafood of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic together in a small plates tasting menu.  It's virtually all seafood and ranged from excellent oysters, clams and cockles from Galicia and fish dishes such as miniature monkfish and sea bream from the Mediterranean.  A Galician beer made the evening very enjoyable.  Clearly this is a restaurant with a great idea and fine execution.