Turned off the light at 9 and got out of bed this morning at 8:30. We were tired. After breakfast we walked through the Bari Gotic area to the Picasso Museum. Housed in a 13th Century apartment building size home, it follows his development from a 13-year-old prodigy to a world famous artist. He had such a long and varied career that the museum covers pretty well, though some periods are a little thin on the art. We’d visited it before in 2002 and, over dinner, talked about how much we enjoyed it again today.
From there, we walked to the Sagrada Familia Church, a trip that was punctuated by a stop for coffee and sweet toast and lunch once we’d reached our destination. I can’t think of anything that is like Gaudi’s church. It is nothing like just another of Europe’s long history of magnificent architectural paeans to the glory of God. For that, you can look at the National Cathedral in DC, which began construction around the same time. To me, Gaudi’s work exposes pure joy in architecture. And in his magnum opus, it melds with adoration. Unfortunately, we didn’t follow Rick Steves advice to buy our tickets online and there was no going inside today. When we got back to the hotel, we bought tickets for the earliest time slot for tomorrow.