Spain
Part 5 1/2
More Pics from Barcelona and

The Beautiful La Sagrada Familia

There are soooo many street performers along La Ramblas and the surrounding area. Some are good, some are blah and without purpose. But THIS guy was tap dancing AND bouncing/juggling up to 5 balls at a time, keeping the balls in perfect rhythm with his toe-tappin' feet. He was awesome. There was quite a crowd surrounding this very talented gentleman. Jack was in awe. Of course, he got a couple of euros from us. I hope he goes on to dance somewhere beyond the streets.

This was the very first performer I spotted from our cab ride to the hotel. He made me chuckle but didn't get any euros. Sorry dude, gotta dance.

Okay, THIS dude was allll kinds o' freaky. He'd just move his arms ever so slowly, totally diggin' whatever scene was goin' on in his head. Visually stunning but very odd. Classic.

You KNOW we had to take a pic of the old BMW R65 was saw. There were a TON of BMW 650's hittin' the streets with the occassional 1200 floating around. The bigger bikes were not very useful in Barcelona traffic. You have to see the amount of cars to really understand what I mean. More than New York and San Francisco combined. No joke.

Just a look down the narrow streets of Barcelona. There were stores and restaurants around every corner, down even narrower alleys. We were never pick-pocketed (a major threat in these crowds) and felt very fortunate considering our "experience" in Madrid.

Welcome to La Sagrada Familia, a church begun by Antoni Gaudi in 1883 and is still under construction to this day. On June 7th, 1926, Gaudi was killed by a tram as he was leaving the work site. No one recognized him, so he was taken to a hospital for the poor. He died 3 days later. Antoni Gaudi is buried inside the church.

Scaffolding can be seen throughout the church as construction continues.

We thankfully had plenty of sunny days while on our trip.

More of the exterior detail at the entrance.

It was extremely grand - the stained glass windows were absolutely stunning.

More stunning light effects.

More amazing statues.

Unfortunately, the interior scaffolding blocked some of the views.

These concrete doors were full of scripture.

More concrete doors.

The statues on the back of the church were done in a very non-traditional, totally Gaudi style.

More Gaudi style.

More Gaudi.

Sunset on La Sagrada Familia.

Jack sportin' the chef hat he was given by our waiter.