If this is Sunday in Barcelona, there must be dancing at the Cathedral. I headed out on foot towards the old section of the city. Around a corner, I caught my first glimpse of the Cathedral – an inspiring spire.   The rest of the Cathedral and the strains of a cobla, a small group playing brass and other instruments soon came into view. 

The Sardana is the national dance of Catalonia. Dancers walk around in a circle, and others join to make the circle larger. A large crowd had gathered by the time I arrived, so I had to reach over people’s heads to take a video of the dancing.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/64513024@N07/21771914021/in/datetaken/

Outside the Cathedral, we passed a sculpture of an angel in despair, holding her apple-filled head. One had to wonder if Sunday Sardanas have contributed to the pose.  Folks enjoying themselves too close to the house of worship??  🙂

We met up with my Vancouver friends, Margaret and Doug, and enjoyed a lunch with them. There’s something special about spending time with friends in distant places that enriches a vacation. We chowed down on tapas and exchanged holiday stories, then parted ways. Margaret and Doug would be heading for Basque country the following day, while we had the rest of our stay in Barcelona ahead of us.

Casa Batlló, often referred to as The House of Bones because of its somewhat skeletal appearance, is one of Antoni Gaudi’s masterpieces. Gaudi renovated an existing home, spending much of his time on the design of the exterior. His wave-like lines, both inside and outside the house, are evocative of the ocean.  Note the interesting balcony railings in the form of masks.

Gillian and I took an audio-visual tour of this house. We carried what appeared to be a cell phone with earphones attached. These were no ordinary cell phones, however. When we entered many of the rooms and pointed the cell phone toward a wall or window or the ceiling as though to take a photo, a virtual image would appear. Much of the furniture, for example, was no longer in the house so the image on the gadget we carried would show what the room would have looked like with the original furnishings – all of which were designed by Gaudi – in place. And in keeping with the oceanic theme, a fish or a sea turtle would occasionally swim past on the screen – as in my photo of the gadget’s screen taken in room 7.

The attention to detail within the house was remarkable. A ceiling fixture looks like a snail.

Rippled glass is used to provide barriers between spaces without reducing the light from the skylight on the roof.

The top floor of the house was devoted to servants’ activities, notably the laundry. Even in the attic form was important. The main hallway is a series of Catenary arches. Our audio guide suggests that the horizontal air vents between the arches are the only straight lines in the house.

The roof of the house did not escape Gaudi’s attention. Vents take on fantastic forms, often visible from the street.

Not far from Casa Batlló is Gaudi’s Pedrera. Perhaps we will find time to visit it another day.