Sunny day

Hey everyone!

It´s brilliantly sunny and I can feel the warmth radiating into my bones. A welcome change from the rain, and excellent timing for today´s adventures, scoping for sights by Barcelona´s first son, Gaudi.

His influence is everywhere! Even some of the streetlights are designed by him -- no signs are needed; you can pick these lamps out of a crowd. But nothing compared to the wonder and excitement for the Sagrada Familia. This is the cathedral he spent the last 20 years of his life designing, and which is still under construction according to the plans he drew before his death.

The design is unlike anything I´ve ever seen, all about organic shapes and colors, so there was nary a straight line to mar the effect. The interior pillars are towering trees, the capitals like flowing branches. The stained glass is vivid. I took an elevator up one of the towers-- one of the very tall towers. Dizzying heights. It offered a great view of the city and the construction of the central tower. But I confess I was too chicken to walk back down the windy staircase. Instead I stuck my camera over the edge to get a shot of what it looked like :-)

After the cathedral, I took the metro to the Gaudi sculpture garden. What a place! It was colorful and curvy and full of people basking in the sunshine. If I lived here, I would want to come to this place for a picnic every sunny day.

This evening I will wander around the old town near my hotel, like I did yesterday afternoon. There´s tons of retail therapy opportunities for a girl still recovering from Paris sticker-shock.

Noah emailed and said my precious kitties were doing well. I hope Aunt Judi arrives safe and has a okay time while she takes over minding my wee charges. I appreciate them both so much for this tremendous favor.

I´ve got a USB connection at this e-cafe, so I´ll post some more pics.

Buenos Noches!

Love T