… to Gaudi’s Barcelona …

… in the rain. In Civitavecchia and Livorno, everyone told us that the current sunny weather was the first sun after quite a spell of rain. The rain caught up to us in Barcelona. We hadn’t scheduled any excursions, planning to do our own thing. That thing consisted of using the Hop-On Hop-Off bus as transportation to all the places we wanted to go during the day.

The first thing that caught our attention was a Christmas market, and we hopped off the bus at Plaza Major to check it out. We discovered a few interesting things ... and some perplexing ones as well. Many figures are made for the very elaborate Spanish nativity scenes, which often represent not just the manger scene, but the entire village of Bethlehem, including shops and houses. And among the figures on the shelves at the Christmas market were shelves of figures crouching, with their pants pulled down, and a pile of – poo – on the ground! The figures appeared next to the wise men and the angels, Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.

 

And at almost every stand there was a display of a jolly little log with two front legs, a smiley face and a bright red hat. They came in a variety of sizes, from one as long as a finger to a two foot piece of wood. We didn’t understand the meaning of either one.

 

After making a few purchases to decorate our cabin, we hopped back on the bus to visit Casa Batllo, the home built on then-trendy Passeig de Gracia by Gaudi for a prominent family. Unlike any other house ever built, it’s now considered a reference point of Modernism.

 

   

Taking our time to explore every nook and cranny left us hungry and needing a rest. We found a lovely restaurant just down the street and settled in for a leisurely lunch.  Fortified and rested, we headed off again, this time to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s crowning achievement, a cathedral which has been under construction since 1882. It features drip-castle spires and breath-taking stained glass windows. The windows are still under construction, with more of them completed each time we’ve visited.

 

Directly across the street from Sagrada Familia was another Christmas market. We browsed the many stands, and once again saw the crouching figures and the cute little logs.

We rode the Hop On bus around Barcelona, up to Montjuic, and through many neighborhoods. Tired and a bit wet, we finally called it a day and went back to the ship to dry out and relax.