I've already made a friend...
...even though it did cost me 0.20 of the local scooby doo currency...
I have taken to walking at a tilt of 20 degrees...
....this is because when I was in Australia I took to standing on my head to correct for the fact that I was upside down compared to England. So, as I am now in Barcelona which is, I guess, about 20 degrees 'tilt' from England, I need to walk around at a 20 degrees tilt to make good the difference.
Not a lot of other English people seem to be doing this - I can't think why....
The highlight was the Sagrada Familia - a cathedral built by Gaudi. Awesome is an understatement. It is the first piece of architecture that really took my breath away.
Photos don't do the size and grandeur justice but here is aged ancestor of the female persuasion giving a bit of perspective...
The el-brilliant bit was Gaudi's incorporation of nature into his architecture. Here is one of the notices about it:
And here is the ceiling with organic shapes on the roof and tree trunk columns supporting the ceiling:
It was wonderful to see this architecture of the Christian Church embrace nature symbolism so effortlessly. Whilst the origional cathedrals of the middle ages resonated with trees in the forest (the columns and arches), after the middle ages the western church left nature behind with its condemnation of paganism and its patriarchal stance.
This refreshing architecture of Gaudi's brings nature's symbolism into a western Christian setting. So important for our time when our collective challenges are such things as globalisation, environmental destruction (eg climate change), global economics and more. We need to integrate symbolism that transcends cultural and religious divides - which nature does - so that we can, as a whole human race, face the issues of our time.
I could rant for ages on this but perhaps this is enough for now. We got up at 3:30am this morning so sleep beckons.
Rachel says omg soooo cooool(!) lol. She says that you really know how to relate to the young people of today ;-)
ReplyDeletePS looks like a really interesting and inspiring building. Like the photos, hope you take some tomorrow.