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Barcelona: A travel journal by Jay Langhurst

Park Guell: As Gaudi as they come

25/09/2002
Barcelona


Well, when you only have about an hour and a half to get to a major tourist attraction, snap photos and get back, you realize you won't be able to cover EVERYTHING. But, imagine my surprise when upon arriving at the right metro station for Park Guell - a park designed by Gaudi as a housing complex that never turned out, but remains a great architectural feat - that the park was 1,800 meters away! Now, not knowing exactly how far 1,800 was, I was unsure how much this should panic me, already being short on time. However, as I recalled the little info in my brain about foot races in track and the length of 1,800 meters, it didn't look good. It looked even worse when as I neared the point when only 400 meters or so were remaining that the route changed to the left and swiftly uphill. Of course, after a bit more walking I had arrived at Park Guell.
It was certainly worth the walk, but I didn't have much time to ponder some of these interesting visual creations since I had to be back at the hotel to catch a cab to the airport with a few other people from GE by 6 pm, and it was already about 5! So, I began my quick jaunt around the park. Here's the entrance and main gift shop building.
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Well, the sun was very good at some angles, and terrible at others. I was trying to get a shot of a sunburst in the mouth of the reptile fountain when suddenly a father and son entered my frame, and I just shot this photo. For the new composition, the exposure settings were all wrong, but luckily the Canon D60 is VERY good at holding color and detail in shadows and with some fancy photoshop work, the details came right back into the photo.
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I don't much like this photo, but the lizard itself is pretty famous, so I'll include it here.
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Lots of mosaic, as usual. This is on an arch that goes over a small bench at the center of the fountain steps near the base of the complex.
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After going up some stairs, you enter an area with many columns and mini-vaults. At the top of each vault is a different seal or decoration. I liked this one.
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Up a few more stairs and you reach the main plaza area, which is very nice and overlooks the entrance as well as much of the city.
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There were small benches all along the edge of the plaza that had mosaic tiles as well. Here you can see an example of that as well as a view from the edge of the plaza.
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A steeple in the distance, actually a house where Gaudi lived for a bit.
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A man stops a bit higher up (more and more steps and a winding pathway) to videotape the expanse of the city.
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Down some of those earlier steps, but above the plaza, there are nice rock sculptures where people can sit and rest in a garden-like setting.
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Rock sculptures and steeple
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Yep, he lived there from 1906 to 1926. I didn't go in because there was a small line and it was already waaaaay past time for me to start back if I wanted to make the taxi.
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The steeple of the house with some palm tree branches dividing things up
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A view of the main plaza from the back and near the edge above a few steps
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Touristy people gawking over the edge of the plaza...what fun
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Just below the plaza on one side is a VERY long corridor with a nice set of repeating columns that arch around like a wave. A great place for visitors to stand around and get their photo taken so I can't get a clear shot....but I suppose that's part of the location...lots of tourists, right?
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This is along one edge of the plaza, gargoyle-like heads jut out from the side along with nice mosaics as well and the cross from one of the two main buildings at the entrance in the background.
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Palm tree, cross, pillar...what more could you want? I hope not much because that's the last photo I took! I dashed down the hill (much easier than coming up the hill) ignoring the taxis because I had just purchased a one-day pass. But, eventually I resigned myself to the fate of spending money (Taxis are much less expensive in Barcelona as compared to Amsterdam) and hailed one to arrive at the hotel just in time to catch another taxi to a plane to a train to a tram to a short walk to home...whew.
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