RTW Adventures of J&M

1. The day started with a visit to the famous pedestrian street market of Rue Cler, where a huge vat of tomato soup outside a boulangerie (bakery) inspired my choice for lunch.

2. A baguette from the boulangerie went well with the steaming bowl of tomato soup.

3. Since lunch only cost 2,50 Euros (not even because I only ate half the baguette), I splurged and got a strawberry and raspberry mini-tart for dessert.

4. As you can see, I enjoyed it very much.

5. In comparison, J had a boring (in my opinion, of course) lunch of Parisan pizza.

6. After lunch we decided to take advantage of the good weather and make a spontaneous trip to visit the Thinker at the Rhodin Museum Garden.

7. I was not so interested in the actual museum, so I left J to enjoy the rest of the museum by himself while I made my way to Shakespeare & Co., an English bookstore near the Seine.

8. I left the bookstore empty-handed, but unexpectedly found myself walking past the Pantheon on my way home.

9. Oh, I forgot to mention that we bought some sausages from a chacuterie (meat shop) on Rue Cler, which I made for dinner alongside some onions and peppers on a toasted baguette (left over from lunch).

10. (picture not shown) A game of Big Game Hunters is the perfect ending to a perfect day in Paris.

Current Location: Paris, France

Jonathan, Sarah, Jamee & Adam - that was for you.

Antoni Gaudi is a Catalan architect who lived from the mid-19th century to the early-20th century. I did not even know this man existed before coming to Barcelona. However, since many of Barcelona's most popular attractions centers around Gaudi, we decided to visit his two more famous works - Casa Batllo and La Sagrada Familia.

Neither J nor I know anything about architecture so I will spare you any Wikipedia para-phrasings. Instead, I'll just share with you some pictures and a Haiku I wrote to express the feelings I had as I walked through La Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo.

I walk through the room.
My mouth wide open in awe.
A bug flies in. Gulp.

Casa Batllo
1. The outside of Casa Batllo - a clear indication of the amazing things you will see inside.
2. The open-air atrium/courtyard that runs down the middle of the house (think of a rectangular donut). Gaudi designed this so that all rooms inside get natural light.
3. The loft - the parabolic arches is prominent in many of his works.

La Sagrada Familia
It is a working progress and the estimated completion date is 2026. Construction is solely funded by donations, which includes the price of admission.
4. Nativity façade - one side of the church
5. Passion façade - another side of the church. I can't imagine what the front will look like when it's complete!
6. Inside the church - it's suppose to feel like we're under a canopy of trees with light peaking through the leaves.

Miscellaneous
7. This has nothing to do with either buildings, but Gaudi also designed these tiles which actually  all have the same pattern, but placed in different orientation. These tiles make up the entire sidewalk up and down Passeig de Gracia, the Newbury St. of Barcelona.