La Sagrada Familia

The conference Kevin was attending had events going on each night. One of these outings was a bus ride to La Sagrada Familia and then drinks and appetizers at Hospital de Sant Pau. Jane and I took the subway to the conference location to meet up with Kevin before heading over to the church.

Happy on the bus!

La Sagrada Familia is an incredible church created by architect Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi had spent 43 years working on this church when he died and it remains unfinished. In the last few decades more work has been done and the hope is that it will be finished by 2026 to mark 100 years since Gaudi's death.

The church embodies all three of Gaudi's foundations: classics, nature, and religion. Many of the plans for the church were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War so they have had to study the remaining plans and sort of guess (based on knowledge of his style) what he would want the rest of the building to look like. 

I guess there are still a lot of challenges remaining before the building is to be completed. They have to make sure the church can hold up to the vibrations of a nearby high speed train that was put in, they have to construct the tallest church spire ever built (there are currently 8 of 18 spires Gaudi had planned), and they have to buy out people living in condos nearby so they have the space to finish what Gaudi envisioned. It's crazy that they could actually be done in 11 years with so much left to do. 

I took so many pictures of this beast and I had trouble deciding which to post. There is just so much detail everywhere. Truly incredible. 

I read somewhere that skipping the interior of the Sagrada Familia was fine but I completely disagree. If you are ever in Barcelona I highly suggest paying to go inside. Definitely worth it. 

Jane was getting a little fussy around this time so it made it a little difficult to listen to the guide so I know I missed a lot from the tour.

I still enjoyed taking in the beauty of design though. The stained glass was fantastic. 

Normally you can take an elevator up to the top but the church was preparing to close. I wouldn't have gone anyway since Jane was on the verge of a meltdown (super tired baby). If we ever come back to Barcelona I will be sure to go up though!

After leaving the church we walked over to Hospital de Sant Pau. It was a beautiful hospital. We were just in the courtyard and never went inside but definitely enjoyed the location. 

 Luckily Jane fell asleep on the way over. We were hoping she would sleep for longer but I think she got chilly with the wind and woke up. It made socialising and eating (it was appetizers that you had to basically attack the caterers wandering around for) somewhat difficult. We decided we needed to head back.

 Fortunately one of the chartered buses was preparing to leave and was making a stop not far from our hotel. It was much easier than trying to figure out the bus system at night with an overtired baby. 

It was a long day but really fun. Jane was such a trooper and put up with being taken all over the place. It was definitely nice to get back to our hotel though!