Jake & Miles' European Excursion

At Park Güell I went in a ginger bread house and I had fun.

The ginger bread house

I saw a lizard and I bought the toy from the gift shop.

The dragon guarding the stair case

I saw a place with lots of lines.

Jake and Miles discover some crazy architecture

After a long train trip or two, we have arrived in Barcleona, a city united by five common principles:

1. A love of Barcelona FC (fun fact: there is a Real Madrid store a block away from the Barça FC store. No one was in there)
2. A hatred of tourists (go home!)
3. A love of jambon and cheese
4. A hatred of Spain (do not wear your Spanish national team kit in Barcelona)
5. A love of Gaudí

With these handy facts at hand, we set out to explore the city. The first stop was the Sagrada Família.

Who was Antoni Gaudí?

Jake: The person who designed the Sagrada Família. He also designed some buildings around Barcelona.

What is the Sagrada Familia?

Miles: It’s a tall, tall, tall, tall, tall, tall church in Spain. It’s close to my hotel. You can see it from the café. It’s not finished and it has taken 142 years.

How much of the church is left to be built?

Jake: So, there’s glory façade, a whole wall, another corner, two tower buildings, and the cross at the top.

When will it be finished?

Miles: It will be finished in 10 years.

Jake: They said it will be finished 100 years after Gaudí’s death in 1926, so they think it will be done in 2 years.

Why did it take so long?

Jake: The first guy got sacked, and then Gaudí took over, but he got hit by a tram. Then they ran out of money a few times, because it is not paid for by the Government. Apparently they were delayed by COVID, otherwise they would have finished the glory façade by now (which they haven’t even started).

The passion façade (possibly the only part not currently under construction or renovation)

We then wandered down to the Casa Batilló.

What did you like most about Casa Batilló?

Jake: I liked the artwork from the Japanese guy. It had chains forming a wave down the final staircase.

That has nothing to do with Gaudí. What else did you like?

Jake: I liked the arch in the attic that looked like an imaginary animal’s rib cage. In the staircase up to the attic there were blue patterns that looked like a summer lake vibe. There were also wavy and curl roofs. At the top there were 27 chimneys, and also a bar (but we didn’t go to the bar).

Some of the chimneys (festoon lighting courtesy of Bunnings)

Miles: I liked that it was really big, and had lots of chimneys. It was really nice and fancy. I couldn’t buy anything because it was way too expensive. My favourite room was the dining room because it was outside and super nice to make dinner and eat dinner there sometimes.

The terrace outside the dining room

Sonia, what was your favourite part of the day?

Sonia (special guest appearance): The stained glass windows in the Sagrada Família.

Which colour did you like?

Sonia (special guest appearance): The blues and greens.

Some of the aforementioned stained glass windows

Once we returned to our apartment, we drew some Gaudí-inspired drawings.

Jake

Miles

	S	tayful
	T	all
	R	omantic
	E	xciting
Daddy had some	M	oney
Some stuff were	Y	ummy

P	assionate
R	oman ruins
O	ld towns
V	egetables
E	ntertaining
N	ice art
C	assis
E	xciting

I guess it’s a nice art

The Mediterranean is a sea on the south coast of Europe. We went there for about three hours and when we finished swimming we went to a fancy restaurant for lunch and had bolognese, pizza, mussels, and fish soup. They cost a lot of €’s.

Photos

Relaxing in Cassis

A Lighthouse

A Statue

Everything skates… but not in Cassis