La Sagrada Familia
We planned to revisit Montserrat to explore a bit more, but unfortunately I got worse overnight. Fever, chills, and horrible coughing had us up have the night, with me having no energy to go anywhere the next morning. Pedro went back to the pharmacy to get more medicine and cared for me all day, in the hopes I'd feel better for our tour today.
Luckily, with my fever broken and strong foreign cough sweets, I was able to leave the hotel (walking slowly). But I was looking forward today, I was grateful he made me rest because I did not want to miss going back to La Sagrada Familia and see his reaction to it.
Our tour was guided through the church, with access one of the towers. It being Three Kings Day, we had one of the last slots before the church closed early. Three Kings Day is almost the equivalent of Christmas Eve, we saw many traveling with presents (as the Three Wise Men did).
I know this has been under construction since 1882, but last time I saw it there were a lot more scaffoldings and structures covering the outside features. It was so cool to see it this time with (somewhat) minimal signs of construction. The inside was just as beautiful as I remember, the ceiling just mesmerizing. Gaudi's designs to allow the morning and afternoon sun flow through the stained glass filled the nave with colorful light. We came at the best time it seemed for sunlight moving over the church. We got to see the last of the morning light shine through the cooler colored glass on the east side, and then see the sun radiating through the warmer colors on the west side.
Gaudi applied many techniques to the windows to allow light to stream inside in particular ways. Visiting during a solstice is apparently breathtaking due to the way the lights line up and point toward the center of the church. I love that even the structures built around each window is beveled in to direct the light into these starburst shapes. It's almost like a gem with many facets. We could have stared at these all day.
The tower we went up was the nativity tower, with views of the city. The staircase was almost vertigo inducing, but well worth it.
After the tower I needed more medicine and a bit of a rest, but that gave us an opportunity to really study the stain glass. During our tour, we learned many of the small circular pieces had names of saints.
We sat facing the west side and started to scan through names, curious if we could find Pedro's.
closer...
bit closer....
That's it! Pedro P
Right across the street, we found a café with the perfect view. It was a gorgeous day to sit and enjoy our last day in the city.
