Barcelona- episode 7 almost the last

Our final morning in Barcelona was not the beautiful blue sky morning that we'd hoped for, instead we got a cold wet and uninspiring morning. We were both over the wet and cold by this time but we put on our coats and scarves, picked up our brollies and off we went - breakfast, say thanks to the honest lady, and then off to La Pedrera. We realised that there was no chance that the roof would be open so we wouldn't be seeing that but we'd enjoy the rest of it. 

The La Pedrera

And enjoy it we did! The more of Gaudi's 'stuff' I saw the more impressed I was. I particularly like the way almost everything is curves, not straight lines and sharp edges.

I didn't take many photos at all  because using the flash wasn't permitted, not that this stopped some people from flashing away. I get really cross with this behaviour and did actually tell one guy that he shouldn't be using the flash. To his credit he stopped using it, well at least when I  was around, instead of ignoring me or abusing me.

 La Pedrera is an apartment building designed by Gaudi and there's kind of like a museum which explains a lot of his design features such as ways to allow natural light  into the building taking into account. The middle of the building is an open space from the ground to the roof so the windows and tiles change shape and colour density from the top of the building going down to the ground because of how the natural light is less at the bottom than at the top

After looking at all the exhibits and reading all the info and watching all the videos it was time to have a wander through an actual apartment.

This was amazing, indescribable really and well worth the visit. The walls and ceilings join together in soft curves, doorhandles which fit into the hand according to whether the doors are sliding or pulled open. Unfortunately,  I don't remember the details now. Lesson learnt - don't put off writing!

We did get glimpses of the chimney pots up on the roof through windows in the halls and I took some photos, but I wasn't happy with any of them. Maybe there will be a chance to go up and see the chimney pots one day but the weather definitely wasn't on our side on this day. I took photos of the models.

 This is a model of the chimney pots

The model of the interior space and the the changing colour of the tiles and changes to the windows

the one phot I took inside the apartment - an iron warmer

Looking up the interior space

Finally we were back on the street and the only thing we could do was go back to the apartment,  pack our bags and get to the train station. 

Hans, the apartment owner, turned up to see how our our holiday went and apologised profusely for the awful weather which, of course, had nothing to do with him. When the time came to go he insisted that we should get a taxi because this would be more straight forward for us and that it was best to get there with plenty of time up our sleeves. So the 3 of us set off to find a taxi and very easily and very soon, we were in a taxi on our way to the station.

The taxi driver was a 'yelling and horn tooting' guy and it was a lot of fun. His yelling and tooting seemed to be good humoured. The best bit was when he was standing by the boot of the taxi, after helping us get our bags out, and another taxi wentthrough a big puddle on the way  past and the water splashed up onto him. Well, there was a lot of yelling and arm waving then. A really good end to our time in Barcelona.

In the Barcelona train station we had to wait in an area like at an airport before boarding, and it took ages so we were really pleased that we had plenty of time to figure out what we had to do.

The trip back to San Sebastian was uneventful with no stopping in the middle of nowhere. We knew that we would arrive too late for a bus to Azpeitia so we'd booked into a hotel next to the station. It was ok however the next day - still raining - it was a bit of a trek to the bus station so we thought that we'd have been better to get a hotel closer to the bus than the train. Anyway we made it back to Azpeitia - raining there as well - in time for school and that was that. From the couple of fine days when we did a lot of walking, we got a really positive feeling of the city. I really enjoyed Barcelona despite the weather and would love to return one day. 

Well, that pretty much wraps up the Barcelona trip, I hope you've enjoyed reading it and the photos. It has been quite a saga from my perspective any way and I've certainly learnt that it's better to be up to date rather than looking backwards - fading memories and all that stuff!

Back in Azpeitia we had one more weekend and then Barry was on his way back to NZ and in less than 4 weeks I'd be on my way to London for Xmas/ New Year holidays. 

Well, that time has passed and I'm writing this while I'm sitting in the Gate 5 waiting area for the time to board the plane to London, no sign of it yet! Ok, here I go - oops, appears that me and the others waiting here as well somehow bypassed the security system so we had to go back up and be checked over by the police/border control. The guy took a long time to finally stamp my passport and let me get on my way. After looking page by page through my passport, consultations with his side-kick, a hard look at my expired NIE and a hard look at the document which I got a couple of days ago (a real rigmarole) which states that I am to be allowed back into the country he stamped it, gave me a smile and my passport etc and off I went. Right now I'm somewhere between Bilboa and London where it's 9° apparently. 

              LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW.