Heading off at our usual first-day, break-neck speed, on our first day we headed off to see a famous church that had been recommended on the gumtree travel discussion board. Even though I had been told it was really spectacular, I was still just expecting a church... but the Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi is a bit more impressive than that.

I think one of the things that make it quite impressive is that it was started in 1882 and is still not finished (and they are currently still working on it). You can tell when you walk around that different parts have been completed by different people as they are quite different. The other impressive bit it that it is currently 100m high, with 4 towers, and when it is finished (no idea when that will be) it will be 170m high with an extra 3 towers.

Gaudi's design, of which you get used to in Barcelona, are strongly based on geometrical combinations of parabolas and circles etc. He is also very into the Mosaic tile look (see post on Park Guell) and does not do things by halves. This meant to take full advantage of the Sagrada Familia and it's views you climb the stairs to the top of the 100m tower. Now I didn't count the stairs, but estimating they were 25cm high each, that means we climbed at least 400 steps, and more likely greater than 600 steps (on the way up and 600 on the way down) as we managed to get lost half way and end up at the bottom again (it's all one way and the directions were in Spanish).

Olympic Village (Aaron)
Carmen seems to have forgotten to write the second half of this post. After walking up and down hundreds of steps, we decided that we hadn't had enough walking. (We have come to a realisation that our holidays are, and always will be the same. We arrive, all excited and not wanting to miss anything.. storm around on the first couple of days taking everything in. Seeing the main attractions etc. Only to be buggered, and have nothing tourist-ie to do for the last few days. It is not a bad way of doing it as it leaves you some time to just relax and soak it in.) So we went to look at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Village.

It is all very pretty, and seems to be mostly unused these days, giving the impression of a slight ghost town.