After the monastery, I gave Carol two options -- lunch or another new (to us) Gaudi house. She whined that she was hungry.
(Editor's note: I hope you are NOT saying your wife whined. I hope you are saying that "Carol doesn't whine, but IF she did, it would have been justified at nearly 2pm after lots of walking. Blogger: Uh, you are exactly right. She did NOT whine. She just strongly suggested!)
When I clarified that we would take a cab either way, she changed her mind and said, let's go to Gaudi! Torre Bellesguard is in North Barcelona, a long way from anywhere. We immediately caught a cab. With the castle closing at 3 pm (people live there!), we had to rush. The drive there was through a posh Barcelona neighborhood.
We managed to catch the last inside tour of the day at 2:30 pm, which gave us some modest amount of time to gawk at the outside. Like everything Gaudi did, it is spectacular.
It's just recently been open to the public. The current family has lived there since 1944, so some rooms are not open to the public, and that also explains the earlier closure each day. It was built between 1900 and 1909, on a spot were the last Catalan king had a castle back around 1400.
The house is designed to look like a castle. There are more straight lines than in most Gaudi houses, but there are still plenty of Gaudi features -- lots of natural light, homage to/use of plants and animals, cool balconies (that's the official architectural term for them), and an ingenuous use of a dragon.
The pinnacle of the rooftop
An amazing mosaic bench by the front door.
The fish with the crown of Aragon symbolizes
an old Catalan saying about the fish in the
Med swimming under the protection of
the King of Aragon.
Click on the picture and look at
the creative design of the balconies
and the window frames.
The outside.
An intricate front door.
A beautiful refreshment fountain
just inside the front door.
Spanish wall tiles.
Looking out the front door.
The famed Venus window.
Up on the roof, the dragon
is not to be missed.
The views are stunning.
This private house is part of Parc Guell.
Carol at the Evita balcony,
as I dubbed it.
To her credit, Carol loved this house, especially because of the historic ties to the last king of Catalan.
At 3 pm, we walked back the nearly one mile to the Metro at the Avenue Tbidabo, where we stopped for a slice of flatbread pizza each. I had a conference call at 4:30 pm, so we did not linger.
A beautiful building on the
walk back to the Metro.
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