In planning for the trip, I stumbled across the Nighttime Experience at LaPedrera, Gaudi's famed apartment building just 1.5 blocks up the street from our apartment.
We didn't really have an open night, so I booked it for 7pm Saturday night after Don and Jennifer had left and then booked our final dinner for 9pm at Sensi Tapas, because they take reservations. I didn't want to show up at a restaurant at 9pm and not have a table available.
We met in the outside lobby in the building, and then either took the elevator or walked the seven stories to the attic. We got a brief but interesting tour of the attic before going out on the roof.
Looking out the top of the front door.
Notice the imaginative circles of glass.
The ceiling of the stairs up to the apartments.
The great architect
himself, Antoni Gaudi.
The arches of the attic provide
extra strength for the building.
Beauty and strength.
My third visit to La Pedrera. My third blog
which includes a picture of furniture.
The actual name of the apartment building is Casa Mila, named after the family who hired Gaudi to design/build it. It was called "La Pedrera" by the locals who thought, from the outside, it looked like "The Quarry." The name stuck, even though the negative connotations did not.
There are seventeen apartment -- one huge one taking up the entire main floor for the Milas to live in, and then four per floor for four floors. It had an elevator that took seven minutes from bottom to top, as well as multiple stairs so servants could go right to the apartment where they worked instead of taking the elevator or main staircase.
The owners of the building no longer rent out empty apartments. There are three apartments still be rented to elderly ladies who were grandfathered in (I'm betting they each have multiple cats). As those three die off, the apartments will no longer be rented. I'm a bit vague on what the plans are for the building after that.
Right now, there are top floor apartments open to the public during the daytime. The place makes for an interesting visit, but it's not as amazing as nearby Casa Batllo or Palau Guell, or further out Torre Bellesguard or Casa Vicens.
The rooftop chimneys are the most spectacular part of the building. They are said to be the inspiration for the Star Wars Stormtrooper helmets, except that the chimneys are better shots and would have actually killed Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia, not to mention C3-PO (but not Chewbacca or R2-D2). So, yeah, it is worth going to during the day if you haven't been.
Anyhow, we went up to the rooftop, which affords wonderful views of the area. The main attraction for the night viewing is the light show, which projects onto the larger parts of the rooftop. I'm not sure what they cover -- mechanicals of some sort, I suppose. They didn't really light up the stormtrooper chimneys.
The next bunch of pictures are
from the light show. A number
of pictures I got were either
not in focus or not very
interesting.
Of course, cynical readers
might note that these are
not very interesting either.
In which case I can't blame you.
I guess you had to be there.
I guess I have an
eye for photography?
Gaudi-esque in the coloring.
Sagradi Familia from the
rooftop of La Padrera.
Sagrada Familia close-up.
Casa Batllo at night.
Amazing coloring.
Our hotel. It was not worth taking
a picture of the apartment building.
Despite the hassles we had with
the staff, the location and amenities
of the hotel itself couldn't be beat.
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