La Sagrada Familia (Josiah)

We toured La Sagrada Familia cathedral last Saturday (April 2).  We bought 2 headphones and tickets for a lift.  The inside part was neat.  A few cool facts: On one of the walls, there will be "Give us this day our daily bread" written in 50 languages to express a unity of languages and cultures.  Also, when La Sagrada Familia is finished, it will hold 8000 worshippers plus another 1000 choir members!  There are stained glass windows that are very colorful.  One cool thing: Gaudi has a way of channeling light and making it shine into the building so that during the day, there is little light needed to make the place bright.

All right, time to head over to the lift.  The guy on the elevator tells us that the stairs to go down are on the other side of the building, so you'll need to cross the bridge to get to the stairs.  Remember that.  We meet a young couple and they're friendly.  They're from Chicago, so speaking English is easy.  The wife is a photographer.  There are a lot of cool pics to take because of all the windows.  A lot of the pictures I took are views of the city.  You can see the Mediterranean from here.  Also, the pillars are pretty fun to take pictures of.  They've got these colorful designs at the tops of them.  All right, we cross the bridge and follow the signs to get to the stairs.  And then, a guy tells us that these stairs are closed off.  Well OK, we cross the bridge again and there are stairs on the other side.  We take them down and what do you know, it works.

View of city (good luck finding our apartment)

Design on top of pillar

After arriving at the bottom, we listened to the headsets some more, and then decide we can explore the museum.  We learn that there are a whole lot of people following up on what Gaudi was trying to do, and the finishing of the cathedral would not be possible without them.  Gaudi's grave is in the museum, and so are some pictures of the Sagrada Familia.

Picture of ceiling

Overall, we had a great time.  There are pictures engraved into the building all over it.  On the front is the Nativity, and on the back is the Crucifixion.  On the sides are a bunch of animals.  Here are some photos I took:

Stained glass windows

Nativity scene engraved on wall