After La Pedrera Walk

After the La Pedrera visit, we fiddled around in the Block of Discord area, had a hot chocolate snack at Casa Amatller (where else?!), and then walked back, mostly Girona avenue, past our neighborhood, into the Bari Gotic for an errand, which entailed doing the Joncake experience. Next post.

Random modernista along the way

Gaudi's Casa Battlo...star of the Block of Discord

We did Casa Amatller in 2017; back then I spelled
it "Amatlla"...anyhow there were two longer posts about
this most interesting pre-modernista...

Also on the Block of Discord, but far less visited...
the Casa Lleo Morera, by Domenech i Montaner

Now walking along Girona, I think, admiring the many interesting
buildings and features...

Today's caryatids

What do you call a caryatid that is a tree?

Street near Bari Gotic

Alley...

The wrought iron is always amazing

Casa Mila, AKA La Pedrera

Tuesday we walked a bit of the Ramblas, from the Placa Catalunya to the Liceu, including the Bouqueria market. Such pix as I took will appear in the out-takes. The Bouqueria now, with the exception of some few seafood stalls, is given over pretty completely to the tourist trade. Fruit in a cup. Jambon in a cup. Frites in a cup. Etc. We shopped a bit more at Decathlon, FNAC, and El Corte Ingles, and then called it a day.

Wednesday's highlight was a return visit to La Pedrera, aka Casa Mila, the apartment building Gaudi designed on Passeig de Gracia in the early 1900s. It was his last "civic" work before devoting himself entirely to the Familia Sagrada. The official name is Casa Mila, but it's generally known as La Pedrera--the quarry or rockpile--as Barcelona residents called it from its inception. Pix from our first visit, in 2010, are here.

Comparing Vicki's ring to the actual portal it was
designed after

Ever-devoted to trying out the new things, we
signed up for the "virtual experience" of La Pedrera;
here am I, exploring the functionalities

And Vicki, learning the relevant hand gestures; traditional hand
gestures, such as the digitus impudicus, also worked well, I discovered

The best part of the "virtual experience" was that
it was very short--perhaps 2 paragraphs of actual
information and a tri-fold color pamphlet of pix--
a waste of time and money, but not much of
either; oh, above, a non-virtual model of La Pedrera

Back to "reality": looking up one of the building's
two courtyard/atria

Possibly the main part of the tour is a walk through a "typical"
early 1900s apartment--well, typical for the ultra-rich who could
afford such a place

Children's room

Devise for screening visitors, accepting packages

Now we are in the attic studying Gaudi's caternary arches

Thus

Helpful model #6,396

Extremely unusual dorsal view of helpful model #6,396

Helpful model of all the caternary arches in La Pedrera's attic;
it might be noted at this point that Gaudi never hesitated to use
concrete, rebar, and such...

How to build caternary arches....

Before and after models of Gaudi's Casa Battlo, essentially a 
renovation...but what a renovation! Just down the street...

He also did furniture...

Famous roof-top view; by this time we were tired, and realizing
that three or four visits to something like this are enough...

Strummin', Drummin', and Stompin' At The Palau De La Musica Catalana

Barcelona's greatest work of Modernist architecture is its Palau de la Musica Catalana, a place we never miss on our visits here. Lately we have been eschewing the tour, preferring to hear a concert instead, and thus having a great musical experience as well as a great architectural experience. The evening of April 10 we attended a concert of the Barcelona Guitar Trio and Dance, a pretty stunning display of Catalan and flamenco music and dance, performed by three guitarists, a percussionist, and two dancers. See illustration. For some numbers, it was the entire company, for some a solo, for some an ensemble. I particularly enjoyed the more recognizable (to me) music of de Falla and Lorca. The guitar work was amazing, as was the hands-only percussion; and the dancing was dramatic and beautiful, as flamenco always is. There was a surprise ending, too: after a rousing finale, curtain calls, etc., they did an encore that went on for another twenty minutes, nearly a second act, including the novelty of three guitarists and percussionist all playing the same guitar...one holding the instrument, one drumming on it, one plucking the strings, and the last doing the chords and incredible melodic passages. See illustration. We took a few pix as we waited for the hall to fill and at the faux finale. Pix from an earlier tour of the Palau are here.

In the balcony mezzanine

Architect Dominer y Montaner; both the Palau and
his Sant Pau hospital complex are World Heritage Sites

The group (less the percussionist); off the web

Increible!