Saturday, July 20, 2013

The Padillas' Barcelona Experience - Park Guell (with a K)




On their last full day in Barcelona, Anne, Raul and Brea spent the morning wandering the city, making their way up to the Gracia district. We met in the Plaza del Sol in the heart of Gracia and headed over to Antoni Gaudi's urban playground, Park Guell. On the way over we had a discussion about the origin of the name, which is almost always spelled one of two ways: Parc Guell (in Catalan) or Parque Guell (in Spanish). Both, however, are wrong. The proper spelling, as written by Gaudi himself, is Park Guell, with a K, in tribute to the English garden communities that Gaudi based his design on. 

These days the Park is a magnet for tourists for good reason. The sheer beauty and size of the mosaic patterns and intricate designs of the park benches and guard houses, as well as the detailed method Gaudi laid out for making his development as integrated as possible with the natural contours and landscape of the hill, make for a enjoyable day of exploration for even the most seasoned traveler. 

We got a great picture of a street performer

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