Fiestas de Gracia - You Won't Believe What You Are Seeing

For one week in August the neighborhood of Gracia (where we lived for the first few weeks in Barcelona) throws an amazing street party. Various streets in the neighborhood get together in January to start preparing the elaborate decorations. Streets host dinners, have live bands, puzzle competitions, activities for kids, and of course, outside bars that server beer and mojitos. The decorations cover the ENTIRE street and are so spectacular that you have to see them to believe them. So without further ado (sorry there are so many pictures)...

(The next post will include the famous Castellers--human towers--from the fiesta and is not to be missed!)

Welcome to the great fiestas of Gracia.

Into the sea with fishermen and mermaids

A fisherman and a mermaid 

Mozart Street! (Tabitha's favorite)

Mozart's orchestra.

They made a papier mache piano!

Opera ghosts

Music notes floating in the air.

More awesome ghosts.

And fabulous masks.

Some of the balconies were also decorated.

Into the jungle.

A wild jungle animal?

Keebler elves?

One of the many live bands.

Amazing!

The whole street felt like you were walking through a
mystical flower garden.

More amazing.

A Catalan donkey?

Coffee anyone?

The Jungle Book jungle.

King Louie.

Gob's street (for the Arrested Development fans out there).

Apparently "farts" in Catalan means "tired"

This street received the 1st place award and told the story
 of Peter pan as you walked down the street.
Here Peter and the kids are flying off to Neverland.

Transitioning into Neverland. 

Tinkerbell!

And the big fight.

Aliens!

Montserrat

A couple of weeks ago we had a long weekend, and decided to visit Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona with a Benedictine Abbey (Santa Maria de Montserrat) on it.  Montserrat literally means "jagged (serrated) mountain" in Catalan, due to the rugged nature of the rock formations there, which are quite beautiful.  The Black Madonna of Montserrat, one of the patron saints of Catalunya, is housed in the Abbey.

To reach Montserrat, we took a cable car up to the abbey.  Once there, you can visit the Abbey, a nice art museum, take a funicular train further up the mountain to do some hiking, and a funicular train partly down the mountain to walk a really cool path with various altars, including one created by Gaudi, to the Church of the Sacred Cave, in which the Black Madonna was originally found.

Montserrat from the cable car station.

Don't worry, the cable car is German-built.

The facade of the abbey.

Inside the abbey.

Some votive candles in a shrine
outside the abbey.

A view from the Hermitage of Sant Joan,
after a nice little hike.

The rock formations seem like an
alien landscape in some places.

A nice view.  The scenery ain't too bad either...

More rock formations.

Another nice view.

On the path back to the Abbey.

A statue along the path.

Another really cool rock formation.

Cable cars from above.

An ornate crucifix along the path to the
Church of the Sacred Cave.

From Gaudi's contribution
along the path to the Church.

A replica of the Black Madonna, in the
Sacred Cave where it was originally found.
The real one is in the Abbey, which we also saw,
but could not take pictures of.

Casa Batlló: The Borland Parents Visit Barcelona

We had the pleasure of having Dave's parents visit for a few days in July, which is a huge deal for Dave's mom, who hates flying.  We showed them as much of Barcelona as we could, including Parc Güell, La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, walking down La Rambla, eating Paella and numerous other delicacies, Montjuic and the Olympic Stadium, and of course our hilly neighborhood and the local market.

In addition, we accompanied them to Casa Batlló, one of Gaudi's apartment buildings that we had visited  when we were here on a brief trip before, but not since we had moved here.  Casa Batlló is an amazing piece of work that Gaudi adapted from an existing building, forming it as an homage to Sant Jordi (Saint George), the patron saint of Catalunya, and a wonderful example of his iconoclastic style.  

Casa Batllo (on the right) seen from Passeig de Gracia. 

A fireplace, with a mushroom-shaped entrance to seats at the
left and right to warm up on cold evenings.
Supposedly, one of the seat is for an amorous young couple,
and the other for their chaperone.

A chandelier illuminating the dining room.

Gaudi's design of a four-sided cross, situated on the roof.

On the roof, with a good view of the
 backbone of the dragon of Sant Jordi.
(Picture taken by Father Peck on his visit to Barcelona)

The ceiling in the main living room spirals
into the decorated light fixture.

The main living room, with some gorgeous woodwork
and stained glass on the doorways.

The stained glass and woodwork on the main facade,
looking out onto Passeig de Gracia.

Tom (Dave's dad) contemplating the rear
facade from wonderfully decorated,
undulating courtyard.

A skylight lets in natural light to the apartments in the
interior of the building.  The paint on the walls moves
from a dark blue at the top to a light blue at the bottom
to compensate for the difference in brightness
of the sunlight from top to bottom.

A view through shimmering glass in the stairwell
reflects the underwater theme of much of the building.

Some parabolic archways in the attic.

Gaudi-designed chairs that were
originally used in the building.