Larson's In London: January 2016

Westminster at night

12:14 AM

Since we've been back in London, I have taken about 30-40 minutes after work to play with my camera. It's such a short time because it has been WINDY and COLD. After a while I can't feel my fingers anymore so I have to stop.

Abraham Lincoln statue opposite Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in Westminster Square

Westminster Abbey - where the royals become more royal

adventure

La Sagrada Familia

7:55 PM

We got on the Hop on-Hop Off tour bus from Plaza Catalunya to get to La Sagrada Familia (no. 5 on TripAdvisor's recent Traveler's Choice list of Top 25 Landmarks of the World!)

Even if you see all the pictures, nothing compares to standing in front of Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece (still incomplete...decades later)

We stepped off the bus and our mouths were just hanging open the whole time. It is an impressive Catalan Modernist building with all the ceramic, carpentry, spots of bright colour and sculptures and gorgeous stonework on the outside. (all unedited photos, also I'm learning the setting on my camera ok. Still a newbie but I'm obsessed. Obviously...)

The Nativity

Directly above baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph you'll see the tree of life. It looks like a real life tree!

THEN YOU STEP INSIDE

The whole building is like a living, breathing thing. Trees instead columns stretch to the ceiling which is covered in stone vegetation. Gaudi was inspired by three passions: architecture, nature and religion.

An interesting thing I read about him: he preferred to create 3-D models of his designs and rarely drew any plans, molding the details as it came to him. He followed the organic forms found in nature.

And can we just talk about the stained glass for a minute?

There is so much light allowed to flow through this giant main room that the feeling is unlike any other cathedral/abbey/basilica that I have ever visited.

Colours and light refracted everywhere.

I'm a stained glass lover. Taylor didn't even get mad about the dozens of photos I took. :)

He thought of every single detail, down to the thickness of the glass; varying the thickness to control the light's intensity.

It's not hard to see why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 5th on the World's Top Landmarks. I see a Gaudi-specific trip in our future....

adventure

Barcelona - the crazy beginning

9:58 AM

Let me tell you a little story. I check airline fares weekly. In Europe there are a few low-fare airlines (like RyanAir and EasyJet) through which European travel becomes beautifully cheap. Of course, you give up selecting your seat, free in-flight drinks and any semblance of leg room but hey, Germany, Italy and everywhere else is less than $100 away.

So my birthday was coming up and I decided to bring some specific flights to Taylor's attention.

Milan! Copenhagen! Let's just pick a place and go!

"Ok, I guess we can," he said.

So this happy girl went about her normal life thinking a quick trip to Milan would be her birthday gift.

Fast forward two weeks...

We were in the Stansted airport worrying about the security line and when the gate for our flight would open when Taylor actually handed me our boarding passes.

I noticed STD>BCN but didn't have time to process what BCN could stand for. After getting through security, I scanned the departure board for the flight to Milan...but it didn't match the flight number on my boarding pass.

But it did match the flight and gate to BARCELONA....

"Are we going to BARCELONA?!?"

Moral of the story: Taylor is GOOD at surprises. A little too good...

Our hotel was in the center of the city, just a block from Plaza Catalunya.

Plaza Catalunya at 9:00am. A little to early for anyone to be out and about apparently.

The plaza filled up a couple hours later.

Palm trees and some Spanish balconies

I love the colours!

La Sagrada Familia from our hotel rooftop.

It was gorgeous weather, chilly but not nearly as cold as London. Look at all the blue!!!
This is just a teaser. All about our trip, favourite bits and all the pictures coming soon.

Suffice it to say while I'm working on the next post...we WILL be going back to Barcelona. Cracked into the top 3 trips we've made.

aquarium

L'aquarium - Port Vell Barcelona

9:26 PM

We visited this beautiful aquarium in the oldest part of Barcelona Harbour, Port Vell.

We hit the aquarium late, seriously less than an hour before it closed and we enjoyed the place crowd-free!

Not gonna lie, stingrays freak me out.

Poisonous puffer fish!

The coolest part is easily this 80-meter section where you go underwater and the sharks are swimming around you.

I loved the little Nemos...

Barcelona

Boqueria!

9:00 PM

This was recommended to us by a few friends and it was worth the time!

Good, beautiful food is always worthwhile...

Marzipan and gummies. So fun!

Allllll the chocolate

We picked out flavours like white pear, pineapple, mandarin and raspberry.
SOFTEST, powerfully sweet flavours.....for 1 million dollars! jk but seriously it was so much more expensive than I would've thought that we would pay for sweets. I have scrubbed the amount we paid from my mind. I wish only to keep the memory of how amazing the gummies were and forget the number of euros the sweet little ladies stole from us.

I have a special place in my heart for Borough Market in London...but this place blows BM out of the galaxy!

Meat, fish, veggies, fruit

I had never seen barnacles before and I cannot imagine how they are edible but I am fascinated.

Such a great recommendation and we will definitely stop by next time we are in Barcelona.

Christopher Colombus monument - Barcelona

6:10 PM

The Columbus Monument in Barcelona!

Of course we went to the top, because we like the vista from the highest places we can get in all the cities we visit. :) It's what we do.

60 meters tall (because we're in Europe)

It was constructed on the site where Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Americas. It serves as a reminder that it was in Barcelona that Columbus reported to Queen Isabella and Ferdinand after his most famous trip.

Supposedly, the statue points east towards Columbus' home city of Genoa instead of west toward the New World. I think they just put it up facing the wrong direction and left it that way.