Barcelona - Eixample neighbourhood

After Sagrada Familia we started to walk home through the Eixample neighbourhood. This area was built in the late 1800s, early 1900s when Barcelona was affluent and people were pouring into the city, tripling the population, due to industrialization. The city planners wanted something totally different from the narrow, dark, claustrophobic streets of the walled older city. They designed wide streets on a regular grid and the corners were cut off at every intersection. These extra wide intersections helped with light, air circulation, visibility and the trams had a nice wide arc to turn the corner. It is Paris like in its feel but the architecture is purely Spanish.

Not all the streets are this wide with the area to walk in the middle, but some are.
They are wide enough for at least 2 lanes of traffic, a bike lane and a place to park
bikes and motorcycles between the bike and traffic lanes.

It is mostly a residential neighbourhood, some retail at street level but looking up it is
balconies, carved, etched and painted facades, wrought iron and often greenery on the balconies.

Time for lunch and a Sangria (in a pitcher this time, good job we were eating
too and going to walk it off)

The architecture in the neighbourhood runs from one extreme to another. This is a house
that takes up the whole of its triangular shaped block and looks like a castle.

You can't get much more ornate than this; carved balcony, stained glass windows, and
2 levels of carving over the windows. The house is called Cas Les Punxes (Catalan meaning House
of Spikes)

Here we found we had cricks in our necks from constantly looking up. The sides of houses can have paintings or carvings or etchings or any combination. The balconies can have stone balustrades or wrought iron from gothic looking to modernista. The tops of the buildings have carvings, domes, cupolas. The architects of the time were literally trying to out do each other and we benefit.

We finally got to Pg. de Gracia and the Casa Milo This house was the last residential commission
that Gaudi took on before starting on Sagrada Familia.

Casa Milo was built for the Milo family who, once completed, lived in the 11,000 square foot first floor apartment and rented the rest. It took Gaudi 6 years to complete it and the nickname given it by the neighbours at the time, has  stuck, Le Pedrera (Catalan for the quarry, due to the noise and dust for 6 years).

The building undulates, looks like a living thing and the wrought iron balconies have
no obvious symmetry or consistency. Its a very unusual building. It is now owned by a bank
who have opened part of it to the public. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

Aimee pointed out the tiles that formed the sidewalk in the area and later we discovered they were
also designed by Gaudi. His creativity went from the overall design of something as huge as Sagrada
Familia and something as small as these, about 8" by 8".

This street is also lined with these ornate light standards with mosaic benches at
the base.

About a block further down is the Casa Batllo. This one only took him 2 years to complete. It is supposed to resemble the dragon that was slayed by Saint George ( or Sant Jordi, the patron Saint of Catalonia).

Public washrooms in Barcelona are in short supply so we had to stop at a café to use the
washroom. Really, every time you need to get rid of some liquid, you have to buy some
liquid. Anyway it at least gave me the opportunity to get out my sketchbook and do a
quick impression.

The blue tiles of the roof are supposed to be the scales of the dragon. I'm really
not sure what the mask like balconies have to do with the dragon story but they are
rather clever.

The buildings on each side are also "over the top" but quite different in style and
that has earned this area the name "the block of discord".

We walked home and had a glass of wine, took off our shoes (wiggled our toes) and rested for a while before heading back out for dinner.

We found an organic produce market set up in a church square in the gothic quarter. It was getting
dark and this honey was lit by a candle.

We sat at the bar and picked 5 pinchos to start.

Aimee had a beer, I had a glass of wine and we shared the 5 pinchos and a bottle of
water. Pinchos are slices of baguette with different toppings. The bar of a pinchos
restaurant are lined with them and you just point to the ones you want. For instance
we had one with anchovies and grilled red pepper, one with crab mixed with creamy cheese,
a potato croquette that Aimee said tasted like eating a shepherds pie in a little ball.

We had planned on 10 but were full after 5, then had a gelato and  continued to walk through the Barri Gottic.

A floodlit government building.

Nearly a full moon, over the Cathedral.

We were exhausted when we got home and I only got half the day blogged. I have just finished this the day after.