Sagrada Familia

It's funny.  Both Betsy and I were remarking before we left for Barcelona how we really felt accustomed to life here in Sofia.  How we really didn't need a break.  How we were forming a home, with its correspondent familiarity and comforts.  Boy, was it hard to come back.  Don't get me wrong, we're feeling good to have our own bed, to see our kitties, to shop at our local fruit stands.  But Barcelona, largely because of Gaudi, was an enthralling experience.  The creativity, the colors, the curves...we were inspired.  

Below you'll see pictures of Sagrada Familia, a church which Gaudi worked on for the last forty years of his life, until he was tragically killed by a tram car.  He eventually even lived there while it was under construction.  It still is, with a projected finish date of sometime within the next fifty years (depending on whom you ask).  Though there are massive cranes rising all around it, it is the centerpiece of the city, and only a few blocks from our Bed and Breakfast. Unfortunately, many of Gaudi's plans for the structure were lost in the Spanish Civil War, so others have tried to fill in the blanks.  There is debate as to how well they've succeeded.  Either way, it stands as a testament to a deeply religious man who invested all his energy in this final project. 

The church entrance.

And the other side.  Gaudi spent so much time designing the church, that he grew slovenly and careless in other parts of his life.  When he was hit by the tram, he was actually taken to, and died in, a pauper's hospital because no one recognized him in his unkempt state.  Though friends located him, he asked to remain there.

Betsy is standing on the roof of another Gaudi creation (more pics to come), with Sagrada Familia in the distance.