Barcelona lines

After yesterday’s extravaganza of curves and bubbles today was more about straight lines.

We planned to visit Sagrada Familia – the cathedral designed by Guadi – but when we arrived the line for tickets stretched over 200 meters in the burning sun. Declining to join the slowly broiling group we instead had lunch in a playground across the way.

After lunch we headed for Montjuic the hill beside the Port. Getting to the top of the hill involved getting the metro, then a funicular and finally a cable car: thus providing Callum with his fix of engineering marvels for the day. Up top, the view over Barcelona is spectacular. The fortress at the summit is surrounded by guns dating from the turn of the Twentieth Century – which were used to fire on the City during the Civil War and which command the city. They also make pretty cool impromptu climbing frames.

The fortress is basically Gaudi’s antitheses. It is a series of blocks built one atop the other in a very utilitarian fashion. The view is great in all directions but there’s not a lot else there. The Park has a couple of nice cafes and some wonderful long slides which kept the kids entertained for ages while creating a complex story involving time travel.