After a truly wonderful breakfast at our hotel (I don’t do food porn, but if I did you’d be seeing photos here) we mostly successfully navigated the Barcelona Metro to Casa Milà, commonly known as La Pedrera. Gaudi considered La Pedrera to be his masterpiece—at least up until he devoted the rest of his life to the Sagrada Familia. It’s easy to see why. The structure is based on 127 brick ribs that intentionally mimic the skeleton of a whale. This free flowing structure meant that there were no bearing walls to take into account when he designed the building, allowing him to use whatever organic shape suited his eccentric fancy.

Probably the best-known element of La Pedrera is the Warrior Roof—a rolling fantasy land of art deco interpretations of elements (fire, water, earth, air) and fantasy soldiers. It also appears to be a favorite staging area for young Japanese beauty influencers. To me, the underlying structure of the roof is more fascinating than the roof itself, and there were no influencers there except the ones that were headed up to the roof.

We had an early ticket to La Pedrera, which proved to be wise. It was crowded enough when we were there, but by the time we left is was completely sardined. We opted not to visit the Casa Batllò, just three blocks away, which also proved to be wise as it was even more crowded than La Pedrera. There are a couple if images from the street below.

Lunch was a simple one—sandwiches and fresh orange juice. Just enough.

Then, on to the gem of the trip so far—the Palau de la Mùsica Catalana, an astonishing monument to art nouveau. Built in the early 1900s as an opera and performing arts center, the Palau still offers performances in its ornate concert hall. The designers were careful not to leave any surface unadorned. It’s ostentatious, but it works. The overall effect is mesmerizing, and the pipe organ sounds amazing.

Tomorrow, it’s an early train ride to Figueras to visit the Dali museum.

Images from La Pedrera: (more in the Photo Dump)

images from the Palau de la Mùsica Catalana: (Better ones in the Photo Dump)

And the Casa Batllò, as promised: