Walking Gaudi’s park

Posted on by Ella

Post by Ella

It seems one can’t walk more than a block in Barcelona without seeing reference to the famous Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi (1852 – 1926). Known as a Catalan modernist, his style is distinctive.  Yesterday we headed to the hills to explore Park Güell, a park designed by Gaudi in 1900. 

We opted out of walking to the park (one hour all uphill) so hopped on Bus 24 which would take us right to the entrance. 

The route
On the bus

Commissioned by Count Güell, Gaudi was originally asked to design the area as a housing development for the wealthy. With only two houses built (neither designed by Gaudi) and no sales the project was abandoned.

Park Güell is now a public park and up until 2013, was open 24 hours with free entrance. The people of Barcelona could walk the long winding trails (designed by Gaudi to be symbolic of a spiritual journey) and enjoy nature any time. Because of the huge influx of tourists (and disruption to neighbors), the City began limiting access to the park (and charging a fee for non-Barcelonans) in order to preserve the park and it’s unique structures.

The generic reptile. Replicas available in all souvenir shops

Entry to the park was completely sold out during the time we would be in Barcelona – yet another reason why the people of Barcelona are not happy with the over abundance of tourists. 

So how did we get in? I stumbled across an ad for a guided one hour walking tour of the park that had space left. We could stay as long as we wanted after the tour.

Viaduct
Under the viaduct
Long snaking tiled bench
Gaudi’s clever ergonomic features made the bench unexpectedly comfortable
Wide paths
One of the two original houses
View of the bay from the park
Apollos temple
Ceiling
Mosaic mandala. Tiles are broken bits of plates, goblets, crockery
The gingerbread pavilion, inspired by what fairy tale?
A slightly closer look at the gingerbread pavilion

Once the tour was done, we decided to leave. We could have stayed and headed up one of the many paths but it seems we were both in low energy mode.

We took the 24 bus to the L3 metro down to the Columbus Statue on La Rambla and decided it was time for lunch.

The route back down
Metro entrance
On the p,atform

There were cafes lining the Rambla for blocks. Easy to find something. We found paella. Meat for Grubb, vegetable for me. And a cocktail.

Paella
Cocktail
View from our lunch spot on the busy Rambla

2 thoughts on “Walking Gaudi’s park”

  1. Looks like a great visit so far. Don’t know your schedule, but the Poble Espanyole, https://poble-espanyol.com/en/ is a great venue. It’s a reconstruction village with each building representing the architecture of every area of Spain. The street level floors are craft shops, and we had a great Mexican lunch there. Chefs were from Mexico City, top notch. Leather shop is also worth a stop, Judi got a custom book mark made while we watched.

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    1. Heading home today (the 19th) so unfortunately won’t make it but it sounds interesting. I guess you guys loved Barcelona! I do too.

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