21st April Simply sublime at the Sagrada (pt2)

 

Sometimes thing a can fail to live up to the hype surrounding it. And sometimes things just exceed expectations. The Sagrada Familia definitely falls into the latter category. 

And that had nothing to do with the fact that we managed to get in for nowt, having wrangled free guided tour tickets on account of TOM being disabled (well having a disabled parking permit) and me being a member of a religious order i.e. very holy indeed.

Known as the church that Gaudi started but is still not finished after decades of construction, it can have the reputation of being a bit of a Disney like amalgamation of the garishly weird and wonderful. And from the outside it can seem like that until you look closer and see that all the figures are in fact biblical.

But inside was just stunning both in terms of the amazing architecture but also the breath taking stained glass windows illuminated by the afternoon sun that sent shafts of multicoloured light across the marble floor, up the stone pillars and dancing across the walls. It was utterly beautiful to behold.

And considering this in probably the most visited attraction in Barcelona, after La Ramblas, it was remarkably peaceful, almost as if people were stunned into silence. Even TOM was impressed.

We both said it would have been interesting to see how the building sounded when full of worshipers and whether the architectural design would have rendered it an acoustic heaven or hell. But for this moment it was simply the voice of it creator that filled this sacred space. Sublime.