Gaudi at the Cathedral

A good and a bad day.

Bad as after a night of heavy rain it has continued, somewhat abated, for the rest of the day. Worse I have developed a stinking head cold! It's only just over a month since I had the last one!

But there have been good things to do. We found the indoor food market in the Placa Olivar. Some amazing fresh food stalls which made great pictures. It was obviously popular and really busy.

Great flower stalls too on La Rambla.

A nice little artisan bakery at the top of our little street provided boccadillos for lunch and then we headed down to the Cathedral. We had an excellent audio-tour and although construction was started at the beginning of the 14 th century we discovered that Antonio Gaudi had been involved with major redevelopment of the nave between 1904 and 1914.
The details you can see here including the three stained glass windows and wrought ironwork rails are all his work. (I've enhanced this a bit to make it clearer.)

We did visit the cathedral when here 40 years ago but I don't think I had even heard of Gaudi then so wouldn't have been aware of any of this. The apse to the right of the nave is of a very modern design by Miquel Barcelo and only blessed in 2007. I liked it but Chris just 'humphed'!

Everyone is geared up here for when it is cooler with lots of living flame patio heaters which look and feel great. So lots of cups of tea, coffee and the odd glass of wine still consumed outdoors. (For those worried I'm drinking too much tea instead of champagne I can tell you there was Cava at breakfast this morning and yes I did have some in my orange juice!)