One of the first things we noticed is the street corners are not corners but rather diagonals. This part of the old city and its because the streets are all different widths and not parallel. Even some of the buildings don't have corners. They are this way because in the 19th century they used trams and had accidents. This style is called xanfra. Also we see lots of people everywhere on bikes and there are lots of bike lines.
From the Plaza Cataluña, we drove past a wide boulevard with a triumphal arch at the end. It has the first street lamps in Barcelona, built for the 1888 world exhibition and where electricity was produced. In the Plaza is the Cortes Ingles, the largest shopping center in the city. Along the boulevards are houses with Round balconies.
Next we drove by Casa Batlló one of Gaudi's buildings. It Represents a dragon being slayed.
Casa Mila is another of Gaudi's building. It was designed to represent the Mediterranean Sea. The balconies are the seaweed and and the shape is the waves.
Gaudi said if there are no straight lines in nature why should I make straight lines in my architecture.
We drove through the gràcia district which used to be separate from Barcelona. Lots of flowers and balconies and no houses have any garages (because it was built before the automobile) . In this section the buildings do have corners and the streets are straight.
There are lots of Palm Trees but they are not native here. They were brought here as a symbol of wealth. Gaudi was also one of the first architects to use cement.
We drove up to Parc Gaell which is on top of a mountain of about 15 acres. From the top you can see the Mediterranean Sea. I am going to make that a separate post because we are getting off the bus :)
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