Barcelona – Doer & Dreamer

June 22, 2017 Barcelona / Tourism

Barcelona 3.2: Gettin’ Sagrada

During our third visit to Barcelona, we finally saw one of the most iconic symbols of the city: La Sagrada Familia. Although we also discovered the works of another master architect during our April trip, we just couldn’t let a visit go by without seeing something created by our favorite Catalan modernist, Antoni Gaudí. And boy, was it something – many people (probably most) consider La Sagrada Familia his unfinished masterpiece. Construction of La Sagrada Familia, or The Church of the Holy Family, began in 1882, and Gaudí took over the project a year later. Even though he was completely devoted to

June 6, 2017 Barcelona / Tourism

Barcelona 3.1: Scaling the modernist Montaner

A flimsy pretense was all we needed to schedule a return trip to Barcelona for the first weekend of April. We’re game pretty much any time, but when Dreamer found out a friend was performing comedy there the coming Saturday evening, the decision was easy. Our first two trips of Barcelona were quite heavy on the works of Antoni Gaudí, the most famous person associated with Catalan Modernism. While we did devote some time to our favorite whimsical architect (which we’ll tell you all about in our next post), we also discovered another master, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, who designed two modernist gems eventually designated

January 19, 2017 Barcelona / Holidays / Tourism

Barcelona: The Return

We heard there was a Christmas market in Barcelona famous for its pooping figurines. Conveniently, we also had a free weekend in December. Other unaccomplished things from our last Barcelona trip could also be done. Therefore, we had to go. The Fira de Santa Llucia is one of Barcelona’s oldest Christmas markets. Catalunya – the Northeast area of Spain anchored by Barcelona – also happens to be home to some fun Christmas traditions centered around poop. And you know we can’t turn down such humor. First, there is Caga Tió (literally, shitting log). The following comic explains it better than we ever could. Now, we

November 13, 2016 Barcelona / Tourism

Halloween in BarTHelona

We. Love. Barcelona. (and apologies for the Photoshop work above; it was an idea of Dreamer’s that made me chuckle) We had such a great time there Halloween weekend, and there is still so much more to do. By the way, Halloween is very much a thing here now. Lots of people in Barcelona in their costumes all day on 10/31 and 11/1 in the metro and on the street. Another American export the world can thank us for! Dreamer is writing about all the cool architecture we saw and I’m taking a stab at everything else here. Let it be said

November 12, 2016 Barcelona / Tourism

Palau Güell – Our First Brush With Gaudí

During our Halloween-weekend visit to Barcelona, the modernist architecture of Antoni Gaudí captured our hearts and imaginations. But we didn’t get our fill. Visiting the famous Catalan architecht’s works should not be a rushed affair; that, combined with sold-out tickets at Park Güell and a ridiculously long line at Casa Batlló definitely guarantees we will make a second trip to Barcelona (and hopefully many more – it’s an amazing city). Not to mention we didn’t get anywhere close to his magnum opus, la Sagrada Família. We saw it from a distance on several occasions, but never passed the threshold. Our first

November 6, 2016 Barcelona / Tourism

Funiculì, funiculà!

My obsession with funicular railways probably started with a birthday at the Olive Garden (probably also their TV commercials). And maybe other “Italian” restaurants in my youth as well. Like most Americans, I didn’t really realize this at the time. But that melody you most closely associate with Italy indeed commemorates the opening of the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius. Have a listen; everyone knows this one. Bet’cha didn’t know what it was about, though. As an engineer, the idea of building a safe machine on the side of a steep incline, composed of two balanced, cable-pulled cars of opposing weight really fascinates