On our second full day in Barcelona we decided to visit Park Güell, a big park designed by Antoni Gaudi. It's part of the UNESCO heritage site named "Works of Antoni Gaudi". For those who don't know, Gaudi was a famous architect who lived in the late 1800's to the early 1900's. He is known for his wacky, weird, wonderful, fantastical designs. The entire park is wacky 'cause he designed the whole thing, but Barcelona is also full of his work, along with many other designer/architects that were inspired by him, or who knows, maybe tried to copy his successful work!
This was a playground we saw on the way to the park. Check out how it's on an island in the middle of a really big intersection! We noticed a few of these types of playgrounds in Barcelona. It was really strange to see a playground with no grass... it puts a whole new spin on playing in traffic!
One of the first things we saw on the way into the park! Freaky Gaudi structure behind all the trees!
Gaudi lived in this house for a bit...we didn't go in though, 'cause you had to pay!
Gaudi tiles! On a wall! Cooool!
Gaudi tiles! On the ground! Cooool! Actually you could find these tiles throughout downtown Barcelona! Instead of a stone or brick sidewalk, they would sometimes use these Gaudi tiles. Really neat!
Stefan in a Gaudi vine vortex!
Random sculpture! Freaky! It's like a cactus!
Under the stone structure from the second photo in this post. The columns are supposed to represent trees, but Stefan thinks this looks like the underside of a huge dinosaur! It's so grand and freaky that it makes being there feel like you're in a fantasy land.
Another cool structure in the park.
Overlooking a huge terrace overlooking the main entrance of the park. A lot of the park is behind us and to the sides, like a big stadium.
At the back of the terrace you could find seating for a restaurant.
Don't know what this is... but it's the view from a part of the park! Looks like a cool building on a hill though!
Here's a lookout platform at the top of the park. It gives you a 360 view of Barcelona. There's not a lot of space up there as you can see and people sort of shuffled their way about to get their time at the top. A bit of circus acrobatics to not fall off the platform and roll to your death :P
View from the platform--there's the Sagrada Familia, probably Gaudi's most famous work. We only lived about a 20-minute walk away from the cathedral; we think we were to the left of it in this photo!
A view of the hillside of the park. Those two buildings you see are at the front/main entrance.
The really kick-ass terrace railing! Everything in this park was designed by Gaudi, down to the tiniest details. They don't sell these tiles at Home Depot!
A view of the two buildings at the front entrance from the edge of the terrace. Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompas must live there!
A view of the terrace while we were at the front of it.
Underneath the terrace... yeah, that giant dirt landscape that is the terrace is actually the top of another structure! Check out all the wicked tiling on the ceiling!
From the space in the photo above you can walk down stairs that lead to the front entrance. Here we are at the top of those stairs.
Looking up the stairs! You can see the edge of the terrace there in the background. Also, a colourful mini-Godzilla!
Inside one of the houses at the front entrance. The whole inside of this house was painted with really bright colours!
A view of the staircase at the front entrance from the second floor of one of the houses.
This park was pretty amazing. It may be the most unique park you may ever go to. There is lots of greenery but there is also lots of sand... very lush but desert-y at the same time. And of course, with Gaudi's really cool and interesting architecture makes Park Güell something that can't be missed in Barcelona! Go! Now!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment