FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14
Interesting morning jaunt to get fingerprints at a police station in a completely different part of the city. We were ushered into the building surrounded by high, barbed fences. Our passport information was recorded.
The building felt like a 1950s industrial warehouse with polished 1950, green and white tiled floors, faded green painted walls, long hallways, small offices with glass windows and a lab room where a woman wearing a white lab coat would roll my fingers in ink, pressed them in marked squares on an oversized piece of paper, and then show me how to clean them.
GUELL PARK
With fingerprints in hand, we walked to Guell park, a public park and the largest green space in Barcelona. Made up of gardens and architectural elements, it’s located on Carmel Hill on the mountain range of Collseola. The park’s design and details (railing, grotto, and buildings) represents the culmination of the association that began between entrepreneur Eusebi Guell and architect Antoni Gaudi in 1878. Guell gave Gaudi the assignment of designing the park in 1900.
BEST MEAL YET AND SAGRADA FAMILIA
A few blocks down the hill, we found the busy restaurant Comedia DeOlla, and enjoyed our best meal yet in Barcelona.
Next up was our visit to the Sagrada Familia, and truth be told, we didn’t love it. It is a bit garish for our tastes (though we would return to Barcelona in March and go on a Gaudi tour in order to learn more about this cathedral and all of Gaudi’s work…understanding our knowledge was limited on this first visit.).
CONTRACT AND WALLET MISSING
We finished the day with more business, copying Chloe’s contract (it arrived!). I absentmindedly left my wallet in a bar where I grabbed a coffee (luckily, the bartender held onto it and I got it back. It had our passports in it!). A sign I’m feeling overwhelmed.
