May 2, 2016, Monday — Barcelona and Gaudi's Park Guell

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church on the hill as seen from our hotel rooftop

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doorway

Martha was sick this morning with a bad cold, so Arthur went with the group on another tour of Barcelona. In the afternoon we both went to Park Guell, a residential area and park designed by Gaudi, and where he had his own home (although he spent most of his time back in town at the Sagrada Familia cathedral.) The park features a broad veranda overlooking the city (which back then was countryside). The veranda is supported by posts that look like trees, and is edged with a sinuously curving cement bench decorated with ceramics. The stairs to go down to the gardens from the veranda have a ceramic dragon. Everywhere there are colonnades of man-made “trees”.
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fake "trees" hold up a walkway at Park Guell

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The Gaudi House Museum, where Gaudi and his family lived from 1906 to 1926

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Vivian Tavares guides us through Park Guell

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Bird nests built by Gaudí in the terrace walls. The walls imitate the trees planted on them

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Arthur Luehrmann in a corridor formed by the fake trees

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The unique shape of the serpentine bench enables the people sitting on it to converse privately, although the square is large. The bench is tiled and in order to dry up quickly after it rains, and to stop people from sitting in the wet part of the bench, small bumps were installed by Gaudí

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George Yule, Arthur Luehrmann, and Isabel Sandez converse on the serpentine bench

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Sarah Kolb

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two Gaudi houses at the entrance to the Park Guell

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view from the terrace of Barcelona and the ocean

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going down a staircase from the terrace

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Arthur Luehrmann walked through the beautiful butterfly gate

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base of the "trees" buttressing the terrace

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columns holding up the terrace

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columns holding up the terrace

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one of Gaudi's unique tiles

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flowers

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people looking out over the terrace

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the fake "trees" are full of real trees

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The Gaudi House Museum, where Gaudi and his family lived from 1906 to 1926

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Gaudí's multicolored mosaic salamander, popularly known as "El Drac" (the dragon), at the main entrance, as restored after the vandalism of February 2007

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