Barcelona Day 2

Inside La Sagrada Familia, nearly every surface is white stone--smooth, cool, white, hard, and in complete contrast to the sandy exterior. The windows all around the building are made of stained glass--blues and greens to the east; oranges, reds, and yellows to the west. This way, as the sun moves throughout the day, the colors reflected inside the basilica change. 

We visited just past noon, as the blues from the east were giving way to the reds in the west. The radiance was truly awe-inspiring.

Gaudi designed the interior with nature in mind, and so wandering through the building is much like wandering through a forest. Everything is towering; everything is open--there are no enclosed rooms, only small spaces tucked away in curves along the perimeter, like bubbles that haven't fully formed. The columns (like the overall floor plan) outline the shape of the cross. Like trees, they are broad at the base and branch out at the top, where they meet the sky.

This was my favorite place in all of Barcelona.