Ah, this building certainly needs no introduction...



The Sagrada Familia church is the creation of Antoni Gaudi, the Barcelona-born architect who sadly passed away from an accident just a few years into construction. The church, nevertheless, would go on to be one of his most iconic works.

In fact, it Barcelona wouldn't be Barcelona without Gaudi's works. Barcelona = Gaudi.

This building below is another of Gaudi's works called the Casa Mila, where he drew his design inspirations from elements from the sea.



Most of Gaudi's work were inspired by nature, as he felt that if nature built things in a certain way, it probably also meant that that would be the most sturdy, most logical way of building things.

Pictures of Gaudi's Park Guell showcases more of Gaudi's architectural style, built between 1900 to 1914...





Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the iconic lizard (I mean... dragon) in the park... Still, here's a picture of it I got from the internet...



Apparently the famous figure was severely vandalized in Feb last year by a group of youths. Sigh.... Fortunately it has been restored.

But of course, apart from Gaudi, Barcelona being an old city also has other works from other great architects, such as this one below which is the Palace of Catalan Music, a concert hall built between 1905 and 1908



Barcelona was also host to the 1992 Summer Olympics. Below are 2 pictures of the Olympic stadiums. If you enlarge the picture below, you probably can see the word "Barcelona '92" inscribed on the metal structure.





The stadium was built on high ground so you get to see Barcelona from the top.



Interesting thing was, on the very day we arrived at Barcelona, it was Easter Monday. Now, in most parts of Spain, Easter Monday is not a holiday. With incredible luck, it IS a public holiday ONLY in Barcelona. Now this was really a bummer cos this was actually the only day we got to be in Barcelona and pretty much everything was closed. BUMMER!