Before I left for Barcelona, I met with a friend of mine who had studied abroad in Spain and spent quite a bit of time in Barcelona. She lent me a book of hers featuring beautiful photos of Gaudi's work. After seeing that book, one of the sites I looked most forward to seeing was the Parc Güell. The park was originally supposed to be a planned, affluent development project that Gaudi was to design. He had begun work, but the project flopped, and years later the area was officially made into a park.
Before heading back to the States I was determined to visit the park. So the evening before I was leavig, I made my way there. I saw where it was located on the map and which Metro stop I needed to get off at to reach it. Though I was not feeling well and still in a bit of pain, I made the trek anyway. I imagined that I would get off the Metro and walk a couple blocks to a beautiful, green, grassy AND FLAT park. Uh...not quite the case. When I got off the Metro I followed signs to the park. I believe one sign said it was 500 meters from the Metro - which is just 0.31 miles - not bad. BUT, a large portion of it is going up a very steep hill - equivalent to a hill you might find in San Francisco. Luckily, half way up this steep slope were sets of escalators, though the last set were not working and were followed by at least 3 to 4 flights of stairs.
As you can imagine, I was slow-moving. Several elderly men and women seemed to literally zoom past me. But I made it this far, and I was determined to see this darn park before I left. And I finally made it! It's a pretty good size park, and I didn't get a chance to see it all, but what I did see was amazing! It was so beautiful! Huge beautiful trees and more of Gaudi's signature mosaic work. I loved it! I wish I had come sooner. If I make it back, this will be the first place I return to. My photos don't do the place justice...and they just don't look like the photos from that Gaudi book. :o) But hope you enjoy!
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