Ladies and Gentlemen, some Gaudi...plus two turtles.

First things first, today we went off to the hospital to get eldest's TB test read, and to every one's considerable relief, it was negative. The kids does NOT have tuberculosis. Thank God.

NOW

While we were in BCN getting this done we decided to see some of the sites that we could see in the area, and we came across some pretty cool stuff. We went back to Pedralbes, but it was closed. Poop, neither the man nor youngest had ever gone, but it is Monday and most things are closed Monday even if it is a holiday. Yes we have another holiday, this one is the second Easter...seems Jesus manages to rise from the dead twice every year here in Spain, a miraculous skill that I find somewhat confusing, but which I daren't question too closely as we do get an extra holiday out of it.

So we also paid a visit to the Parc d'Oreneta, of course...it was actually a bit dismal. Potentially lovely, but clearly the city was not putting the money into it that was necessary, the restaurant was a truck trailer, and the vegetable compost heap (industrial sized with concrete truck ramp) was right at the main gates.

So then we wandered down in search of some Gaudi....and look what we found:

Astonishingly GM and I walked right past this without noticing earlier this year, which does rather boggle the mind....the fellow at the top of the page, who I find enormously compelling is the block of lighter rock to the left of the dragon's gaping maw.

We also found some more later on....

along with a pergola in a trademark Gaudi arch...these two were very early on in his career.

A nice place to sit....


We saw these little guys out and about by the pond with the lilies. The pond had been put in as an ornamental for an apartment building.

If you go back up the the man at the top of the page, something I noticed in the picture, but failed to see in person is the teeny tiny trencada tile work that was done in the grout in the brick-work. Can you imagine? It leaves me gasping this attention to detail.

See, there it is again, I zoomed in on a section of brick that was off to one side of another photo, and then doctored the photo a bit as I really was pretty far away, and this section wasn't fully in focus...but...look....all the way through the building, the same amazing grout work.

Mind-bogglingly amazing. I am tempted to do it some day, I'd have to do it myself though, the cost!