Spectacular Trip to the Sagrada Familia #TBEX

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Sagrada Familia - DownshiftingPRO

It was my first trip to Spain and there were so many things that I enjoyed (and few that I didn’t).  Barcelona was spectacular: the markets, the food, the museums, the architecture, the street art; it all had a very special, warm, almost magical feel to me.  The Sagrada Familia was no different.  If you are unfamiliar, the Sagrada Familia (Spanish for Sacred Family)  is a very large Roman Catholic cathedral in central Barcelona designed by local Catalan/Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí.  Despite Gaudí’s many works around the city (Casa Calvet, Park Güell, Casa Batllo), the Sagrada Familia is by far his magnum opus and reflects his unique style combining both Gothic and Art Nouveau forms of architecture.  Though he did not live to see the completion of the cathedral (it isn’t set to be completed until approx. 2026, 144 years after the groundbreaking), his dreams and creativity continue to live on through the work of hundreds of workers throughout the years.

Upon arrival to the Sagrada Familia, you will first notice its sheer size.  This is no ordinary cathedral!  With eight enormous spires (and ten more in the works) reaching 170m, the cathedral towers over its surroundings and is surely visible from anywhere within a 15 km radius.  With its size, it’s difficult to get a full picture without an aerial view.  Next, you start to notice the strange, almost-alien like shapes that make up the building.  This is Gaudí’s unique style with his preference of organic, flowing and soft shapes over sharp, concrete lines that are commonly associated with structures of this size.  The Sagrada Familia looks as if it was carved out of an enormous tree in the middle of the city.  This gives it an almost whimsical feel, similar to many others of Gaudí’s works.

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Full Food Experience: Try 1 Cooking Class in Barcelona, Spain with @bcnKITCHEN #TBEX

Try a Cooking Class in Barcelona
Try a Cooking Class in Barcelona

Try a Cooking Class in Barcelona

When you visit a city that you have never seen before, you have a tendency to visit the typical tourist destinations.  Maybe it’s perusing a museum, a site of historical significance or a tourist trap (try and forgo those…).  Maybe you will avoid the tourist traps but you inevitably do many things that are on the beaten path.  Whatever your adventures may be, you always want to have an overall cultural, historical and culinary experience.  That is the main reason many of us travel.  For the experience.  For us, there is no more important task at hand than to immerse ourselves in the food experience: the taste of local dishes and specialty beverages. 

When Lauren and I  were in Spain we had the chance to try a cooking class in Barcelona at the bcnKITCHEN, a local cooking school.  The workshop included a morning of shopping and an afternoon of cooking.   I have to admit, being a first-time traveller to Barcelona, I was not keen on spending the better part of a day in a kitchen cooking.  Was I ever wrong… this had to be one of the best experiences that we had travelling together.  There is nothing like learning how to cook an authentic Catalan meal to inspire you to take a little bit of Barcelona culture and try it at home. 

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