October 6, 2026

October 6, 2026

Tuesday

Le Méridien Hotel, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

We have the entire day off before we start our Tauck Tour with Mike & Maddie. We usually plan an extra day into our travels just in case something goes awry. While yesterday’s flight was quite literally the flight from hell, we did still manage to get to Barcelona on our scheduled day. Having that extra day allows us to relax and, possibly, recover from the travel day.

We got going later than usual this morning as we both slept well last night. We went down to breakfast about 09:00. Breakfast was in the CentOnze (or as the sign says Cent111onze) here in the hotel. Couldn’t find any significance to the name.

However, that maybe because Barcelona has two official languages: Catalan and Spanish. Barcelona is the capital of the autonomous region of Spain known as Catalonia. Historically, Catalonia is a distinct historic region and former principality in the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula with its own language, culture, and self-governing traditions.

It’s early history and ancient roots go back to the early Iberian peoples who were colonized by Greeks, and made a major Roman province centered on Tarraco (Tarragona). The County of Barcelona was formed in the 9th century under Count Guifré el Pilós (Wilfred the Hairy), breaking away from Frankish rule by the 10th century.

The Country of Barcelona was united through marriage in 1137 with the Kingdom of Aragon, evolving into a powerful maritime empire. The Principality of Catalonia maintained its own legal and political system, including the early parliament known as the Corts Catalanes (established 1283). During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714) Catalonia backed the losing claimant (the Habsburg archduke) and Barcelona fell on September 11, 1714 to Philip V of Anjou, a French Burton prince. Philip the V abolished the Catalian institutions via the Nueva Planta decrees of 1716.

The Renaixença, a 19th-century Romantic cultural and literary revival movement aimed at restoring the Catalan language and culture after centuries of decline, began around the 1830s—often marked by Bonaventura Carles Aribau’s 1833 ode La pàtria—and lasted through the late 19th century before evolving into modernism and Noucentisme. The core goal of which was to revive Catalan as a prestigious literary and cultural vehicle, moving past a long period of diglossia alongside Spanish (known as La Decadència). The regional Catalan consciousness helped fuel the industrial revolution and the local bourgeoisie, the movement laid the groundwork for modern cultural autonomy.

The period from the 1830’s until the abdication of King Amadeo I in 1873 Spain went though several tumultuous decades. During the First Spanish Republic (1873-1874) Catalonia briefly attempted to establish a federated Catalan State as part of a federalist republican movement rather than a separatist one. On March 9, 1873, the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona proclaimed the Catalan State as a provisional federated entity within the First Spanish Republic. The proposed state included the four Catalan provinces along with the Balearic Islands, with Barcelona designated as its capital. The project lasted only a few days and was disestablished on March 11, 1873, after federal authorities in Madrid promised to dissolve the Spanish army presence in Catalonia.

The period from 1874 to 1931 in Spain is known as the Bourbon Restoration, a time when the monarchy was brought back after the First Spanish Republic. The Conservative and Liberal parties took turns ruling the country on purpose to keep stability. They used local bosses (caciques) and rigged elections (fraude electoral) to make sure the right party won each time. A new Spanish Constitution was crafted under the guidance of politician Antonio Cánovas del Castillo in 1876. This new constitution shared power between the king and parliament while making Catholicism the official state religion.

During the Spanish-American Was in 1898 Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines causing a deep national crisis known as the Disaster of '98. King Alfonso XIII backed a military dictatorship led by Miguel Primo de Rivera from 1923 to 1930. After the dictatorship failed, local elections in 1931 showed massive support for a republic, forcing the king to flee and leading to the Second Spanish Republic.

Catalonia briefly won semi-autonomy during the Spanish Second Republic, but the victory of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) led to severe repression, including a ban on public use of the Catalan language. Following Franco's death in 1975, Catalonia recovered its self-governing institution, the Generalitat de Catalunya, under the 1978 Spanish Constitution, becoming an autonomous community recognized as a historic nationality.

You’ll see why this it’s important in a moment. It is important to remember that Catalan is the historical, institutional, and cultural language of Catalonia. You see it on street signs, public transit, and government notices. Spanish (Castilian) is also official and is widely spoken by nearly everyone in the city.

Spanish is the most common everyday spoken language in Barcelona for casual conversations, shops, and restaurants. Catalan is dominant in local schools, universities, and regional government offices. And, English is spoken by many workers in the tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as by younger residents.

All of this history is importantly to understand the importance of one of Barcelona’s most note tourist attractions – Basílica I Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, or simply Sagrada Família; or in English Basilica and Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family. The Sagrada Família is a Catholic Bascilica in the Eixample district of Barcelona. Francisco de Paula del Villar designed the initial neo-Gothic plans for the Sagrada Família in 1882.  He was appointed as the original architect by the Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph and began work on a traditional neo-Gothic design. Villar resigned in 1883 after disagreements over the construction, leading Antoni Gaudí to take over and completely redesign the project.

There are two points here. First, this is not either a design or project of the Catholic Church, but a project of the wealthy merchant class in Barcelona at the time of the Industrial Revolution and in the midst of a tumultuous time, politically, in Spain. Second, the people of Catalonia were searching for their own political identity.

The architect Antoni Gaudí took over as chief architect, transforming the project with this own architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his life to the project, and he is buried in the church’s crypt. When he died in 1926 less than a quarry of the project was completed. Note – construction actually began on the 19th of March 1882.

Relying solely on private donations, Sagrada Família's construction progressed slowly and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. In July 1936, anarchists from the Iberian Anarchist Federation (Federación Anarquista Ibérica, or FAI) and the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) attacked and set fire to parts of the church due to deep-seated anti-clericalism. They partially destroyed Gaudí's original plans.

In 1939, Francesc de Paula Quintana took over site management, which was able to go on with the material that was saved from Gaudí's workshop and that was reconstructed from published plans and photographs. Construction resumed with intermittent progress in the 1950s. Advancements in technologies such as computer-aided design and computer numerical control (CNC) have since enabled faster progress, and construction passed the midpoint in the construction of the church in 2010. In 2005 the Nativity Façade and the crypt were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, under the “Works of Antoni Gaudí.

In 2014, it was anticipated that the building would be completed by 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death, but this schedule was threatened by work slowdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The design is meant to be a peoples’ church. With the completion of the “Christ Tower” in 2025 it is the tallest church in the world. In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a basilica.

 The main entrance will be to the right in this photo.

Love the fact I have a halo!

This is behind the alter. The windows on the right represent morning, they are to the east. The windows on the last represent evening or the passion of Christ.

The color of the windows changes as the sun passes overhead.

We had the pleasure of a Context Tour of the basilica. Our guide Alessandro has a BA in Archaeology and History, and a MA in Cultural Heritage Management and Museology at the University of Barcelona. He has been a professional tour guide for over a decade. We connected with him at a café near the basilica. We then spent two very enlightening hours learning about not only the basilica but Spanish and Catalan history. From the outside the basilica looks like a very complex Disneyesque sandcastle. Inside is a whole different story. The design leads to a space of beautify light through the massive stain glass windows.

Alessandro helped us to better understand the symbolism of the various architectural elements of the interior. It would be impossible to try and tell you about them because you have to really see them to begin to understand. The basilica is laid out in a traditional Latin cross. The main entrance of which is at the feet of Christ on the cross, still currently under construction, leading up the center of the church to the alter which is the head of Christ.

The left outstretched arm headed to the entrance called the Nativity Façade. Here there are scenes from the birth of Christ. The Passion Façade is at the right side of the alter. Here there are scenes from the death of Christ laid out in the stations of the cross. Alessandro said that the construction of the main entrance should be completed in ten years – probably Spanish ten years which could be twenty. The Spanish and Italian years running about the same length.

After our tour we took a taxi back to the hotel. Went into the dinning room and had lunch. Mary had a Caesar Salad with chicken, and I chose the Iberian schnitzel with Padrón peppers and sweet potato fries. The combination of the schnitzel and peppers was actually very good. After lunch we went up for a nap.

One of the peppers is meant to be eaten with each bit of meat.

It was just after 17:00 that we got going again. This time we walked down La Rambla, which is the Champs-Élysées of Barcelona. Under remodeling near the hotel, but the already remodeled parts are very nice. Specifically, we were headed to Lush to buy some bath salts. We stopped at the very large two-story Carrefour Market just around the corner from the hotel to see if they had bath salts. Mary found herself a new toothbrush but no bath salts.

We continued on about a mile down La Rambla. Lots of shops, markets, and restaurants. We got to Lush, purchased the bath salts and headed back to the hotel. Along the way we stopped at a restaurant called Amaren and had a lovely Wagyu steak. We shared on between ourselves. Not what we would call a typical Wagyu, but still a really nice steak.

After that it was back to the hotel. A nice hot bath with bath salts, and a good night’s sleep.  

Buenas noches y hola - Buonanotte e Ciao,

Enrico e Maria