Anyone who does even the most remote amount of research before visiting Barcelona, Spain, knows that the city swims in Gaudi architecture.  The crown jewel is La Sagrada Familia Basilica (The Sacred Family).  Like any other massive tourist attraction, I highly recommend booking tickets in advance, and you can do so without worry of scams or upcharges through the Sagrada Familia website.  There, you can choose whether you just want base level tickets, a tour, tickets to go up into the towers, etc.  I chose base tickets with a guided tour in English.  I am most definitely not into going up into towers.

When we arrived for our 10:30am ticket time, there was a security line which took about 5 minutes to get through.  We arrived about 15 minutes before our tour, so we were able to walk around freely and just admire the massive space.  It’s so huge and tall, you cannot convey the scale of the place in words, but you really feel like it’s something extremely special. The basilica takes up an entire city block in the L’Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona. It is colorful, it is unique, it is weird, it is spectacular.  How many more superlatives can I come up with? Our daughter Clara said it looks like one of those sandcastles that you can build dripping really wet sand to make the tall spires.  

Our tour guide was at the designated spot to the left of the main doors of the Nativity Facade handing out little radios and ear pieces.  Unfortunately, it is very loud in the basilica due to all of the tourists, so an earpiece is necessary to hear the guide.  I would highly recommend booking the tour, which lasts about 45 minutes to an hour and gives you so much more information than you could get just standing around looking at the place.  He pointed out interesting parts of both the Nativity Facade and the Passion Facade.  He told us about the architectural innovations developed by Gaudi that allowed the church to be so tall, with the special way that the columns undulate and lean.  They are meant to look like trees, and you feel as though nature truly inspired this masterpiece.  

One of the most amazing things about this Basilica is the stained glass and the ridiculous amount of color that comes through them.  Gaudi actually developed a special way of making the stained glass that diffuses the light and color, rather than focuses it, which allows the place to be full of super bright hues of blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. 

After the tour, we sat in one of the pews to simply take in everything we had seen and learned here.  I felt spirituality oozing from the walls and columns, and despite the loud crowds, was able to meditate for a moment.  

I kept asking my husband how was I going to find the words to describe this place to people who have never been here?  The place is indescribable.  But, rather than use up the rest of the superlative adjectives in my vocabulary, I will just end this article with:   If you are ever in Barcelona, you absolutely must come here, because it is literally a place like no other in the world.