Palau Guell

A few days ago, we went to Palau Guell, which is a mansion Gaudi designed for his buddy Eusebi Guell (remember Park Guell?).  It was done in the late 1880's and was one of Gaudi's first commissions.  After the civil war, police occupied it and tortured prisoners in the basement, leaving the house in disrepair.  It was refurbished from 1990-2011 and finally opened for tourists in May 2010.  It's right off La Rambla (the main tourist drag), so it's pretty convenient to visit.  it's less well-known than some of Gaudi's other works, but still just as beautiful.  For 12 Euro, you get entrance and a "free" audio guide.  Let's go!

Foyer:

On our way to the garage/basement:

Garage/basement:

Back in foyer and going upstairs:

Reached a waiting room- type area and went up the next set of stairs:

Check out the crazy ceiling detail:

Not much I like more than a cool ceiling.

Also interesting wall detailing:

Beautiful!

I need this sconce in my next palace:

Dining room:

Now we're hitting the main room of the house, which acts as sort of a courtyard because all the rooms above it can look down into it.

This room contained a chapel and would be opened for small services when the priest (?) would come.  If the members of the family didn't feel like coming down for the service, they could view it from their respective rooms up above.

Organ:

Look at this fireplace:

Bathroom:

Stained glass detailing:

In the attic, they detailed their restoration:

Good job guys, the place looks great, but I'm not reading any of this.  Sorry.

Let's go to the roof, which is always the highlight of a Gaudi house:

See if you can spot La Sagrada Familia in the background:

How about now?

Not bad, Gaudi.  Not bad at all.

So that's Palau Guell.  

Then we crossed La Rambla and went to one of our fav spots in tourist central, Placa Reial.  I took drunk pics of this plaza the other night, but they were terrible, so here it is during the day:

It's surrounded by bars and restaurants and usually packed with tourists.  

Then we walked toward the Barri Gotic area to visit a couple sights (next post).  

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my family.  My dad is Indian and while we don't celebrate many Indian holidays, one we do celebrate is Rakhi.  Rakhi symbolizes the relationship between brothers and sisters (and cousins...in India cousins are basically like your siblings as well).  So, the brother ties a special red string around the brother's wrist to symbolize her love and the brother in return vows to protect her.  There more to it, but that's the basic idea.  My favorite part of Rakhi is when the brother showers his sister with gifts (we just do money).  Anyway, yesterday was Rakhi and my family went to my cousin, Shelly's house and celebrated.  Just wanted to say Happy Rakhi guys!  Ny, you can mail me the money if you feel so inclined!  ;)