An unexpected addition
When you first approach the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, it looks like a gnarled fairytale castle, hewn out of roots and spires. It’s only as you get closer that you see the incredible detail, the thousands of intricate carvings charting the course of biblical history. Truly incredible. And the inside is even better – Gaudi was obsessed with nature, from the structure of cells to the whorls of a shell and the symmetry of a pine cone. His columns are grooved so as to resemble the helicoidal twists of a sweet chestnut tree. The arches of the vault are like a giant ribcage.

Amidst this grandeur and genius, I sat waiting for the lift to the top of the tower, basking in the interplays of greens reds and blues from the stained glassed window. Our turn came, and up we went.

It’s amazing up there. Amazing. You look down on the massive decorative clusters emerging from the roof of the cathedral like wild arum, the enormous metal sculpture of Christ suspended from the bridge, and the city itself stretches away into the distant haze. “He built this for a god I don’t even believe in,” I thought. Am I wrong? How could such a thing be inspired by an error? Have I been missing the point all along?

These mixed feelings of doubt and wonder stayed with me as I descended the long, tightly-wound spiral stairs. Peering over the rail and looking down, it’s exactly like the spirals of an ammonite. Yet more genius and wonder, only seen if you change your perspective. My fingers brushed along the wall as I walked and pondered. And then out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the piece de resistance, the final embellishment that made this the greatest building I’d ever walked in:



“Ah, Mahoney,” I chuckled.

Best day ever.
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Fri 2 Sep 2011, 9:53, 5 replies)

It got the click that I said it would.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Fri 2 Sep 2011, 11:10, closed)

Then it was all worth it.

( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Fri 2 Sep 2011, 11:23, closed)

I'm in too.
*click*

Beautifully told, thoroughly deserved.
( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Fri 2 Sep 2011, 13:15, closed)

Cheers, however ...
... you've missed an opportunity to mock me for being a lazy lift-riding pleb.
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Fri 2 Sep 2011, 14:48, closed)

It wouldn't have been fair considering
That your story was better than mine!






You lazy bastard.
( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Fri 2 Sep 2011, 17:54, closed)