Barcelona, Spain – Keeping Pace With Gaudi and Langdon

By the messy optimist

Keeping pace with Gaudi and Langdon? And you’re going…so, Gaudi we know. But who is Langdon? He is someone we should know but cannot recall off the top of our heads.

Understood. And fear not. The Messy Optimist is here to explain the intriguing headline of this post.

So – to back up, walking in Antoni Gaudi’s (Barcelona’s own and local genius artist son-made-good) footsteps was a dream that came true for me.

Well, for the most part, anyway.

See, I am/was no different from the many other millions who go to Barcelona and realize that they HAVE to visit the Sagrada Familia.

So did I.

And like the locals – tourists also leave Barcelona stunned and awed by the genius of Antoni Gaudi.

So. Did. I.

Taking a Cue From Origin and The Da Vinci Code

As much as I’d heard of Gaudi before – it was one of those nebulous of-course-I’ve-head-of-Gaudi-but-I-don’t-know-much-else-about-him kind of way. It wasn’t until I read Dan Brown’s Origin and stepped inside the world of The Da Vinci Code’s famous symbolist Robert Langdon and walked in his footsteps that Barcelona came alive for me.

By the time I left Barcelona and Gaudi had become interchangeable to me. So did Barcelona and Langdon.

I did Barcelona the Gaudi and Langdon way.

**Barcelona Cathedral, Barcelona, Spain**

I stalked and walked the paths taken by Robert Langdon who in turn walked in Gaudi’s footsteps.

So…

Montserrat monastery on Montserrat mountain = ✔

Sagrada Familia = ✔

Casa Mila = ✔

Montjuic cable car on Montjuic hill = ✔

Hotel Sofia Barcelona = ✔ (I didn’t stay there but I went there)

Casa Battlo = ✔

Am I someone who pretends to blaze her own trails (well, ok….too far!)? Well, maybe. I’ve always subtly looked down on people who ‘follow’ others’ paths when they travel or pattern their behavior after someone else. This was my first time (OK – that’s a lie!) literally taking my Barcelona cues from Gaudi. And from Langdon. From Dan Brown. And from the Origin.

For one – I walked in someone else’s footsteps and it was FANTASTIC.

Honestly, I gotta say – yours faithfully ain’t sorry.

Thank you, Antoni Gaudi. Bless you, Barcelona! I’ll come back again

Don’t forget to check out the SPECTACULAR water fountain show at the Font Magica de Montjuic. It’s a 30-minute show that I watched back-to-back twice on two consecutive nights! Yep. It was THAT good.