From Sagrada Familia to Palacio del Flamenco

We began our second day in Barcelona with more Gaudi, visiting La Pedrera - a very interesting building built between 1905 and 1910 as a combined apartment and office block - and one of the most recognizable landmarks of Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia church.
We had to wait for a little while to get into La Pedrera, but it was most definitely worth the queue. It has a very distinctive gray stone facade with intricate wrought-iron balconies around the outside that give it a wavy effect. Roberto and I enjoyed exploring La Pedrera´s rooftop, which features weird-looking sculptures that, in Roberto´s words, look "like something out of Star Wars". Perhaps my favorite part of La Pedrera was the apartment on the top floor of the building - called El Pis de la Pedrera - which is open for the public to wander. It is fully furnished in the style of the early 20th century, complete with an enormous Victrola.
Only a few blocks´walk from La Pedrera, Gaudi´s masterpiece Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia was begun in the late 19th century and still isn´t completed, believe it or not. According to my Lonely Planet guide, it´s expected to be done anywhere between 2020 and 2040. (The Australian mother behind us in line remarked the project could be a construction worker´s lifelong career "from the time he gets out of school until he retires", which I thought was cute.)
Roberto was a little disappointed that all of our photos of the unique church will be marred with scaffolding, but it´s OK, we were still able to take a lift to the top of one of the church´s exotic-looking spires for a fantastic bird´s-eye view of all of Barcelona! It was well worth the 45-minute long wait to get on the lift, a tiny elevator that fit no more than 4 or 5 people at once. Then we took the winding tiny staircase back down through the spire to exit through the back of the church´s sanctuary, where workmen were zooming around on bobcats. Half of the floor was torn up and they were putting pipes in. I still managed to get a shot of the beautiful stained glass windows. We were told they are having services in the church at 9 AM and 7 PM each day, although I´m not sure how!
Then it was off for a late lunch to a tapas place that came highly recommended from both Roberto´s cousin Maria Mercedes and Lonely Planet: Cerveseria Catalunya. I´m a huge tapas fan - I like lots of variety in my food - so this place was just perfect. For lunch we snacked on the famous tomato bread of Barcelona, yummy shrimp-and-mayonnaise snacks, veal tidbits with poblano peppers on toast, bacalao (a cut of fish in sauce on toast). We even went back for dinner and a pitcher of sangria, followed by a lively flamenco show at Palacio del Flamenco.