Today, I arrived in Barcelona. It’s not my first time but it has been a long time.
Today, the salty fresh summer spills across the sand and onto the crowded boardwalks. Bright cotton dresses and shirtless denim shorts skate, stroll and cycle along the coast, while the sparkle of street-cafe glasses glitter like fireworks in the day.
It seems a far cry from my last time, when icy winds stormed along Las Ramblas and the chill of winter settled over Passeig de Gracia.
It seems even further from my first time. Back then, the landmark Sagrada Familia was covered in scaffolding. I was still a student and my brothers were children not yet in High School.
This weekend, I’m meeting the eldest one in Barcelona to celebrate his graduation.
From university.
How things change.
Along the seafront, two women ignore the crowds. They flick their hair behind their ears and focus on two things: a limp piece of paper in one hand, a metal trowel in the other. They’re sculpting sand for a special – and temporary – exhibition.
The sand musicians that surround them look stable. Real. Permanent. Yet like everything else, of course, they will change and the next time I return to Barcelona both they and I will be different again.
There’s only one real constant in this city – and that’s the Sagrada Familia.
Beautiful, gothic, imaginative and haunting. It remains each one of those things.
It also, I notice, remains covered in scaffolding.
Disclosure: I’m in Barcelona today as a guest of Costa Brava
For more on the Sagrada Familia, do check out the post by talented photographer Sherry Ott over here.
Amazing what some people can do with a trowel! At Pera in the Algarve there’s a summer long sand sculpture exhibit called FIESA. It’s quite a large site, and very atmospheric on an evening when it’s floodlit, with moody music. It’s torn down each October and totally redesigned and themed for the following May. I’ve been a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll probably be in teh Algarve at some point this summer and would love to look this up. Cheers!
Such an amazing level of details! Great shots, Abi.
Thanks!
The first time I was in Barcelona, Franco was still alive and Montjuich was a rubbish tip. The paseo de colon was the meeting place for young hippies. Now Las Ramblas is called La Rambla!
Aiee \Aiee Say hi to Jack! Wish I was with you!
Hal |Finch.
Haha! Plenty of changes then! Will do…
I love Barcelona and especially Sagrada Familia. Visited 3 years ago and hope to go again soon. I featured Barcelona in my second book, Amanda in Spain. The sand sculptures are amazing.
I couldn’t get tickets to inside the Sagrada Familia this time. Plenty of people say it’s changed a lot on the inside (but the outside looks pretty much the same!)
These sculptures are just stunning! I grew up in New Smyrna Beach, FL and there have been occasional sand-sculpting competitions in the area. However, I haven’t seen any this ornate and most of the submissions were of sea creatures. Thank you for sharing!
I bet even the sea creature sculptures would knock the socks off my bucket and spade efforts…
I am amazed by the patience it must take to create these sand sculptures. Stunning!
Especially beneath this relentless sun. Stunning, as you say!
I love those sand sculptures — they are truly works of art. It’s interesting how the subjects of the sculptures differ so much from those in the USA. Most of the ones I’ve seen here look as if they were taken right out of Disneyland.
I saw some ice sculptures that looked like that in Japan! Most of the ice sculptures were traditional or provocative and then I turned the corner to see a giant iced Donald Duck rising out of the snow! Very surreal…
We were in Barcelona for one day while on a cruise and found the place wonderful, I especially found many of the buildings Gaudy designed very interesting. This is one reason I like to take a cruise once in a while so I can explore places that I think I may want to visit for an entire vacation and am glad I visited Barcelona. Now I only need to find the time to go back for a couple weeks. I would love to have seen the sand sculptures, I have seen quite a large sand sculpture competition for college students near Sarasota Florida a few years ago and couldn’t believe there were so many talented artists who were willing to perform magic in the sand knowing it would only last a few days at best.
It’s a little bit like street art in that regard…such talented artists painting a wall that anyone can come along and paint over in a matter of hours. Such a shame it doesn’t last – but I’m so glad that people do it at all!