iolanda andrade: Gaudi's Barcelona revisited ... or a sequence of details ... (The 20th of June 2006)

There aren't too many things I regret having done in my life so far ... though some I might have possibly done in a slightly different way, should I be given the the opportunity to live through them again ...

And yet I have had a strong feeling of regret in regards to having gone to Barcelona in 2006 and not having taken that period of time to travel with both my children to Prague.

Had I known I wouldn't be given that chance again I would not have hesitated ... and although death is unpredictable (Faye would be "gone" less than a month and a half later) ... I still feel a rather strong guilt complex.

Prior to that I had already been to Barcelona several times and it was more the willingness to share such an interesting city and particularly Gaudi with a very special person that led me there once more ...

I haven't looked at those photos ever since and if I have done it now is simply to exorcise some of my fears by looking at things that bring out hidden feelings of happiness and sadness simultaneously ...

Sagrada Familia church was naturally the first place I revisited. Its façades impacted me once more ... how couldn't they? The Nativity façade constructed between 1894 and 1930 is decorated with scenes dedicated to the birth of Jesus, whilst the Passion façade (work of Josep Maria Subirachs initiated in 1954) has striking sculpted images of the Last Supper, Ecce Homo and the three Marys among the many other angular-like sculptures symbolic of the drama involving the death of Christ and its surrounding circumstances.