La Cascada, Santa Maria, and Adios Foleys

Evidently the young Antoni Gaudí helped his mentor Josep Fontserè design this masterpiece.

After La Mercè the Foleys returned for one last hurrah. And it was intense (as shown below).

Principe Nutella sandwich. A little scary, but evidently delicious

If you are thinking that the Trevi fountain is the most beautiful fountain in Europe, think again. I submit that La Cascada in the Parc de la Ciutadella takes the cake, which is why I don't understand Rick Steve's cursory mention of it. 

If the following slew of pictures does not convince you, either you are blind, delusional, or you just need to come and see it for yourself. This once pathetic "waterfall," devoid of adourning statues, was built in 1882. They realized it was kind of lame without any gold chariots and added all the frosting in 1888 for the Universal Exhibition which make it the gorgeous fountain it is today.

Enthralled

Triton, don't tempt me with your coquetry.

Real seahorses. Bet you had no idea.

The first hipogriff?

Because evidently viewers get tired of just looking at pictures with no people.

So when we get together with the Foleys we don't do much other than walk around and search for coffee and food. Food and coffee are so unifiying. So this edition will again highlight Caelum. Our favorite little pastelería that makes it ok for adults to sit and drink tea for hours outside of the UK.

Adult tea party

It wasn't the most delicious one we had, but made for the best picture. Winners were the almond cookies.

A dungeon of indulgence.

One of the only other sites we ventured to together was the Santa Maria del Mar. The building took only 55 years (beginning in 1329, consecration in 1384) and was built on the spot where the Apostle James preached. This church is in the "pure Catalan Gothic style" (not sure what that means, but sounds cool). This church was a conception of the masses of the El Born district: built by local funds and labor. A truly layman's church. Be inspired.

How is it possible that a small and simple community banded together to build something like this?

Posting about a church is incomplete without the rose window...

...and other stained glass

The space was once highly decorated but the working class burned the Baroque frills as protest to the church siding with Franco during the Spanish Civil war (1930s). (Thanks Rick Steves for the info)

From our perch at Cafe Magnifico

After over a week of awesomeness came the end of the "Summer of Steve" (don't even ask about the given appellation, Foley is strange). We saw our friends off in their taxi to their new callings in Israel and soon Jordan. We will miss them.

Foley with his Miss America pose

 
(As always, thank you Wikipedia and Rick Steves. You are so informative. And our walking tour guide Catherine...Law school really messes you up when you fear retribution for not citing your knowledge on something that you're not getting money for nor graded on...or maybe that's a good thing)