Gaudi buildings On A Tour Of Northern Spain

 Earlier this year we took a trip to Spain and checked out the locations of Gaudi museums and monuments. The famous Gaudi cathedral is in Barcelona which also has other buildings including the wave topped long benches where you can sit outdoors.

Gaudi outdoor seating.

We took a driving tour through northern Spain. Two of the towns we passed through had Gaudi attractions. You could fly drive or do what we did and take the car on a Britanny ferry to Santander in NW coast of Spain, 2 days overnight on the ship is, not cheap, and a cabin overnight is obligatory, no option of economising by sleeping upright in chairs.

We had a choice of routes, along the coast, or inland via the two cities with Gaudi attractions. 

Tours\& Extra Costs

Another option for you is to take all day tours to Gaudi attractions from other cities in Spain. Check if your tour includes admission to the museum. You could be charged a two or three figures sum in Euros for the tour, then another two figure sum for museum entry. 

When you are driving distrances in France and Spain, extra costs are the tolls. You can buy a card in Spain which allows you to wave the card. This saves the driver or passengr having to open their car door to collect the ticket going in and useing a redit card to pay on the way out. (On a British car with driver on the wrong side, the oppostie side to the ticket machine.)

Lovely Leon

The name Leon is easy to remember. Leon, like Leo the lion. Named after a king or ruler of that name.

We loved the city of Leon, but were disappointed that the Gaudi attraction was in a pedestrian area. Google maps sent us cirling around and we never got near enough to see it. I had hoped at least to photograph the outside of the building.

Parking was hard to find. We also did not want to leave our car with luggage and coats visible which might attract thieves. If you took a tour, or stayed two nights in the city and could leave your luggage in a hotel, so you could avoid this problem.

Gaudi must have inspired local architects. The whole city of Leon was an architectural gem, a paradise for photogrphers. Every buidlings was different, different styles, different colours. Contrasting colours to the next buildings, walls pianted in primary colours, with windows outlined with a different colour or white. Balconies overhanging streets and alleyes. Buidlings of different heights and shapes. No wall staight. In and out, triangles and turrets. Sphares and cirbles. Waves and wonder. Murals and amazements. 

Our second Gaudi stop was at s smaller city. Like Leon, an architectural marvel. WWe drive round and round and up and down, little streets with odd uildings. A clearly marked Gaudi museum. Alas we had a hotel far away to reach. The high price of the Gaudi museum meant it was not worthwhile for one of two of us to pop in for five minutes. Besides, there was the problem of parking.

But now that we know the situation, we can plan another trip for next year or another year and read all about Gaudi online.

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What's Is Free And What's Not At Museums And Why?

Problem
The museum is advertised as free. But when you get there they are charging for exhibitions. Why? And what's all this timed entry for?

Answers
Sometimes a rich person or a keen collector leaves their collection of art or objects to the local school or council or the entire country, stupulating that it must be free for all to see.

So far, so good. However, to display works of art or museum objects you need two things, a building with a repair fund, and payments staff. If the museum then attracts other donations, the museum is in a fix. Can they really way, we have two rooms each with space for ten paintings, we already have ten Rembrandts and Ten Van Goghs, what's more people don't want them in the same room, so we don't want your painting.

What can they do? Put out the popular paitnings and keep the othersstacked  downstairs in the basement in storage and hope the buildings won't flood and the paintings won't get stolen without anybody realising the box is empty, or lost or forgotten.

Open another branch museum in another city. Send the piantings off around the world on a tour, charging the recipient museums and countries fees high enough to cover the transport and insurance and travel escorts, and packing and unpacking, and policing on arrival and crowd control.

This has risks but also advantages. Poeple get to hear about your museum. the basement is temporarily cleared of clutter. You can generate income to pay for your staff and increasing updating your home museum or gallery's facilities which never used to be there.

For example, such as self-flushing toilets, security cameras, touch screens to answer visitor questions, guided tours on hand-held devices. What else? Ramps for the disabled, fire exits and fire doors and maybe sprinklers and connections to the police or fire service to comply with new regulations. Modern security may require bag searches and lockers for backpacks. More toilets, self-flushing, hand driers, replacing broken seats and hooks. Building - overhaul of leaking roofs and rising damp. More restaurants and a bigger gift shop to cope with and conveneience the increasing number of visitors. Regular cleaning. Organising events to attract the donors and Friends Of The Museum. training museum guides. Updating captions. Adding direction signs.

At the Horniman museum in London somebody working for the golf area (crazy golf I think) said that the golf there in the summer served a dual purpose. It entertained and attracted visitors.  He didn't say but it just occured to me, the extra outdoor activity kept down the numbers indoors reducing overcrowding. The outdoors attraction, kept some of the excitedly shrieking small children away from disturbing museum visitors. Families and community minded people would be glad children and adults and grandparents could walk or run around in fresh air and get vital vitamin D. The cash could help fund the constant drain on funds by the main museum which needs upkeep and staffing and ever increasing acitivities nowadays, such as marketing and printing.

With public libararies and swimming pools and minor museum in London and all over the UK threatened with closure or already closed, you realise that keeping a free museum free running and serving the entire community requires effort and money.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.