Casa Batllo

I had a delay getting off the ship and didn't get off until about 12:30. Between catching the shuttle bus, getting the metro schedule from the information desk, studying my options and taking the metro, it was 1:40 before I got to my first stop, Casa Batllo (pic. 1). There was a sign indicating it closed at 2 (just for the one day) so I jumped in line and quickly got my ticket.

Casa Batllo was a house designed by Gaudi. Many of the design elements can be seen in his works through the city. However the audio guide provides a good explanation so it is well worth touring one of his buildings and getting the audio guide. I had seen his several of his buildings on previous visits so chose this one simply because I had not seen it yet.

Pic. 2 is of a mushroom shaped fireplace sitting area. There is space for a couple to sit on one side and a chaperon to sit on another. It is a somewhat odd design element in the house as the rest of it appears to be designed to look as if it is underwater. Somewhere I read that he designed another house with a mushroom theme so maybe he simply borrowed the idea from there.

Pic. 3 is of the ceiling in the front room. Pic. 4 is of one of the doors to this room. I thought one of the more clever design elements were the door handles that seemed to be very ergonomic.