Feast of the Epiphany

Yesterday morning began with breakfast and then boarding a bus to head to the manufacturing plant of Punto Blanco located in Igualada.  Punto Blanco, most famously known as the premier company in Spain that makes socks, they also make underwear for men and women.  We were given a tour of the plant from where they dye the threads to where the socks are made and the seams inserted.  Quite fascinating to see the machines in use and the amount of socks that are generated on a daily basis in this plant.  We then headed back to the meeting room to discuss the business model that Punto Blanco uses and compared that


Punto Blanco

 business model against the one used by Zara.  All in all, it was a very fascinating business trip and I learned tremendously from it and realizing the different paths that can be taken when making business decisions.

After our site visit, we returned to the hotel (after about an hour long bus ride) where I consumed my sandwich and fell in to a siesta coma.  Around 6ish, I woke up and we headed back down to La Rambla so that we could watch the huge parade for the Feast of the Epiphany.  The Feast of the Epiphany is truly the real Christmas for the country of Spain.  Although Christmas day is acknowledged and most children receive a token gift on that day, the true Christmas for these children is January 6th where they are visited by the three magi that visited Christ in Bethlehem.  After the Mardi Gras type parade we decided to find a place to eat dinner, but I started feeling not so great so I headed back to the hotel to find my bed to get some rest and hope that rest would do me good (which it did).





Celebrating the holidays in sock style at Punto Blanco.

This morning we were supposed to meet in the lobby of our hotel at 9:30 to head out to La Familia Sagrada.  Unfortunately, both Nicki and myself seriously overslept and awoke to one of our classmates knocking on our door at 9:45am.  Talk about an adrenaline rush when we realized that we were that late in waking up.  The group decided to go ahead and head down to La Sagrada Familia and we were going to hurry up and get ready as fast as we could and meet them down there.  A little confusion happened when we boarded the metro and a fifteen minute trip took us about an hour, but when we walked off of the metro we were struck by amazement at the view before us.  No matter what you have read or seen in pictures, La Sagrada Familia will knock you over with its imposing size and the amount of detail that strikes you in the face immediately.



Coming off of the metro and turning around this was our view.

There are no words to describe this building designed by Gaudi except as awe-striking.  I know there has been plenty written about Gaudi, both good and bad, saying that he was either the most talented architect or the worse, but in my opinion the man was a genius.  I am not an art critic, nor do I know much about architecture, but seeing what he accomplished with the materials that he used and the use of light in his work and the stories that he told through his reliefs is, simply put, an amazing talent.  I could go on and on about each of the areas within the church, but this church alone is worth the trip to Barcelona to see for one self and to form your own opinions.  I will include some photos (probably not the best shots with my little ol' camera) that will give you an idea of what we were treated to.



As you can see, I could add more and more photos, but without seeing it in person would be a shame as this is truly a spectacular edifice.  After completing our tour of the La Sagrada Familia we then started the hike up to Park Guell.  What an enchanting visit this turned out to be.  The weather was beautiful and the park full of visitors and performers, but the moment was magical nonetheless.  The sea serpent bench that circles the main park is a mosaic of colors and interestingly enough were formed by a naked worker's buttocks imprinted in clay to get the curves within the bench.  We then climbed up to the highest point of the park which is marked by two small crosses and one large cross.  We then began our descent and made a quick stop in the front to visit the lizard (I HAD to see the lizard).




 

        

Children playing in Park Guell.




Overlooking the park.



Band performing in the park.







At the highest point in the park.



The lizard I just had to see.





After our visit we headed back down the hill to find some lunch.  Well, I should say to find the others some lunch as I still had my sandwich in my purse from earlier in the day.  After eating, we finally made it back to the hotel around 5ish and we all decided a quick siesta was in order so that we could head out for dinner around 7:30.  A group of 11 of us left the hotel around 8 and found a hole in the wall restaurant where Nicki and I shared a plate of spaghetti and I had a nice huge salad to get some vegetables in me as it seems it is very easy to forget to eat vegetables as they are not very common to find on the menus.  On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a little convenience type store and picked up some goodies to tide over our chocolate cravings and called it an early evening as we had to meet in the lobby for school the next morning by 8:30 to head to our lesson for the day on International Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility.