Touring with Mom

My mother arrived on Tuesday. Weston and I went to pick her up. (Weston came because it got him out of school). It was great to see her. I'm looking forward to showing her the Spain I know and even some I don't know. On Tuesday we went from the airport to Segovia. It's sort of on the way home from Madrid. We took a tour around the city and then went inside the cathedral. This city is one of my favorites. It's small but full of history and charm.

On Wednesday we started out toward Barcelona. My mom has been to Spain but not Barcelona and so off we went. On our way we stopped in a city called Zaragoza. Another amazing city with a big cathedral that is very important, and many Roman ruins. we found it by mistake but it is the destination city for many Spanish travelers.

From Zaragoza we drove to Tarragona a city on the Mediterranean coast just South of Barcelona. There we found more cathedrals and more Roman ruins. This morning we drove to Barcelona. On our way we saw lots of cathedrals and Roman ruins. We spent the whole afternoon in the cathedral called "Segrada Familia". The cathedral was started by Gaudi in the late 1800's and it is still being built. Actually this cathedral was a bridge for me. The devotion and faith of Gaudi shown in this cathedral is very inspiring. Don't get me wrong. I don't particularly like the way it looks. It's not the way I would express my feelings about the sacred family. In fact in many cases I think it is tasteless almost disturbing. But it is impossible to look at this amazing building and not be touched by the amount of devotion it took to build and design it. Not just by Gaudi but by all who have worked on it over the past century. I would like to return when it is complete.

As I have looked at this cathedral in progress with modern equipment and now computer assisted designing, I can't help to think that maybe those who built those other, older, cathedrals were expressing their own devotion to the God they knew and loved. I have a much greater appreciation for the many cathedrals that are found every time you turn a corner. I'm not going to look at them in the same way any more. Even the small churches you see in every little village will make me think of those who didn't have the restored gospel so they paid their devotion in the way they knew how.