{"id":1460,"date":"2012-11-02T13:30:17","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T17:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2012-11-02T13:30:17","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T17:30:17","slug":"edu-travel-to-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/edu-travel-to-barcelona","title":{"rendered":"Edu-Travel to: Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally featured in\u00a0Explorica\u2019s 2012 fall magazine<\/a>. We\u2019ll be sharing 20 life-changing travel experiences throughout the season. Transform your students\u2019 lives (and maybe your own) with any of these exceptional educational travel experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Hear the Hall of a Hundred Columns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right from the entrance, you\u2019re captured by the colours that zig-zag across 42 acres of chiseled vegetation and stone. As you sit on the famous Serpentine Bench\u2014with its row of concave seats said to be formed by the park laborers taking a break in wet clay\u2014you hear the pitch-perfect notes of a flamenco guitar. Following the music, you find a young man casually dressed, hunched over an instrument made of rosewood, strumming melodies as old and as celebrated as his surroundings.<\/p>\n

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Flamenco, the folk art music popularized by gypsy communities, moved into mainstream street art during the latter half of the 19th century at the same time Antoni Gaudi, a young, eccentric Spanish architect and the future pioneer of Catalan Modernism, launched his design career. Now in the 21st century, the worlds of Spanish music and architecture merge at Parc G\u00fcell, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that gives visitors alike an authentic taste of Spanish culture.<\/p>\n

Named after Count Eusebi G\u00fcell, a patron of Gaudi and a Barcelona native, Parc G\u00fcell is ambitious in scope, grandeur and imagination. This bejeweled walled garden rests on the hill of El Carmel in Barcelona\u2019s Gracia district. Begin at the park entrance near a sweeping white-tiled staircase and then stroll through a fairytale land undulating with colorful mosaics, viaducts, and sculpture, including a dragon fountain. Built over a 14-year period, the park is a favorite among artists and musicians who frequently paint or perform below the central terrace, the heart of the park and a heavily trafficked spot that serves as an ideal stage. Musicians enjoy the shade in what is commonly known as the Hall of the Hundred Columns (though truthfully, there are only about 86) which boasts opera house-quality acoustics.<\/p>\n

Your students are probably more accustomed to listening to music on their smart phones, but to hear a musician bring traditional folk songs to life without technological embellishment at one of Spain\u2019s most celebrated architectural achievements offers a truly memorable experience. The music also perfectly echoes the beautiful view, where palm trees sway and a bright blue sky disappears into the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

At Parc G\u00fcell, art begets art. Despite attracting millions of visitors every year, it remains a landscape masterpiece that has gracefully weathered both time and tourism. Gaudi once said of his work \u201cColour in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic.\u201d The energy at Parc G\u00fcell is palpable and will remain with you long after the park closes at dusk and the guitar notes fade.<\/p>\n

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This article was originally featured in\u00a0Explorica\u2019s 2012 fall magazine. We\u2019ll be sharing 20 life-changing travel experiences throughout the season. Transform your students\u2019 lives (and maybe your own) with any of these exceptional educational travel experiences.   Hear the Hall of a Hundred Columns Right from the entrance, you\u2019re captured by the colours that zig-zag across Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,173,63,172],"tags":[292,58,293,83],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explorica-news","category-parents","category-students","category-teachers","tag-barcelona","tag-educational-travel","tag-park-guell","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}