First let’s say that Barcelona can not be done as a whirlwind tour. Go… take a week… there is so much to see and Barcelona is one of the most tourist friendly towns that it has ever been my privilege to visit. (Well except for the whole unfortunate highway incident, but we’ll get to that)
They speak two main languages in Barcelona (and mercifully one of them wasn’t French). Catalan, which is very like Spanish in the way that the language the British speak is like English, only worse. Let’s say that, if put to it, I could understand enough to get the gist of a conversation, but that I would have to respond in Spanish. The other language is of course Spanish. Well, Castilian Spanish which is a better example of the whole previously mentioned British analogy. (Confused yet?) The only thing about the Spanish is the whole lisping thing. Everything that has an ‘s’ in it is pronounced with a sort of lisping ‘th’ sound, the effect being that it sounds like your trying to talk with marbles under your tongue and I think it makes all the men sound completely gay. (Sorry, complete stereotype, I know).
In all seriousness though never discount the psychological benefits of traveling in a country whose language you speak. I almost hated to come back to France because for the first time in weeks (months) people understood me and I understood them. You folks have no idea how demoralizing and frustrating it can be to not be able to ask for so much as bread without it turning into ‘a thing’.
The city of Barcelona itself is situated in a very hilly coastal part of Spain. The area is basically foothills of the Pyrenees next to the Mediterranean. It’s huge but, more importantly, it is blessed with a variety of architecture that I’ve never before seen. The Gothic cathedrals are breathtaking, but even more so are some of their more famous modernist buildings. There are also many buildings that seem to have a very Middle Eastern, Moroccan flair to them.
In my humble opinion the ‘pièce du résistance’, the crowning piece of architecture is the temple of La Sagrada Familia. If you follow that link it will take you to a brief history of the structure, go there, it’ll save me having to repeat the 5 paragraphs here. Let me say that the concept originated in 1866 and has been under almost constant construction since 1881. The work is now under the direction of its third architect. The temple has a different façade from almost every angle (each façade representing a different part of Christ’s life) and after over a hundred years it is still little more than a shell held up by scaffolding and permanent residence to 4 or 5 large cranes. It would take so much room on this site to post all the necessary photos (do not want to anger the generous Blogger crew) so go HERE instead, they’re not our photos but they’re a good substitute. The temple is being built with private funds and donations (so give early and give often).
On the first day we followed the signs to the center of the city. This was easier than you would imagine in a city the size of Barcelona. The cool thing is that the city has a series of tunnels that actually go under hills and vast parts of the city itself. You can avoid huge sections of city which means avoiding tons of traffic lights and traffic. Of course you have to pay to use the tunnels but, trust me, definitely worth the 2.44€.
Several miles and tunnels toward the center of town we found ourselves at MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya), which is like the central jewel in the crown which is central Barcelona. In front of MNAC are the ‘Magic Fountains’ which lead to ‘Plaça Espanya’ and the fountain of ‘Los Tres Mares’. The whole area reminded me strongly of the Balboa park museum campus in San Diego. MNAC is flanked by other museums and a replica of a Spanish medieval city that was built in 1929. Behind MNAC are the Olympic Stadium, the swimming venue and the main Olympic square. Also there, is giant sculpture that looks like a needle with a ring around it but which our tour guide said was meant to represent an athlete. The thing is so huge and distinctive that it can be seen from miles around. If you stand at the Olympic stadium (built for the 1992 Olympics) You can see beautiful panoramic views of the city in every direction.
The one odd thing about the MNAC area was the cats. Cats, yes cats, they were everywhere and we’re not talking feral or stray cats. These cats belonged there. They all wore collars and looked well fed. I can only speculate as to why they were there, but there was no doubt that they lived and were cared for in that area.
While on our initial walk around central Barcelona we discovered a tour bus company that, for a small fee, offered transportation to all the major sites. This seemed to be a perfect way to see the city, so the next day that’s what we did.
This is where our first day ended and the first highway nightmare took place. Let’s say here that I can laugh about it now. For a blow by blow visit S’s site.
The next day we purchased tickets for our bus tour, at 15€ per person it was a steal. The tour consisted of a northern route (the blue route) and a southern route (the red route) There were many stops along the way at tons of sites including cathedrals, parks, buildings of architectural note, palaces and the harbor. A one day pass allowed you to get on and off at any stop you wanted as many times as you wanted. Time being the key word here as there is no way that you could get off and see all the stops in one day.
Also key is that you had to be waiting at the company’s stop when the bus arrived. (This particular tour companies stops had big eyes on them. You can see the eye at the bottom right of the Starbuck’s picture I posted). The tour company would not stop for you if you tried to wave them down when you missed them by mere seconds. (Not that this could have possibly happened to us!) You either waited for the next bus, which would be along in 13 to 25 minutes or ran/walked to the next stop so you could at least sightsee a bit while waiting for the next bus to come along. The tour guides provided commentary in Spanish, Catalan and English. Depending on the guide you could also hear it in French and German.
The other consideration was the weather, or more precisely, the temperature. The first day on our own it must have been 60°, we ended up having to shed coats and I began to regret the turtleneck I was wearing. But the actual day of our tour I don’t think it got above 40° which is pretty damned chilly sitting in the wind of the upper deck of a moving bus. But that was the best place to take photos. The other down side of it being winter was that many of the sites were being repaired, winter not being prime tourist season, the sites would be swaddled in netting (to protect pedestrians from falling debris) and/or hidden behind scaffolding. S dragged me well off the beaten path to photograph the front of a beautiful gothic cathedral, only to arrive and find it covered in green netting with only the two tallest spires peaking out of the top.
Our first stop on the bus tour was the ‘Poble Espanyol de Montjuïc’, Built in 1929 for the International Exhibition of the same year it is one of the city’s main leisure venues. It was built to resemble an authentic Spanish town. It has many bars and restaurants as well as several art museums, but its main feature is the artisan shops. These shops featured the work of wood, glass, leather, wool and clay artisans. Many of the artisans offered workshops during the day too. Ok, can we say shopping!
We wandered around the little pseudo town and bought some stuff here and there. We visited one of the museums which featured some pottery by Picasso and the work of modern artists who worked in the Picasso style. Odd place.
We wanted to come back for dinner but didn’t want to wait an hour for the restaurants to open so we could make a reservation. So on with the tour.
We hopped a bus that took us past the Olympic park to an aerial tramway, that wasn’t running. We got off there because the bus was too crowded and I couldn’t handle it. Then we walked passed the next stop which was, well, basically a cactus garden. As if we haven’t seen yuccas and ocotillos before. So we walked on down the hill for about a mile to find the next stop at the harbor. The next stop was in a giant circle where the ‘Mirador de Colom’ stands atop an extremely high column pointing of into the distance. (Go west young man?) We caught the next bus there and got seats on the upper deck so we could take unobstructed pictures. On to tour the ports, ‘Port Vell’ and then further east to ‘Port Olimpic’. ‘Port Vell’ featured restaurants, an Imax theatre, an aquarium and lots of boats. ‘Port Olimpic’ featured the two tallest buildings in Barcelona and the Olympic village where the athletes lived; these buildings have been converted to apartments. The whole village is quite beautiful and is saturated with sculptures and free form art work of every description.
Then whirlwind drive-bys of the ‘Parc de la Ciutadella’ which features the Barcelona Zoo, the ‘Museu d’Art Modern and the ‘Parlament de Catalunya’. This in itself would be a full day. It features about 6 other museums too.
Then ‘Pla de Palua’ (Plaça del Palacio – Plaza of the Palace) Yeah, weird some stuff was titled in Catalan and some in Spanish. By now it’s getting onto 3:00 pm and breakfast was long ago. We got off at ‘Barri Gothic’ which is Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. This is where Barcelona’s two thousand years of history originates. You can still see parts of the city walls and Roman city. Here again another full day’s adventure. This is the part where S drags me down side streets to get a good shot of the Cathedral only to find it swathed in green netting. Boy was he bummed. Then back to the stop where we got off to find Pizza Hut for a quick lunch. We ate at Pizza Hut because our tour package included discounts to museums and such and a discount at Pizza Hut. There is a Pizza Hut near every major venue in this city. We ate and asked for ‘ la cuenta’. By the time the stinkin’ teenagers brought back our change though our next bus was passing by the window, we missed it. Though two other tourists who were a bit closer tried to flag them down too and they wouldn’t stop. Great, hang here for another ± 20 minutes or walk the mile to next stop. So walk it was. We walked to ‘Plaça de Catalunya’ this is the main square where the city’s main thoroughfares radiate from. Also another whole days adventure with the opera house, the ‘Teatre del Liceu’, and the ‘Palau de la Música’ which is a stunning jewel of the modernist era and an absolute must see sight.
Then to ‘Passeig de Gràcia’ the 19th century neighborhood that features an abundance of modernist style buildings. The modernist buildings are referred to as Catalan art nouveau and are sites not to be missed. (see what I mean, everything is a site not to be missed, you need a solid week here.)
This is where time became an issue, it’s almost 4:00 it’ll be completely dark by 5:30/6:00 and we’ve just begun the red route of the tour. We can’t get off anymore or we’ll never see everything and it’s starting to get f*$ing cold on that upper deck of the bus.
My main thing was that I had to see ‘La Sagrada Familia’. From a distance the structure is evident only by the preponderance of construction cranes. But as you actually come up to it you can see the shell of the structure with miles of scaffolding inside. We took some photos but didn’t get off the bus. This is where I had my Starbuck’s sighting as the bus was pulling away from the stop. I tried not to cry and snapped a picture.
Next Park Güell named after Gaudi’s (Gaudi the primary architect and visionary of Sagrada Familia and other structures in the city) great patron, Count Eusebi Güell. The park was initially meant to be a neighborhood but only Gaudi’s actual residence was ever completed and now houses a museum of Gaudi’s work.
Then a monastery, then the Royal Palace, then the Barcelona Futbol stadium, then…then it really started to get cold and we got off to switch busses and head back to our parked car.
Then on to the second highway nightmare. (See S’s blog)
Dinner and drinks at the hotel and then fall into bed in complete exhaustion. The next day we had breakfast and headed home. I want to go back to Barcelona though. With more time available next time. Though during the highway nightmares S swore he would never return. Hopefully in hindsight it won’t seem so bad. I loved Barcelona and want to move there now. S however refuses to commute internationally, party pooper.
We tried to squeeze our visit into a weekend so S could be back to work on Monday. Where a good portion of the French took the whole two weeks off, S did not, he even worked on Christmas Eve. And they say that Americans are workaholics…hmm go figure. He will however be taking off the day of my birthday and New Years day.
Well, that’s it in a nutshell then (well the shell of a really BIG nut anyway…ok, never mind, just too many place to go with that). (Perhaps the 4th cup of coffee was a mistake.) Off to shower and dress…yes I have been speaking to you in my jammies, unwashed and with foul breath. Hey you have to write when the Blogging juices are flowing. If you stop to clean up first, the juices go elsewhere and then it’s 4 or 5 days before they come back, and by that time you’ve forgotten the details. Alright off I go, and hey don’t tell mom about this, she’d be so embarrassed, she raised me better (I should have at least brushed my teeth). Oh, dad, white out this paragraph before you let her read it, ok.
The photos are of two of the many art nouveau buildings in the 'Passeig de Gràcia’ area.