September 22, 2011We arrived at the Marsille Airport early and had to wait to check in, and we waited in the cafe lounge. Outside of the extra payment for the golf bag, everything went smoothly and the flight was only an hour. It was our first trip on Spanair.

            We landed at the Barcelona airport at around 12:30pm. I think the both of us were impressed by the Barcelona airport, everything was bright and airy and the movement of people from one area to another was easy because of the signage. We were able to locate the luggage storage and I put the golf bag and the larger suitcase in a locker. The attendant told me that all of the tall lockers were taken so I had to take eveything out of the golf bag and store it separately folding the golf bag and jamming it all into one locker. Once stored we moved back to the taxi area to get our cab to the Hoisteria Grau, just off La Rumbla the major street in the old town area. Our cabbie had a hard time finding the right directions and had to make a few u-turns but after leaving us for a few minutes to run down the street, he found the hotel. I was delighted that we left some of our luggage at the airport because the hotel was adequate in size, but the other two bags would have left little space for us. We got settled in around 3:00pm and decided it would be great to get something to eat.                  

             The hotel recommended Elizabeths which is also listed in Rick Steves'. So down the narrow alley way we went about a block. The food was considered local and the place was full. Sheila noted that when you ordered a glass of wine they set a half full uncorked bottle on the table and didn'tseem to care how much was drunk as the price seem to be the same.  

              We walked over to La Rambla and we were amazed that it was wall to wall people and the center of the avenue had vendors complete with pet animals and other items to tempt the on rush of tourists. The avenue is a mile long from the Mirador de Colom at the south by the harbor to the Fonte de Canaletes at the northern end.    It was like we had walked into the shopping meca of Spain. 

 

 

 

            We walked back to the hotel and Sheila worked on getting the internet hookup and I went out to do some shopping at a Carrefor store that I spotted earlier on our walk. I was amazed at the number of young people in the store and in the Cares dels Tallers, the narrow walk path next to our hotel. Then I noticed that just before our hotel was a building of the a university which housed the library, professors of philosphy, and across the hall way the professors of communications. Our hotel was near two universities and a couple of blocks to the Universitat de Barcelona.   We were in the university and museum area of old town and hence a large number of young adults.

            We decided to walk around the area to check out more of the sights in the early evening and found a Pizza place on the second floor near the northern end of La Rambla. We had a table with a good view of the avenue and shared a pizza and salad. When we returned to the hotel we agreed that we would take the afternoon Gaudi tour and spend the morning going to the Picasso Musee.

September 23, 2011We had our tea and coffee at the hotel and ventured out for a day of exploring Barcelona. We walked La Rambla and passed the Opera House and a Theater. We went down a few alley ways and were lucky to find the Museu Picasso.

The entrance was not easy to find as the street was actually a narrow alley. We did go through the museum and were impressed with the completed works and a significant number of his sketches in preparation for his final work. The influence of other artists was obvious when compared to the original artist. The blue period was not a favorite for me as was his abstract period. I did enjoy the video that showed the sources for some of the abstract works. I had forgotten his cartoon characters and was fascinated to see these in terms of his overall progression in his art. The exhibition was very extensive and we did not get an opportunity to explore the ceramic area as we were starting to get tired.

        We left the museum and walked further south to see the Sta. Maria del Mar, a gothic church that is in the Barri Gotic area. A great place to get away from the crowds and have some prayer time, light some candles an sit in a very beautiful environment.

I found some of the stain glass work in this church to be better than much I saw in France.

            We walked back on La Rambla and checked out a tapas restaurant near the north end. We order some shimp, croquettes, grilled chicken, and another small tapas. It was obvious after our first bit that the array of the offerings on the counter as you walked in was far superior to the taste of the ones selected. It reminded me of some of the Florida Buffet places like Morrisons where the appearance far exceeded the actual taste.   As that thought flashed through my mind, I remembered that those places were always on the tourist bus routes and the often white and gray haired individuals may well have lost significant taste buds. But that is just a thought!

            Sheila and I did some window shopping and this particular window struck an accord with Sheila. If you can enlarge this picture you will see the most severe violation of the dress code that all of the older generation were held to account. The colors were the only thing that gave some connection to the outfit.

 

            Earlier we purchased our tickets for the Gaudi Bus tour, so we headed over to the start point along the Font de Canaletes in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. I was glad that we did not eat there!! 

            Our tour guide met us with her orange unbrella and got everyone together and loaded our bus. She spoke very clear English, since the trip was English only. We wound our way through Barcelona and she pointed out some of the buildings designed by Gaudi 'the Naturist'. There were other buildings that were designed by some of his contemporaries. We arrived at the park and had been informed that it was an attempt to have spacious villas and gardens for the rich away from the city. It never worked because, as was the explanation of our tour guide that it was too far and that the rich enjoy showing off their wealth in obvious settings in the city. We took some extensive photos of the park.

 

            The tour guide explained that the tile seats are very comfortable because at each seat area, when the mortar was still wet, a worker would sit down to form the indentation for the seat and then it was set with the tiles.

 

             We met our tour guide back at the bus and went back into the city to visit the La Sagrada Familia, the Holy Family Church.   We pulled up on one side of the church and it was very impressive with what has been completed to date. The outside is incredible with the flowing lines and the unique patterns of the birth of Jesus on the one hand and the other entrance which reflects the passion of Jesus. Our guide pointed out the controversy of the passion scene as it has been recently created and not by Gaudi and the contention is over the more rigid and almost modern square sculpting of the figures. However, I agreed with the guide that the style really conveyed the harshness of the passion, and she pointed out he Gaudi never backed away from progressive development in his artistic talents. What was the most transformative part of the tour was the vivid colors and sense or enormity when we entered the church. The colors from the stain glass were so alive and the hues based upon the brightness of the sun were very powerful and awe inspiring. My first response was to take in a gasp of breath and and widen my eyes to take in as much as possible. I remember a similar response when I visited the Washington National Cathedral and saw the Penetcost window near the narthex and it literally appeared to me to be on fire.   The pillars resemble trees with the leaves at the top. Eventually, the church (now a basilica as consecrated by the Pope) will seat 8,000. When we exited the other side of the church and saw the passion motif, our tour guide pointed out the block of numbers show below which all add up to 33.   After the explanation of the passion we went into the museum below the church. One of the exhibits that was impressive was the use of ropes and weighted sand bags used by Gaudi to understand the physics necessary to design the pillars that would bear the weight of the towers and, when the church is completed, it will have 18 towers in all. The rope and weights was a mirror image of what was necessary for the pillars. (a photo below)

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         We decied to put our feet up after a very busy day. I decided that there was one place I had not seen and wanted to check out the Cathedral of Barcelona and had time before our dinner reservation at seven. I wanted to see the gothic style following our experience of the Scared Family Church by Gaudi. It was only four blocks from our hotel and it had a large square in front, which was being readied for the weekend celebration of the Festival of Barcelona. It was a large building very much the style of gothic.   The inside was large and there was a mass in progress, complete with large tv monitors for those beyond the rude screen.   I thought that it was a impressive cathedral but nothing in comparison to the Gaudi church.

            Sheila and I walked to the 'c'al Esievet Restaurant' on Valldoncella. The restaurant was a recommendation by the woman at the front desk of our hotel, along with making our reservation at 7:30pm. We were early, which has been our habit, as it is still a major adjustment for me to eat so late in the evening.   I was not sure about the neighboorhood, and we walked on to find a bar for a drink before dinner. We wound up sitting on a park bench with some local people for about 10 minutes before heading back to the restaurant.   On our walk to the restaurant we did discover that we were walking through another university area, and there were a lot of young adults going to the opening concerts for the start of the festival. From one of the allies we passed we could hear the loud amplified music.

            We were the first in the restaurant and our waiter spoke English to assist in the menu offerings. The shift from French to Spanish was more diffucult for me than Sheila, especially regarding the phrases I had picked up in France, that were no longer appropriate. We order our meal and were very pleased with our meals. The recommendation was a good one. I ordered monkfish was delicious, and a portion that was almost too much, while Sheila ordered a steak which was equally large as a portion. Following dinner we walked back to La Rambla to take in a bit of the festival night life, in addition to what had been a rather extensive day.

September 24, 2011            We awoke to rain the next morning. The prediction had been no rain. Our tour guide yesterday had mentioned that it had always rained on this festival honoring St. Maria's tears on the 24th, but it was not in the forecast. Obviously, St. Maria won this day. We took our time getting our luggage packed and had our breakfast in the hotel and took our bags downstairs to store them before we got our cab to the airport. We left our raincoats in our luggage stored at the airport so we decided to brave the rain. We got about 10 steps out of the hotel and a man approached us with a bag og umbrellas @ 5EURs each. We paid him 8 euros for two and off we headed to the plaza. Of course the umbrella's were seconds, one of the aluminum brackets was bent and I was able to adjust it, and Sheila's had one end piece that was disconnected but given the weather we were able to stay somewhat dry. Even in the rain there were people on La Rambla getting ready for the festival events.

 

        When we went toward the opera house Merce we found that the interior courtyard had a display of costumes and large figure in dress fore the festival.   The courtyard was open and the rain came in, so the costumed dancers were not able to preform, yet that did not deter the crowd from getting their pictures with the exhibits.

        There was a whole display of horses that you put over you with the straps so that it appeared that you were riding and there were a whole series of animals and serpents that were masks to be worn for the festival parades. Sheila and I noticed that one young girl stepped up to each of huge mask figures to get her picture taken. Then she moved on to the next one, and etc., I guess she could show her friends that she was there at the festival and loved all of the parade masks. Her eyes sparkled as she smiled for her father's camera. We strolled around and we were intent on having lunch at the Los Caracoles (The Snail). It was a restaurant that was recommended by the cooking friends back in Cucuron France. Both of them were adament that we should go to this restaurant for the food and ambiance. Since it was still early, with umbrella in hands we walked to the lower portion of La Rambla. There was a band set up on stage, that was covered and they played what appeared to me to be Spanish music, not quite flamingo but close. Sheila took a water logged break at found some tent to sit under to rest. I could see the Mirador de Colon, the fountain at the southern end, near the harbor. A tad wet we walked back up the mile and I told Sheila that from the directions we received that I thought that we should go up an alley that appeared to direct us toward the restaurant. I was not sure of our path so I asked a women at a Farmacia and she told us that it was 20 meters up the same alley. I was a little shocked that my guess was right on the target. We walked up to the restaurant and there was a chef in the street putting up staked chickens to be roasted in a street side fired grill. The was next to the entrance to Los Caracoles. We asked when they opened and he told us 1 pm so we had some time to use up and had a coffee and water at a cafe across from the restaurant. It seemed like time slowed while we waited. We did go down an alley next to the cafe as we spotted a plaza that we had not seen. As we walked to the plaza we were surprised by the size of the area and it opened into a grand square which was surrounded by building identical in architecture, called Placa Reial. This is evidently a great tourist spot with night clubs and restaurants and we came upon it accidently as we were skirting the rain. In the center on the south side was a stage for the festival performances with a new group taking the stage.

 

 

 

 

            We attempted to get a video of the performance, the last pictue. It is a little bouncy but the song comes through.   Actually the bounce is because the people just seemed to crowd in, as it is apparent to me that personal space truly varies in different cultures.  We enjoyed the music inspite of the rain and decided it was time to get to the restaurant. If anyone is interested this is a link to more photos or Placa Reial, www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/albums-en/placa-reial. We stood in line at Los Caracoles. We were told that it was popular and it looked small from the outside. When they opened we were surprised as we walked through the bar then through the kitchen and we seated at a table with about seven other tables. There was a hall behind us but did not check it out. People kept walking through so I assumed there had to be more seating in the back of the restaurant.   Sheila the Suckly Pig and I ordered Paella. Sheila wondered if the pig was killed after it sucked or not. Both entrees were delicious and the salad was tasty also. We sat near the kitchen and one of the staff called out the orders on a microphone so we got to hear a variety of options for lunch. I was almost finished and decided to go to the restroom, actually to see where the sat all the people who kept walking by us. I was really surprised when I turned the corner at found a room that had at least 25 tables, and then proceeded up a small stair case to find another dinning area larger than the one below and after the next stair case, yet again a large dinning area. The restrooms were on the fourth floor. Inspite of all of the seating it still had a sense of being small an intimate. This is a must restaurant for anyone visiting Barcelona, the food is great and the ambiance was fun.

            Following lunch, which served as at least two meals for the day we went back to the hotel, got our cab and headed to the airport for our trip to Marbella.