Dispatch #33 Barcelona, Spain

Dispatch # 33 Barcelona, Spain April 2005 “Street Statues, Whimsical Buildings and Space Camp” We awoke in Ronda very early and got on the road. We drove south through the gorgeous Andalucian countryside back to Malaga for our flight to Barcelona. Although we got lost along the way, luckily we had provided ourselves plenty of time to reach the airport. When we arrived we discovered that Iberia had cancelled our reservation without notifying us. We had made the reservation on-line, and we had a printed confirmation, but for reasons that never were adequately explained to me, Iberia had removed our reservation from the system. After a considerable amount of effort (including a quite successful “good cop-bad cop” routine, with Elizabeth even scaring me), and several changes in personnel (we had to keep trying to find someone whose only response was not to turn their computer screen around to show us that our reservation had in fact been cancelled), we found an agent that was sympathetic to our plight and we were booked on another flight five hours later in the day. With four tired kids, the mix up was a substantial inconvenience, but given the fact that this was really the first snafu we had encountered in over 120 hours of flying time, we decided that we were pretty lucky travelers. We did, however, arrive in Barcelona very late. We checked into our hotel, El Jardi Hotel, located in the heart of the Barri Gotic district and as the clock neared midnight, we settled into our room, a room that we would later affectionately dub “Space Camp.” Now, we have been in some small rooms before, but this was a new record for cramped living quarters. We were on top of each other, the four twin beds stacked in two’s side by side stretched from one wall to the other. In order to get around the room, we had to climb over beds. The bathroom was so small that only one of us could go in at one time. The shower stall was right out of the Space Shuttle training pod, so close were the four walls that I had to open the shower stall door in order to move my arms up to shampoo my hair. We found ourselves, as Maddie put it, “like a tiger in the zoo, endlessly walking in small circles.” Although our cage was small, it was centrally located in the Barri Gotic neighborhood and only minutes walk from the Rambles, the Cathedral and the Placa Catalunya. The Barri Gotic, or Gothic Quarter, was a well preserved district of historic Gothic style buildings, ancient public plazas and picturesque narrow streets and hidden alleyways, all serving as wonderful reminder of Barcelona’s medieval history when it was a small Roman city encircled by protective stone walls. The famous Rambla was a street with several lanes of traffic going in each direction separated by an expansive, tree-lined pedestrian boulevard. Years ago, during our honeymoon, Elizabeth and I had spent many pleasant hours strolling along the Rambla. We were excited to introduce it to our kids. They loved the Rambla and it was a never-ending source of entertainment for all of us. There were dozens of “street statutes,” street performers dressed in elaborate costumes or spray painted to look like statutes, who were adept at standing perfectly still for long periods of time, only breaking their frozen pose to perform for the audience once a someone had dropped some Euro into their collection bucket. Following the clink of the coin, the performers would either spring into character or slowly thaw from their frozen state. Carmen’s favorites were the silver painted angels, Bella’s were the ghosts on bikes and my personal favorite was Che Guevara, painted bronze from head to foot (even his cigar was painted), who would bolt into a booming oratory at the drop of a coin. In addition to the street performers, flocks of fluttering pigeons and the thousands of fellow strollers joined us along the walkway which was flanked on each side by all sorts of bustling stalls and kiosks, including news stands, flower stands, caricaturists sketching their seated subjects, and open-air pet markets (selling primarily birds, exotic and mundane). There may be no finer place in Spain to experience the Spanish ritual of the “paseo” or stroll, than on this historic boulevard. Along the way, we made a point of stopping to sip a handful of water from the Font de Canaletes, a famous fountain located along the Rambla, a sip from which, according to legend, causes the drinker to fall hopelessly in love with Barcelona. One of our mornings we took a long walk along the Rambla through the Placa de Catalunya, past the towering Barcelona Cathedral, through the Barri Gotic district, past the Palau de la Musica Catalana and the Museu Picasso, to our final destination, the sprawling green space known as the Parc de la Ciutadella. We discovered along the way that many of the neighborhoods of Barcelona had a surprising lack of children’s playgrounds. We were in search of two things that day, a good playground and the Barcelona Zoo’s famous albino gorilla. Much was written in the tour guides and brochures about “Snowflake,” purportedly the world’s only albino gorilla. The kids had been taken by all of the posters of Snowflake that they had seen during our walks. After a long paseo we arrived at the Barcelona Zoo, which is located within the Parc de la Ciutadella, and after purchasing tickets we continued our quest to find Snowflake. After hunting for quite awhile, we finally asked one of the zookeepers where we could locate the zoo’s most famous resident. To our shock and dismay we learned for the first time that Snowflake had passed to the great jungle in the sky…one year ago! Apparently, the zoo owners didn’t feel it necessary to revise their promotional materials in light of this “recent” tragic event. As we explored the zoo, we got a sense of why they hadn’t. It wasn’t that the Barcelona Zoo was all that bad, but we had become tough critics having recently visited some of the finest zoos around the world. The exhibits were mediocre and many of the habitats appeared neglected. It was the first time that we had visited a zoo since our wonderful safari experiences in Africa and it was difficult to see many of the animals we had seen roaming in the wild, caged up in small habitats in the zoo. Bella, our sensitive soul, actually broke down crying when she saw the two African elephants standing in their small concrete floored enclosure. The zoo was not a total bust because it did have one of the better children’s playgrounds that we found in Barcelona. We explored more of Barcelona on foot before picking up some dinner “para llevar” (take away) and returning to our Space Shuttle simulator for the evening. During our stay in Barcelona we became very fond of a “fast food” chain called “Pans” which served up delicious cold and hot sandwiches on French bread with choices of meats and cheeses. In prior dispatches from Spain we have noted that the kids, and Biz and myself for that matter, had grown tired of a steady regimen of bread, iberico ham and manchego cheese. Keep in mind that this is a culinary review being written by parents of four young children. The fact of the matter is that all of the towns and cities that we visited had lots of dining establishments that served up wonderful Spanish dinners. The problem that we encountered was that most did not open until 8:30 PM and typically, our kids needed to have something much earlier in the evening. As a result, we often found ourselves filling up on breads, meats and cheeses. Having said this, given our circumstances, we did enjoy our afternoon tapas and we did find time to enjoy a few memorable late evening family meals at places like Botin in Madrid, the Parador in Carmona, Mesones de Serranito in Seville and the Four Cats in Barcelona. One of the highlights of our explorations of Barcelona was a guided tour of the spectacular Palau de la Musica Catalana. This amazing structure, which provided a visual sensory overload, continues to function as an active concert music hall. A Cultural World Heritage Site, the magnificent concert hall is the original home of Barcelona’s renowned choral group, the Orfeo Catala. The building was a superb example of the innovation, beauty and grace that characterized Barcelona’s Modernista architectural movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Architect, Lluis Donenechi Montaner spared no creativity on the design of the structure. The facade was lavishly decorated, ringed by mosaic tile pillars, whimsical statutes and stunning tile mosaic motifs. The interior was a magnificent aesthetic celebration of light, color and design. Intended by the architect to be a visual garden of music, the concert hall was one of the most sublime places we have ever seen. Tens of millions of tile pieces were arranged in beautiful patterns to adorn the walls, pillars and ceilings of this majestic music temple. Flower and garden motifs were most prevalent and were intermixed with a fantasy of stained glass and natural light which was climaxed by the fanciful, brilliantly colored, stained glass sun orb, which was in fact an inverted stained glass dome, which transferred luminous streams of yellow, red and orange light throughout the hall. The interior walls were a flurry of decorative activity, stained glass, tile mosaics, ceramic designs, medallions and statuaries. The architectural rhythm and harmonious infusion of color, light and design was spectacular. The culinary highlight of our visit to Barcelona was an evening at the venerable Els Quatre Gats, or the Four Cats restaurant. It was one of our favorites when we visited thirteen years ago and once again, the food and service did not disappoint. It was a dining establishment that owes its notoriety to a certain artist that made it his haunt during his years in Barcelona. This restaurant, located along a narrow alleyway has been serving hearty Catalan fare and acting as a center for inspiration for local artists for a century and an half. Picasso may have made it famous, but the atmosphere and food keep folks coming back. We enjoyed a plentiful meal of savory meats and vegetables surrounded by the white coated wait staff and walls full of the artwork done by the many artists that have found inspiration there. We enjoyed a slow, relaxed dinner while we took in the ambiance of the restaurant, with its bustling staff, warm interior, fragrant smells of roasted meats, lively conversation and piano and violin soloist playing cabaret tunes. The girls came up with a mealtime activity, we had an impromptu academy awards for the DVDs that we have in our traveling case. After awarding Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark with best picture, we did a slow Spanish stroll back home to our space pod. The plaza below our hotel was very active throughout the night and after another round of sleep deprivation training (in part due to the nocturnal revelers outside our room and in part due to the nocturnal sleepwalkers within), Elizabeth, Maddie and Bella got an early start and headed off to the Museu Picasso. They enjoyed visiting a museum dedicated solely to one artist as it enabled them to gather an in depth perspective of Picasso, his history, his changing themes and moods that have been categorized as his “periods.” Maddie and Bella were amazed at the quality of Picasso’s work beginning with his teen years, painting on par with the local masters at the young age of thirteen. Bella was also interested in Picasso’s early fascination with the works of Velazquez, her favorite artist from her tour of Madrid’s Prado Museum. Barcelona has a wealth of art and architecture and we had yet to visit one of the city’s most famous architectural masterpieces. So, after a side trip to the main post office to send home some excess baggage, we jumped in a cab and traveled to see Antoni Gaudi’s famous Sagrada Familia. The 19th century “Modernista” movement, which in great part defines Barcelona architecture, found its spiritual leader and creative genius in architect Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi was a unique individual, a devout Catholic, a staunch Catalan nationalist and a brilliant architect; he voluntarily lived a monastic life, devoting all of his energies to his architectural vision of “Modernisme.” His revolutionary use of “trencadis tiling” a decorative art form which consisted of smashing up ceramics and glass and then piecing them back together in fanciful mosaic patterns, was a trademark of his style of architecture. His whimsical works dominate the historical and architectural map of Barcelona. We spent the day conducting a walking tour of some of his more famous contributions. The first stone of the Temple de la Sagrada Familia was laid in 1882, its design so complicated and immense that work on the extraordinary cathedral continues today with completion scheduled for 2030. After over one hundred and twenty years of construction, eight of the twelve three hundred feet high, honeycombed bell tower spires along with their distinctive Christian mosaic headpieces have been completed. We toured the remarkable structure and marveled at the detail throughout the interior and exterior of the grand cathedral. We enjoyed a spirited game of architectural “eye spy” using the façade of the massive church with its dozens of statuary biblical scenes and hundreds of individually carved figures as our game board. After soaking up as much of this iconic architectural treasure as we could, we headed off to see some more of Gaudi’s work. After passing through several lively, historical neighborhoods, we arrived at two of Gaudi’s most endearing works, La Pedera (Casa Mila) and his Casa Batllo. La Pedera was completed in 1910 and was a fantastical building to behold. Its façade was a series of gravity defying, whimsical, curved walls held in place by undulating horizontal beams which are attached to invisible girders. Each alcove along the façade was accented by an intricate and ornate wrought iron balcony decorated with the designs from nature that are so characteristic of Gaudi’s “Modernisme” style. The surreal rooftop resembled a sculpture garden, with dozens of enormous chimneys shaped like medieval knights and ventilation ducts that were twisted into otherworldly organic forms. Every detail of this magical building was designed by Gaudi to reflect his innovative architectural brilliance. Casa Batllo was a unique apartment building that exhibited Gaudi’ enormous sense of architectural enthusiasm and lightheartedness. It had a delightful undulating façade of pastel mosaics, whimsical rooflines, and balconies sculpted in the form of giant carnival masks. The fairy tale structure was a polychrome explosion of colors and textures and our personal favorite. Our final stop along the Gaudi trail took us up into the hills overlooking the city to Gaudi’s Parc Guell, a lovely park, with fantasy inspired gatehouses, fanciful columned archways, whimsical mosaic fountains and benches and spectacular views of the Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea. Other Random Memories. While wandering the Rambla one day, Maddie noticed that several of the chickens were missing from their open air stalls and exclaimed “Someone’s having chicken tonight!” We had been warned to beware of pickpockets in Barcelona and we had two close encounters with professional pickpockets during our stay in the city. In each instance we were able to keep our wits about us and avoid losing anything important, but we found ourselves much more vigilant during the remainder of our stay. Biz and I found it interesting that our perceptions of Madrid and Barcelona had changed since our visit thirteen years ago. During our first visit, we preferred Barcelona to Madrid, but this time we reversed the rankings. Perhaps the simple explanation is the Olympics. When we were last in Barcelona it was gearing up for the Olympic games. On this trip, Madrid was competing for the 2012 games, and had taken extraordinary steps to put on its best face for the visiting selection committee. We were disappointed with all of the graffiti on the facades of the historic buildings in the Barri Gotic and along the Rambla. This was not a problem that we could recall during our first visit to Barcelona. The kids are always very affected by the sight of downtrodden beggars slumped against the sides of buildings along the sidewalks with their donation cans placed in front of them. Bless their hearts, I don’t think the children have passed one poor soul that hasn’t pulled at their heartstrings and we always made sure to have an ample supply of change when we headed off on our walks so that the kids could make a donation to each of the less fortunate. As we were riding in the cab to the airport, Elizabeth and I were recounting for the kids some of our memories from our honeymoon years ago. As if on cue, our wedding song, Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” played on the radio. Although it may have lost a bit of its Olympic sparkle, Barcelona was still a wonderful and romantic city to visit and explore. NEXT DISPATCH. EGYPT We look forward to keeping in touch with you. If you have a moment please email us at ourworldtrip@aol.com.