Buenas Tardes from Barcelona! Where was I.....

Ah, yes, we were bus-touring and had just left the Street of Discord. From there, we walked up Passeig de Gracia to La Pedrera, an apartment house built by Antoni Gaudi between 1906 and 1910. It's amazing. There are, to the best of my knowledge, no straight lines in the place. The front is made up of undulating curves, and the terraces of the apartments are very organic looking wroght iron, no two of which are the same. The building is no longer used as apartments, but is a museum dedicated to Gaudi. The attic shows images of his other works (which we get to later in the tour), the rooftop terrace is open to the public, and on a lower floor there's a replica of an apartment as it might've existed in the early part of the century. Very neat.

After La Pedrera, we hopped back on La Autobus Turistic for the ride to La Sagrida Familia (on the way we passed a church with 365 windows, one for each day of the year). La Sagrida Familia is a cathedral designed by ... Gaudi (are you sensing a theme here? Gaudi is the single most important reason Jeff and I came to Barcelona). As with most of Gaudi's work I've seen over the past few days, Sagrida Familia absolutely defies written description. It was begun, I believe, in 1910 (or maybe 1906), and at the time of Gaudi's death only one of the eight towers had been completed. No work was done on it for many years, but eventually work began again. At the moment it's the only cathedral in the world that is still under construction; they hope to finish in 30 years. We were able to go up in one of the towers, which was neat and gave us a nice view of the city.

After Sagrida Familia we had a quick bite of lunch (no ham, but cheese and bread), then went off to tour the grandstand of Camp Nou, the stadium of Futbol Club Barcelona. Jeff wanted to see a futbol match in either Madrid or Barcelona, but the days weren't right, so this was the closest he could come. It's one of the largest stadiums in the world, and holds over 100,000 people (the largest stadium is, I believe, in either Argentina or Brazil. Dunno how many rabid futbol fans it holds). We toured the FC Barcelona museum first, then went into the stadium. It's absolutely huge. Imagine the largest American football stadium you've ever seen, then add another level of seats. It's mammoth. After that, we went into the obligatory gift shop and bought FC Barcelona souvenirs and Spanish candy (yum).

Post futbol mania, we wanted to see Park Guell, a park designed by Antoni Gaudi (he reappears!). We hopped back on the tour bus, but because of where the Park is located had to ride almost entirely around the circle that the bus makes until we got to it (we could've stopped at the park before FC Barcelona, but the stadium closes earlier than the park, and we wanted to make sure we got to the stadium). Anyway, what with traffic and what not, we weren't to the park till nearly 8pm. The last bus left at around 8:30 pm, so we only had a short visit, but it was neat. We saw more of Gaudi's design and tile work (a very cool dragon guards the entrance), and since the park is on a hill got to see more views of the city. After the park, we took the last bus back to Placa de Catalunya, then walked back to our hotel. A few tapas in a bar, a dessert, and we were off to slumberland.

Today (Thursday) was even more beautiful than Wednesday, weather-wise. It was sunny and warm all day. We started out by grabbing a quick croissant in a Spanish fast-food place Adrianne introduced us too (yes, we've done Spanish fast food, but have yet to resort to American fast food). After that we walked through La Ribera (the neighborhood next to the one our hotel is in) to the Picasso Museum. This museum has the largest collection of Picasso's early works anywhere (back when all the noses were in the right place!), and from what I can tell most of them were donated by Picasso himself. It was really fascinating to see how talented he was even as a teenager, and also to see how his worked changed over the years.

After Picasso, we strolled a couple of blocks to Museu de la Xocolat -- The Chocolate Museum! It was a bit silly, but fun. It traces the history of chocolate through it's earliest uses by the Aztecs, discusses the production of chocolate, and has artwork entirely in chocolate (well, OK, some of them used other candies as well). From there we walked to Santa Maria del Mar, a church built in the 14th century. The columns supporting it's arch are 13 feet apart, which is wider than the columns in any other mideval building. Apparently if it were two feet taller, it would be structurally instable and the roof would collapse. There was a wedding going on, so we were only able to see part of the inside, but it was lovely (and the roof stayed up).

From there we walked down to the waterfront. I did not put my feet in the Mediterranean, even though I've never been in it -- we were still at a harbor, after all, so the water was pretty skanky. It was still amazingly blue and clear, though -- we could see quite a ways down the mooring lines of the boats. We took a harbour cruise that we thought was going to go out actually into the open sea, but instead just meandered around the port (one of the difficulties with not speaking the language is that you're never sure exactly what you'll get). But it was a nice day and we were sitting down, so it was OK.

From the port we walked up Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian thouroughfares. We saw what has to be the world's largest foosball table, and several street entertainers (mimes that looked like statues, a man covered with flowers, jugglers...). We grabbed a quick bite of lunch, then went to the Contemporary Art Museum. This was actually a disappointment. They were doing a retrospective of a man named Tapies, and we both found his art a bit inaccessable. Beyond that, the permanent collection was very small. So, we didn't stay long, but instead went back to our hotel (we'd arranged for a late check-out) for siesta!

And now here we are! Our train for Madrid leaves in about 4 hours. It will get into Madrid about 8am Madrid time, and we'll kill a few hours there before hopping on our flight back home around 1pm! Hard to believe, but the whold trip is nearly over.

So, what are the final musings on Spain?

The Spanish are far less concerned with personal hygiene than we (or at least me) are. It was an accomplishment to find a bathroom stall with toilet paper, and if it also had soap and a hand-dryer, it was nearly amazing. On my next trip I'm bringing my own toilet paper!

The Spanish really do eat ham, eggs, cheese, bread or tuna at nearly every meal. I bought a baguette pizza today that appeared to have olives and red peppers on it, but also had tuna hidden under the cheese. It was very good, but a little unexpected!

I have absolutely fallen in love with Smart Cars, and desperately want one for my own. Sorry, Trina, but they are FAR cuter than Minis (even Mini Driver).

Barcelona is in many ways a lovely city, and obviously loves the artistic tradition in the city, but of the three places we went, it's the last that I'd go back to. It was nice, but the people weren't as friendly, they weren't as likely to help us muddle through life in Spanish, and because it's a large city, it's hard to get around just by walking, which makes it harder to explore than either Madrid or Granada. It was nice, and I'm glad we came, but of the three I'd go back to Madrid or Granada in a heartbeat, and would go back to Barcelona either on a day trip or in 30 years when Sagrida Familia is completed.

So, Adios from Spain! It was a great trip, and I'm sure I'll have to append something to this blog in the next few days, as I've probably left something crucial out!