This was the one city in Spain that we had particularly high
expectations for. So many people had told us how interesting it was, and that there was so
much to do and see. We were not disappointed.
We found a hostel with a kitchen (our new favorite amenity),
located the nearest El Corte Ingleis grocery store, and set up house. Within our first 24
hours we had caught a Pavarotti-like tenor singing an entire selection of operatic
favorites on the street near our place and a classical quartet playing in the
courtyard of a nearby cathedral. We felt very cultured, and quite frugal.
Barcelona's most famous district is the Barrio Gotico, or
the Gothic Quarter, and it's "main drag" is a pedestrian-only street called Las
Ramblas. One could wander this day and night and be entertained by a constant stream of
unique street-artists and creative panhandlers. Our favorite was a vignette that had two
"marionette musicians" perfectly synchronized with a Mozart aria.
The city is practically defined by it's Gaudi architecture,
which still seems modern after nearly a century. It can partially be described as Fantasy
architecture; the stuff is bizarre, amazing, and yes, sometimes quite gaudy. Antoni Gaudi
was part of the movement entitled "modernisme" a Catalan/Spanish art nouveau or
modernist style that was popular from the turn of the century through the 1920's. Gaudi
was the genius behind several houses, parks, palaces, a huge church, and a fountain.
During our time in Barcelona we roamed up and down Las
Ramblas, ate Tapas, and visited the Palau Guell, the Placa Reial, Casa Calvet, Casa Lleo
Morera, the Temple de la Sagrada Familia, the Parc Guell, the Catedral Santa Maria del
Mar, and the Quatre Gats restaurant where Picasso used to hang,
While Dave, obsessed with his latest Hemingway novel (being
in Spain, you know) headed back to the hostel to read, Kelly checked out the Picasso
museum. It contained a large number of his earlier works, and several rooms featured his
variations of Velazquez's famous El Minaret that we had just seen in Madrid. It was
interesting to see how Picasso's style evolved from traditional "true to life"
representation when he was young (age 12-14) to his more-famous signature abstract style.
When Monet and Renoir were "in vogue" his paintings reflected their influence.
He seemed to have gone through phases of many styles, gotten bored, and finally developed
his own interpretation of what the medium meant to him--and what we now think of as
"a Picasso."
As is quite typical for us, we took things slowly in the
beginning and middle of our time in Barcelona, then ran around and tried to cram many
things in on our last day. We were sad to leave but excited to finally meet Kristina and
David (www.wired2theworld.com) after emailing them for nearly a year. They were just
finishing their 9-month world journey and we were glad we could just "head on
over" to Switzerland to meet them.
