The Gaudi Houses

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Today is the first day we are doing something other than traveling. Barcelona is known for many things, Tapas and nightlife are certainly two of them. Perhaps the most famous is Antoni Gaudi, architect extraordinaire. What is work most reminds me of is Dr. Seuss, when I look at his buildings, I cannot help but think of Whoville and Wendy Lou Who. Today we will visit three of his houses.

At the moment it is 7 am and we are getting ready for the day. The hotel has free bikes, so we are hoping to snag a couple so we can easily get around the city. If not, it will be walking and the metro. I will say I am exhausted, tomorrow may bring a slight change in plans and eliminating our morning activities, and instead catch up on some sleep.

Today is a full day, starting with breakfast downstairs. It is not included but we decided to pay extra for the convenience.

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Now back in the room after a full day, Jerry just got back from the wine trip, and I had a little catnap while he was gone. Also resting my feet after our 5 miles of walking.

The day started with breakfast in the hotel. A combination of cook to order and standard European meats, cheeses, bread and yogurt. The cook to order menu had pretty much anything you could think of, I just had a couple of poached eggs, it always helps my stomach issues; Jerry had eggs over easy with bacon and white beans. The bread and meat selection was huge, every type of jamon you can imagine and good Spanish Manchego on the cheese board. It does always amaze us how travelers today (no matter what country they may be from) have zero travel etiquette. While I was up getting my selection off the buffet, a man decided he needed my chair, so just took it, even though someone was clearly sitting there. Not sure why he just didn’t take the chair from the clearly empty spot at the table. In addition, people just don’t seem to know how to move out of the way, the insist on standing in front of the toaster waiting for the toast to pop, thus blocking the path for anyone to get by, or use the other open spots on the very large, and by the way fancy Kitchen Aide, toaster. Any Hoo, the coffee was good and strong.

The original plan was to take advantage of the free Kimpton bikes as means of transportation today, however, we were running a bit behind schedule and had a timed entry to our first sight, so we took a quick taxi, then walked the rest of the day, until lunch time.

Casa Mila (La Pedrera)

Our first Gaudi stop of the day was Casa Mila, it last building he designed before devoting the rest of his life to the Sagrada Familia. When it was first built it was not well received by the neighborhood, the wavy, curving stone façade which appear to undulate around the corner of the block. At the time the chimneys atop the building were considered “eerie” and nicknamed espanta-bruxes or witch scarers. There are no straight lines on the entire exterior of the building. The tour is of the former apartments of the namesake of the building, an apartment with at least 15 rooms and servant’s quarters. It puts any Park Avenue Penthouse to shame. We also toured the attic, which had the appearance of being inside a whale, and the rooftop. It was a very good tour with audio guide included so you could go at your own pace. Jerry took far too many pictures to post them all, so hopefully I managed to choose the ones to give a good sense of the magnitude of the apartments and building.

Casa Battlo

Next up was a short walk down the street to Casa Battlo, an entire house that the owner gave Gaudi free reign to redesign has he saw fit. He guided most of the construction from the pedestrian strip in the middle of the street. It is very colorful inside and out and several stories including a patio off the dining room and roof top terrace.

We purchased the three-house package, two of which had timed entries and the third (which we will see tomorrow) is open entry. We had a third house to do a walk by today (Casa Calvet), but we were unable to locate it as we walked back to our hotel.

Normally we do not come back to the hotel during the day, but today was the exception for two reasons: 1) very mundane needed a bathroom break, and unlike Paris, Barcelona has a complete lack of public bathrooms; and 2) really needed to wrap my ankles as the up and down the staircases and the 3.5 miles of walking took their toll on my left ankle. Coming back to the hotel did give us the opportunity to pick up a couple of bikes for the rest of the day.

Need to get ready for the social hour in the lobby bar, so will wrap up the rest of the day after dinner.

Biking the Rambla

Now, equipped with two bikes, we headed off for lunch at the Mercado de La Boqueria. The bike ride was a bit difficult because most of it was via crowded pedestrian area, so dodging people was required. The last time I had to dodge a person I ended up in the canal in La Rochelle. No canal’s here and managed to avoid all accidents. Once we got to the Rambla it was much easier to navigate the cars as opposed to humans.

The Mercado was packed, finding a place to lock our bikes was a challenge but we managed to find the last open bike rack space. Before we left, we had picked four different places we wanted to eat at in the market, unfortunately, since we were there at peak lunch time on a Saturday, that was not to be. All of the food in the market looked great, including the several stalls of ready to go meals. The lines for the grab and go were very long and for good reason, cheap and tasty. We managed to find a restaurant on the outside of the Market looking in, it just happen to be the place that was supplying several of the grab and go stalls.

We opted for a tapa lunch, a plate of Iberic jamon and Manchego. The jamon was hand sliced paper thin. We accompanied this with pan con tomate and patatas bravas. It was good and hit the spot. There were several tables outside, so it was great for people watching. This brings me back to the lack of people’s travel etiquette. While we were eating our lunch four different sets of tourists just sat down at the table next to us with their grab and go friend. All of them were run off by the waiter. Not sure why anyone would think that you could just sit down (and not order) at a table clearly earmarked for customers of the restaurant.

After lunch we strolled through the market and took several pictures. Then it was back on the bikes and down the Rambla to the last stop of the day, Palau Guell, yes, our third Gaudi house of the day.

Palau Guell

The final Gaudi house for today (not the trip) was Palau. The original house (before Gaudi remodel) was built for textile baron, Count Eusebi de Guell Bacigalupi. He also happened to be Gaudi’s biggest patron. The original house built in the gothic style and surrounded by other buildings. Gaudi was obsessed with bring light to every room of this otherwise dark and gloomy house. I cannot begin to explain any of the architectural (I can barely spell the word) wonders of the house. If Jerry was writing this, he could go into extensive detail. Even with all of the features bringing light into the house, it was still fairly foreboding and reminiscent of medieval times, not the late 19^th century.

The tour went from the underground stables to the roof top. The flow of the house was not logical, and you did have to double back several times to insure you saw every room. The rooftop had some spectacular views of Parc Guell, the Olympic hill and off in the distance the Mediterranean Sea.

We pedal our way back up the Rambla to our hotel, our first full day of sightseeing complete.

Back in the room we started the slow process of getting ready for dinner and the social hour in the hotel bar. Kimptons are known for the wine hour, started long before they were part of IHG hotel group. Back in the day the three Vintage Hotels (Seattle, Portland & San Fransisco) were all based upon that regions wine country; Portland the Willamette Valley, San Francisco Napa, etc. Each room was themed around a different winery and every night between 5 and 6 was a complimentary wine hour, feature a local wine. Since they became part of Kimpton and then IHG, the wine hour continues, but the selection of wine served as gone down hall. No longer featuring a local wine, but obviously what is every the most cost effective.

The wine tonight was certainly not an exception, it was drinkable, but not WOW where do I get a bottle of that. Jerry spent the first 10 minutes of the social hour, trying to give a way our Ticket for Parc Guell, but everyone had already been. We also had a very nice conversation with a woman enjoying her book (until we started chatting her up) and a mojito while her husband was at the gym. Who works out on vacation, walking five plus miles a day is enough of a workout. Turns out they were on their honeymoon, and both were born and raised in Ashville, North Carolina. This is on our list of places to go, so we got some restaurants tips during out conversation.

We went directly from the social hour to our restaurant for dinner. We had walked by it last night, so we walked directly to it with some but not much help from dear google maps (which always seems to take you 8 blocks out of your way).

We were a bit concerned, while it is the oldest restaurant in Barcelona (1736) when we walked by last night, it appeared empty. Our fears were for not, when we arrived, they were not yet opened and there were already several people waiting. A Few minutes before eight, the door was opened and a woman (seemed more German than Spanish) that if you didn’t have a reservation there was no tables available, as they were fully booked). Ok, yes, they were busy, but there were at least five to six tables available. I think because they had several large parties, they were just trying to not over burden the staff or the kitchen.

At 8:01 the woman came back and said, “there is a problem in the kitchen, we will open 15 minutes late.” I could see in the window of the kitchen, and the only problem I could see was that they were on break. The kitchen looked ready to go to me.

Other than the space being very bright, it was a pleasant space. We were given a table in the back room next to the staircase to the next level. The viewpoint was great as we could see the rest of the dining room and people watch and see what everyone else was eating.

The Setting. The back dining room was large and open, we were the only two top, across the room from us was an 8 top from Oklahoma (easy to spot when your wearing an Oklahoma State Shirt and the accent was pretty distinctive). Next to that table was another 8 top of Philippinos, they truly enjoyed the suckling pig. On the side of the room was yet another 8 top of Chinese tourist, again, the language clearly gave that away. The four top next to us were the French, one woman looked like Kate Blanchet from the movie “Carol”. Then there was us, in the corner able to observe it all, including the lost in translation ordering. The French were by far the best as they all seem to speak fluent Spanish. The table, from Oklahoma, were the worst, in typical American style, no attempt at the local language was even made. I did my best to speak nothing but Spanish and I think did a fairly good job, pronunciation could certainly be better, but we were able to communicate.

The Meal. This was the spot for traditional Catalyn food, from the Canelones to the stews. We of course started with Cava. Our starters were Gambas a L’all (yes garlic shrimp again) sizzling and much better than last night. We also had, what else but pan con tomate, the best of the trip so far. The next course was a Catalyn staple Canelon’s d’espinaces amb brandalda de bacalla (Canelones stuffed with spinach and cod), this was the dish of the day. The sauce was rich and creamy and the filling perfect.

The mains were also fairly traditional, Jerry had the Wild Boar Stew (needed more sauce and the boar was a bit over cooked but still fell apart). I had Catalyn style suckling pig. Suckling pig is really a reginal specialty of Segovia (which is where I first had it 16 years ago on our honeymoon). Catlyn style means that is was served with dates and raisins, so a bit sweater than a Segovian suckling pig. It was still cooked very well, tender and crispy skin. Let’s not forget the wine, a very nice bottle of Vina Pomal Seleccion 106 reserva (2018 Rioja). It was really good and as it opened up it just kept getting better. The best part was it was only 24€, basically $26. Where in the United States can you get a good Spanish Rioja for $26, nowhere.

We even had dessert, Jerry a Catalyn Cream (Spanish crème Brulle) and I had cheesecake, and not anything like cheesecake back home, no graham cracker crust and the cake itself was light seemed to have no dairy other than the cheese.

Diner, complete we strolled back to the hotel, stop at a small shop and purchased a fan, yes, I am like a little old church lady, need my fan to keep me cool. Back in the room, we had a night cap and talked for a while, then sound to sleep.

Tomorrow, sleeping in and more Gaudi.

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Photos

Canelons
Dish of the Day