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Published: November 29th 2009
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A detail of Gaudi's Casa Batllo
Antonio Gaudi designed many buildings and spaces around
Barcelona, including this dwelling. We headed out of Granada on Friday morning, as usual finding our way onto the right roads much more easily than we did when arriving. Checking the maps, it looked as though Barcelona was further than we could comfortably drive in one day. We decided we would head for Valencia, or possibly for Torreon if we made sufficient headway. The start was pretty slow, as we were on 2-lane roads with a lot of truck traffic. Eventually, as the day went on, the traffic thinned out and we started covering more distance. As we headed East through Andalusia, we discovered that we had only seen a small fraction of the olive groves. Again, there was nothing else in sight for miles in all directions, and the smell of olives was everywhere. We stopped to find some lunch in a small town just off the highway. We were something of a curiosity to the people in the small cafe, obviously foreigners. The proprietor determined that we spoke English, then proudly summoned a boy of about 14 who was evidently the town's premier expert in our tongue. Between our broken Spanish and his somewhat better English, we managed to convey our wishes and
In front of the Casa Batllo
Barcelona probably has more streets solely for pedestrians than any other city in the world. had a good light lunch.
We eventually made it to the Mediterranean coast near Valencia. We still had a long way to go, but at least from here on it would be all 4-lane Autovia. We decided to press on to Torreon for the night. Arriving in late afternoon/early evening, we found a hotel in the downtown area. Alec identified a local restaurant serving good traditional fare, and we had a really good dinner. Afterwords, we were offered a glass of cava, the local sparkling wine, on the house. It was a great finish to the meal.
Saturday morning, we headed for Barcelona. We still had a ways to go, but it went quickly on very good toll Autovias. I had decided to prebook our hotel, given that we were going to a really large city and didn't know anything about where to stay. Hotwire located us a room at the Hilton, right on the Mediterranean, at a really low rate, so we got a chance to experience a 4 1/2-star hotel instead of our usual 3. Finding the hotel was no problem, since it was located near the end of one of the city's major thoroughfares, the
The Torre Agbar
This radically-shaped building has an important impact on Barcelona's skyline. Avenida Diagonal.
The Hilton Diagonal Mar is a first-class hotel, designed with the comfort of business travelers and wealthy tourists in mind. To be honest, it really isn't our cup of sangria. The service is excellent, the staff all speak very good English (as well as every other major language, it seems), the rooms are spacious and very well furnished, but we all felt very removed from the city, more looking at it than living in it. The hotel is much like countless others in every major city around the world. We got a great rate, but frankly we would rather have paid a few Euros more and stayed in a 3-star with some personality. Not only that, but Hilton has decided to charge an exorbitant (22 Euros per day) fee for wireless Internet, a service we are accustomed to receiving gratis at our more humble digs, along with a free breakfast. At any rate, we did sleep well in our cushy and very quiet room.
Barcelona is very much a walking city, featuring several Ramblas, streets reserved solely for pedestrian traffic. The populace spends much of their time strolling up and down the Ramblas, stopping for coffee
or tapas along the way, seeing and being seen. We definitely did our share of walking, often stumbling on interesting sights, inviting restaurants and cafes, and observing the ways of the Barcelonans. It was interesting having yet another new language, Catalan, to deal with, but in Barcelona Spanish works very well, and English is pretty common.
On Saturday, we found a tobacconist who had some more Habanos at very reasonable prices, so we stocked up again. We also managed to locate the only Orthodox church in Barcelona, and one of only a handful in Spain, so that Andrew could attend services on Sunday morning. We then found a nice Chinese restaurant, where we had a good dinner. Then we made the long walk back to the hotel and called it a night.
I think we were all getting a little tired by the time we got to Barcelona. After all, we've been on the road for over two months now, and the long road trip from Andalusia to Catalonia was pretty wearing. Put that together with walking several miles in Barcelona, and we were pretty well exhausted. I don't think we enjoyed the city as much as we
The Sagrada Familia
Gaudi's masterpiece might have, although it was still an interesting place. I hope I get a chance to spend some more time there on another trip.
On Sunday morning, Alec decided to join Andrew in attending church, so I agreed to drive them there. I found a parking place close by and had a very enjoyable time on a beautiful sunny morning. I first found a cafe, where the cheerful proprietress suggested a bacon and cheese bocadillo to go with my cafe con leche. Very tasty. Then I found a nearby park bench to wait for the boys and smoke one of the Habanos. It was a great chance to relax and watch the people go by. We had remarked earlier that the Barcelonans had interesting relationships with their dogs. They tend to relate to them almost as people, letting them off the leash much of the time and expecting them to behave intelligently, which they pretty much do. On this Sunday morning, I saw an elderly lady with her poodle. The dog clearly wasn't happy about going home, and had been put on its leash. It pulled against the restraint, frustrating the poor woman and making progress difficult. Finally, the
woman turned, leaned down toward the dog, and shouted a stream of invective. Then she threw down the leash, turned, and walked away. The dog looked confused and chagrined, walked back and forth a couple of times, watching its mistress walk away, then sheepishly followed, dragging the leash behind.
After the boys were through with church (Orthodox services can be quite long), we walked around a little, then settled on an all-you-can-eat sushi bar for lunch. We are all big fans of sushi, and it was a great chance to eat our fill of deliciously fresh seafood. We then headed back to the car and returned to the Hilton. As noted, we were all pretty tired, and we had to make another long drive on Monday, back to Madrid so that we could catch our flight to Morocco on Tuesday morning. We decided on sandwiches in the room for dinner and called it an early night.
Monday morning, we took time to visit Antonio Gaudi's masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia cathedral. It is an amazing sight, revealing new details with every step as you walk around it. If we hadn't seen anything else in Barcelona, the visit would have
been worth it for me. We then got on the road for Madrid, and began to think about Marrakech.
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