Advertisement
Spanish Class
The black and white building in the rear is our hotel May 17 - 22 Barcelona to Bangkok
Going to Barcelona was something of a whim, an alternative to paying for astronomically expensive London accommodation. To be fair, we had always planned to make another trip into Europe and had always wanted to go to Spain as Marty has had a wonderful picture of a Spanish city landscape (Madrid I think) on our flat wall for the past four years. Anyway, we had a look through various last minute deals and decided that the trip was a goer, particularly after a hearty recommendation from Gavin and Catriona.
Once again making our way to the hotel was difficult; I think this has been the hardest and most frustrating thing about this trip. The difficulty was confounded by our complete inability to read or speak Spanish and the darkness of the Barcelona night (like most European cities, not actually that dark). We had decided to make our own way to the hotel in the centre of the city, rather than pre-arrange any transport. Two hours after we had made our way through customs we arrived at ‘Hotel Diagonal’ at 12.30am. Much relief that our journey had become just another travel story, although
Spanish Style
Our hotel and phallic building from behind one best told after a bit of time has passed!
The hotel itself is pretty funky (and not in the Amsterdam way), without doubt the best we have stayed at on the trip. As seems characteristic of Barcelona, the focus of the hotel is architecture aesthetics (in this case, ultra-modernist, with sharp edges and only black and white colouring) as opposed to function. Having said that, we did enjoy the functionality of the blinds, which when pulled made the room pitch black. As a result, on the first morning we were woken up by a knock on the door at 1030. Otherwise we would have slept till midday! This really set the tone for the rest of this leg of the journey.
As our energy levels are low - my lifestyle is beginning to resemble the documentary ‘Super Size Me’ - we spent perhaps too much time in the hotel room. Nonetheless, we really did enjoy Barcelona. In particular the architecture is stunning - Victoria rates it as the best of the trip. Very few buildings are just ‘buildings’, there is always some statement to be made. All very modernist and all very cool.
Much of Barcelona
is being redeveloped - all in style - and it is very interesting seeing the huge economic divisions that remain. As you will see from one of Victoria’s pictures our hotel is next to a commercial building construct in perfect late-modernist style, and a the remains of an urban slum. Having mentioned these economic divisions, however, I must mention the apparent lack of ethnic divisions. Barcelona appeared to be one of the most ethnically diverse (in the sense of no strong majority) populations we have visited. While I know little of Spanish society and any comment is only speculation based on a few days of observation, there appeared to be very little racial tension. Of particular note were the number of inter-racial couples, all publicly very affectionate, as is the Spanish way!
Other than the architecture, relaxing and enjoying the hot weather, there were two main highlights to our visit. The first was a night tour of Barcelona, was which just beautiful at night. In particular a series of fountains designed for the 1992 Olympics, but based around a much older museum. In fact, we went back to this site on the last night.
The other main attraction was
a large Catholic church (I am typing this at 2.30am in Bangkok and cannot remember the name) that was begun in the late 19th century by Gaudi, a famous Spanish architect. It still remains unfinished, and will probably not be finished for a long time. Nonetheless, it is a very unique building, very impressive, if only in the loving detail. We visited this on the night tour and then went in the next day. I am not really a big fan of elaborate church designs* - it certainly does not make me feel any closer to God - but they are still interesting to visit. This trip has greatly increased by knowledge of religion and art, both of which have given me a much stronger sense of the human side of history.
Other than that, the main highlight (which Victoria particularly enjoyed) was our authentic beachside lunch on the last day - Paella and Sangria. Marty, I thought of you while we ate it. This lunch, later followed by watching the sunset over Barcelona from the aforementioned foundations, capped off a very enjoyable visit to a very beautiful city. We sat in front of the museum which overlooked the
foundations for close to an hour, taking in the sunset and later the colours of the foundations (set to a variety of classical music). This for me really felt like the end of the trip (all that was left was very little sleep, nerve racking flights and a lot of time in transit). As I sat there I tried to soak in the atmosphere, to really enjoy this experience which is so beautiful and will soon seem so far away. Ultimately, however, time can never stand still and all you can do is feel these moments slipping through your fingers, soon to become memories of a time you will never forget.
Next step, London and home. Since we had nine hours between arriving from Barcelona and leaving England, we decided to store our bags at the airport and explore the city again (told you I would be back, London!). This allowed Victoria to see a little more of the London shops and me to again visit the Tate Museum to see a exhibition I missed, based around the work of Duchamp (the fellow who stunned the art world in 1913 by entering a urinal in an exhibition). It was
Friendly Dolphin
From our previously unnoted trip to the Barcelona Zoo a very enjoyable and enlightening exhibition, more intellectual than aesthetic, which is my style of art, really.
Our journey certainly broke up the day, but was not without consequence - I got partially lost (not so much lost as I didn’t know where I was or how to get where I was going) and got a little stressed and Victoria has rolled her ankle quite badly. Nonetheless, we made our flight to Bangkok with only a little fuss and it seems very strange that the next stop is home.
As I writing this we have already spent a night in Bangkok, which is a pretty buzzy experience, in particular the ‘Tut-Tut’ taxi’s. As much as I hate to admit it, the shopping is pretty good here and I might have to spend some money tomorrow... Sadly, the next time I write about it will be from the comfort of my bedroom.
• I forget to mention that - if you forget the economic impossibility of it - there is enough gold in St. Peters church in the Vatican to bring all of India out of poverty. That this is matter of religious pride is just sickening.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0445s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb