Fun In The Catalan Sun - España La Ultima Parte

---

By now we were deep into Andalucía, the most southerly point we would reach during this final leg of our year out - it was time for a holiday within a holiday. I can almost hear the howls of derision from here but all this travelling takes it out of you and, let’s be honest, who doesn’t like to put their feet up and sun themselves by a pool every so often? Angela’s dad, Martin and his wife Sue live close to Marbella and kindly allowed us to stay with them for just short of a week. We did almost nothing but chill out in unbroken sunshine cooled by copious bottles of rose wine and delicious homemade margaritas. I say we did “almost nothing” as Martin and Sue are having a pergola built at the bottom of their garden and decided to make use of the full range of my DIY skills.

These skills equate solely and exclusively to heavy lifting as I’m absolutely hopeless in this area; people who know me just laugh uncontrollably if I ever offer to help them with odd jobs - it can be quite hurtful. Angela does all the DIY around our house and a couple of years ago I bought her a cordless drill for her birthday. I found myself in B & Q lifting up every one in their range and asking myself “would this on be too heavy for her..............?”. Anyway, Martin, Tosh the builder and I heaved four massive beams up onto the supporting frame and it was a real sense of achievement to be involved in creating such a structure. We’re looking forward to utilising it during visits in the future, that’s if it survives the curse of having the DC DIY touch...............

We’ve been to this area of Spain on many occasions over the years and have had some wonderful times both on our own and with family and friends. There have been a great many laughs along the way. Too many to mention them all but one particular incident has just sprung to mind. One day we were at beach bar called Sharkey’s with a group of our friends and the waitress was, how can I put this?, extremely well endowed and wearing only a skimpy bikini. She was struggling to carry our order of six beers all at once and, as she reached our table, she leant forward and said to me “Would you like to grab these?”. About a million responses immediately shot into my head, so much so that I physically struggled to speak for a few seconds as they all tried to get out at once. Eventually I managed to weakly mumble something like “with pleasure, but do you want to put the drinks down first?” - I don’t think she was impressed.

Having made our way to the extreme south of Spain by journeying down its west side, it made sense for us to travel back up the east coast so we could see more of this fantastic country. Off we went along the dreaded N340 and over the next two days we drove for eleven hours with overnight stays in Elche and Tarragona. Both were nice places where we could have stayed longer time but this time they were only used as stepping stones to our next location, the Catalan capital of Barcelona.

The drive itself was enjoyable and provided a rich, diverse range of scenery. Roads that scaled mountains or wound along rugged coastline interspersed the route and we lost count of the number of tiny white villages we passed. Probably the highlight of the journey was Guadix, a town where there is over a square mile of cave houses. Clearly visible from the road, these were built by the Moors when they occupied Spain and date back to the 7th century. Carved into the clay hills, they’re still in use today and provide cooling residences for more than 10,000 troglodytes.

We managed to locate our hotel in Barcelona without using any pedestrian shopping arcades (ala our entry to Madrid) and it proved to be a perfect base from which to explore this vibrant city. An easy ten minute stroll to the heart of Las Ramblas (more of that later) and it had a rooftop pool that not only allowed us to keep cool in the 30 degree plus heat but also gave stunning views over the city and to the Mediterranean beyond. Barca is blessed with over 5 km of glorious sandy beaches and this gives it a much more relaxed, friendly feel than its great rival of Madrid. It was given a massive financial boost by hosting the 1992 Olympics and this allowed it to modernise and redevelop extensively. It’s not got the formality or grandeur of the country’s capital but it more than compensates for that with its buzzing atmosphere and vast variety of activities and attractions. (Angela commented that Barcelona seems like a cheeky young upstart brother to Madrid. Is she going mental? Possibly, but the worrying thing is, if she is, so am I because I knew exactly what she meant................).

I’ve already mentioned that our hotel had a great position in the city - it was also very big and on a busy main road. It is, therefore, almost unbelievable that I got catastrophically lost one evening when I nipped out to the local supermarket late one afternoon for a six pack of beers. It was only a short walk away and, feeling brave, I opted to head back to the hotel a different way than the one I’d taken there. Sounds straightforward enough but the criss crossing network of streets proved beyond me and I had to ask a policeman, a taxi driver and a waiter for directions before I eventually found my way back. As over half an hour had elapsed by now Angela was worried sick but I think that was more about not getting any beers rather than her gormless husband. With hindsight, maybe Mapgirl should have gone instead.

On our first evening we made straight for Las Ramblas, even though we weren’t sure exactly what it was. We’d heard so many people mention it we figured it made a logical point for us to start exploring and it didn’t let us down. In simplicity, Las Ramblas is a wide tree line boulevard that both tourists and locals descend on in droves. The city has had the good sense to pedestrianise it and it’s so long that, even though we went there every day of our visit, you always see something new and different. It’s a chaotic thoroughfare where you can buy anything from fruit to ferrets, grab a quick snack on the go or dine at leisure in a top class restaurant. And that’s not to mention the street performers...................

To be fair, the ones on Las Ramblas were better than most, but we have witnessed some terrible ones on our travels. In every major city we’ve visited, and you’ll no doubt have witnessed them too, are the utterly useless “human statues”. Some bloke who’s dug into his nieces dressing up box for unusual clothes, sprayed himself gold and then stands motionless on a box expecting some money. Angela tells me not to get so wound up about them but I can’t help myself. What do they do? What are they for? Most intriguingly, how do you find out you’re good at it in the first place, if indeed you can be good at it? Is there a kind of hierarchy where other human statues cast envious glances and think “God, he’s good. Look how still he can stand”? If they’d have wanted a job where you get paid for doing nothing, why didn’t they join the Civil Service in the first place? Pointless people if you ask me but I’ve got it off my chest now - thanks for listening.

We found Las Ramblas a great place to have a beer on the terrace of a cafe and just people watch. You’d certainly never get bored but there‘s too much else to see and do in this pulsating city to stay in one place. Indeed, a one minute walk east and you find yourself in the Barri Gotic (Gothic District), a remarkable concentration of 14 and 15th century medieval buildings. Here, you can wind your way through twisted narrow alleys to discover some amazing plazas and buildings without the risk of being trampled by tourists.

Our time in Barcelona was blessed with cloudless blue skies and the glorious sunshine just added to the experience. It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that we did the open top bus tour of the city which passed off almost without incident (we use the Oporto one as the yardstick for these things now and almost anything could be considered straightforward after that one). The only minor incident was when the audio guide was explaining about how important Christopher Columbus had been to the development of the city. Angela wasn’t paying full attention to the commentary as it described his “half metre long index finger” and, after a puzzled look down at her own hand, said a rude word of disbelief followed by “that’s impossible!!”. It was at this point I told her it was referring to the hand of the enormous Columbus statue we’d just passed, not physically the man himself. Would have been useful for pointing though......................

The tour was excellent and gave an extensive overview of the various districts within Barcelona, its history and styles of architecture. It is littered with work from their favourite son, the ultra eccentric Gaudi and (apparently and, to us at least, inexplicably) he’s an absolute legend in this field. His “creations” have to be seen to be believed and we’re not sure if the word “gaudy” is derived from his name at all but it certainly could be. Nowhere is this better illustrated than the unbelievable Sagrada Familia, a work to which he dedicated forty years of his life. To call it a church just doesn’t do it justice - it has no less than eight incredibly ornate spires, each one over one hundred metres tall. Started in 1882 and even though Gaudi is no longer of this earth, the Sagrada is still a work in progress. Funded entirely by anonymous donations, extensive building continues and it isn’t due to be complete until 2026.

These bus tours have given us tremendous fun around the world, never more so than when I point out a random “interesting” sight to Angela. Whilst her head is turned I then quickly switch her commentary to Japanese whilst she’s trying to identify what I was showing her. Childish? Possibly, but it one of those things you can never get bored of, similar to beeping your horn and waving when you pass strangers in the street. If you’ve never done this try it, you’ll be hooked. It’s even better fun if you’ve got a passenger in the car as you can take turns and keep score of who gets the most waves. You only live once.................... (Top tip - try and work it where your turn involves a queue at a bus stop. That way you stand a chance of a multiple wave score and, before you say it, actually I DO get out quite a lot!!).

My highlight of the tour came when we hopped off to visit the Camp Nou stadium, home to Barcelona, the more famous of the city’s two football teams (the other is called Espanyol and they play at the Olympic Stadium). There we got to visit the dressing rooms, Directors box and trophy cabinet as well as go pitch side in this 100,000 + capacity ground. They also show a glamorous film where you don 3d glasses and relive the excitement of their matches and recent successes. No sign of the Ginger Prince’s goal that knocked them out in the semi final of this year’s Champions League though - funny that.

And with that, our time in Spain came to an end, at least for the time being. We’ve travelled around it a reasonable amount in previous years but nowhere near as extensively as this. We’ve loved every minute of it and have been amazed at its beauty, depth and variety (I’ve mentioned previously that its nationals refer to it as “The Spains” rather than in the singular because of this vast diversity). A question we’re often asked on our travels is “Which has been your favourite place?”, and it’s just impossible to answer. For example, you can’t compare an ancient Indian town like Varanasi with, let’s say Vegas; both are excellent and exciting but in completely different ways. What we can say though is that of all the countries we’ve been lucky enough to visit so far, the most consistently beautiful is Spain. We can pay it no greater accolade than that.

---

Photos

Puerto Banus Harbour
Where the beautiful people hang out; As you can see.

Dave The Builder
Can we fix it? You quite probably will have to after I get involved.

The Troglodyte City
The 7th century Moorish city has 10,000 people living in cave houses like these.

Entertainment on Las Ramblas
We found the best idea was to grab a beer at a pavement bar and just people watch. There was always something to see and you could never get bored.

Las Ramblas Human Statues
They get me so mad I think I might be developing some kind of phobia. The lady on the right has just tried to order a kilo of Granny Smiths and half a dozen oranges.

Gaudi Or Gaudy?
Barcelona is stuffed full of this eccentric genius’s work. Love it or hate it, it’s very difficult to ignore.

Sagrada Familia
Another Gaudi creation - this one was his obsession and drove him to become a recluse. Despite it being started in 1882 work continues and isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2026.

Barcelona's Port Olimpic
This is a city that seems to have everything.

Open Top Bus Tours
Great fun and even better in Japanese. I even switched Angela's channel whilst taking this self portait.

Outside the Camp Nou
Even the statues play dirty in Spain and all because I mentioned the Ginger Prince’s 25 yard stunner that knocked them out in this year’s Champions League Semi Final.

Camp Nou: The Way Things Were
Apparently men used to dress like this in days of yore as they paid for their entry into the stadium. Bet the women behaved better back then though!!

Comments

[Ed]

Washing lines and pergolas
Buenos dais Angela and David, well if there is a couple I know who need a relaxing holiday right now it is you two. How it warmed my heart to think of David sat by a pool, basking in sunshine and day dreaming about large breasted waitresses. Now on a more serious note. Did I read that right? David Cotton, DIY, Spanish builders?? Angela, I am not exactly sure what a pergola is but advise your Dad not to sit under it for too long. Remember David’s attempt to put up that washing line? It’s better to be on the safe side that’s all I’m saying. Anyway I’ll let you get back to enjoying yourselves and I look forward to seeing you both on your return….. that is when I will take the opportunity to punch David on his Grande Gordo nazir. Why you may ask? For the scurrilous Manchester City trophy room jibe that’s why. Altogether now “we’ve got the tallest flood lights in the land; we’ve got celebrity fans like Curly Watts, because City are a massive club!!”