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Barcelona

After hot and humid Hawai’i, I was expecting Europe to be a lot cooler, and less humid - not the case at all! It is scorching!
After about 24hrs and 2 sunrises I arrived back in Barcelona without Tina who had gone via London to visit some friends, not really knowing where I was going to be sleeping. A couple of days after I’d left Spain the last time I got told by my bosses that they wanted to move my stuff out of my apartment for the 2 months I was away in South Africa, Hawaii and on leave, so they didn’t have to pay for it. I wasn’t particularly impressed with getting all my clobber moved out when I wasn’t there, but what can you do? Anyway, it turned out that they’d booked me back into that apartment for the 4 days we were in Barcelona before going to Rome, so I could go straight there and the stand under the air-conditioning for a bit before going back to work to tie up loose ends before my holiday.
Tina eventually arrived on the Friday night and I was quite excited to take her out for dinner at my local plaza, where they’ve got a couple of bar/restaurants where you can sit outside and watch the world go by, but unfortunately her flight was delayed, so by the time she arrived it was too late for all that and we ended up having a rather quiet evening. The next morning we went for a stroll around the city, starting along the Gran de Gracia, and the Passeig de Gracia, one long street that my work colleague calls “Our little Champs-Elysees”. Its studded with Gaudi and other Moderniste architect’s buildings as well as designer boutiques and fancy shops. (See some facebook photos). Eventually we reached the Plaza de Catalunya (the main square in the center of Barcelona), and continued down past the Dali museum (which we’ll have to visit later) and on to the cathedral, which unfortunately is under going restoration, so the façade is all covered up. Anyway, we went inside and it is quite magnificent, lots of little chapels along the sidewalls all stunningly decorated. It also has a rather strange central “room” type affair, a walled off area filled with pews and decorated on the inside with what looks like the crests of various important families in Barcelona. I’ve never seen that sort of arrangement in any other the European churches/cathedrals, I wonder if they hold ‘mini’ services in there. Anyway, after wondering around the ‘ground’ floor in a suitable state of awe we took the elevator to the roof for a look at the rest of the city. But to be honest, all we saw was aerials and the Sagrada Familia poking up in the distance.
In the square surrounding the cathedral, there are often buskers with music and large crowds so its quite a festive atmosphere and you can lean against the glass walls of the ‘architect’s association’ of Barcelona which has Picasso’s last mural running along the top and observe the goings on of the day, and marvel that you’re actually in Barcelona! Easily the most vibrant of all European cities in my limited experience.
After the cathedral, we wondered a little around the Barri Gothic (the old town), before popping into Las Ramblas (the main tourist drag) for a little squizz before catching the metro back to Gracia (home town). There is lots more to explore among the winding narrow streets of this part of Barcelona, and should any of you come visit, we will have meet in a tapas bar for supper and look out on pathways that have been trod by catalunyans for hundreds of years.

Gracia, the suburb where I live and work, is actually an old town that has been swallowed by the sprawling expansion of Barcelona. Gracia is quite independent, and I don’t think that they’re too happy about the fact they they’ve been swallowed. They have their own holidays and the Gracia festival in August is quite renown as being pretty amazing. Anyway, the main town square, or plaza is just up the road from where my apartment is and it appears that all the processions and festivals that occur on a frighteningly regular basis all end up here. In the center of the square is a tall tower with a bell at the top the rings the hours and quarter hours in. You can often see young Spaniards playing as goalkeepers against the doors to the spiral staircase the leads to the top of the tower. This square always seems to have lots of families with youngish kids running about. I’m sure they are rushing about dreaming of grass which seems to be in short supply in the city. Anyway, I get the impression that this tower, in the Plaza Ruis i Tallet, is a symbol of Gracia, and on the Saturday night, Tina and I went to a restaurant for Tapas that displays pictures of this tower quite proudly.
Tapas, for those who don’t know, is a finger food type dish that you share. Typically, you’d order several dishes of cured ham, olives, tortillas, seafood bits, etc and snack on them as you violently debate Barcelona’s recent victory over Real Madrid or the latest politics in the region, or possibly even what is happening with Zuma’s corruption trial. (We need updates on this by the way.)
The next day, having found out that the boss had gotten my dates wrong, found us rushing to pack up to be out of my apartment a day earlier than expected. Surely it is obvious when one says, I’ll be in town for the nights of the X, X, X, that you’ll only leave on day Y; obviously not. Anyway, we packed up, moved the clobber that needed to be stored into the storage area on the roof (not so far in the end, as the apartment is already on the 5th floor, that’s 92 steps if you’re counting!) and the stuff we were taking with us to my office before heading back to plaza de catalunya to catch the topless tourist bus that would take us on a tour around Barcelona. The bus is topless by the way, not the tourists on it! The bus ride, a hop on, hop off style affair, drives past the major tourist attractions with commentary that summarises Barcelona in about 2 hours. Unfortunately, due to the heat and the time pressure, we didn’t do much hopping, but there is plenty of time for that later, and hopefully it will all be documented in great detail in this blog eventually.
Our plane to Rome was leaving from Girona, a smallish town about 100km North of Barcelona near the Costa Brava coast. So after the bus tour we collected our luggage and trekked through the heat to one of Barcelona’s two major bus stations to find some means of transport up north. By this stage, Tina was half dead, apparently it’s not an activity for a lady. Catching the actual bus to Girona, was by comparison, very easy and we soon found ourselves at Hotel Husa Fornells preparing to catch the early Ryanair flight the next day to Roma Ciampino airport where my (though not Tina’s) holiday would officially begin.

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Comments

[The Monties]

Some more WOW!!!
You have really whetted our appetite for Barcelona. WE've never been but it sounds absolutely awesome. Once again, WE love all the details of places visited - WE can almost feel the atmosphere! Love to both of you.

[teentee]

You've made us really proud! We've managed to whet the appetite of the travel gurus!