Advertisement
Published: June 13th 2017
Selfie at Gehry's Fish
Patrick Arnall
Anne Leverone
Guide Yolanda
Tommye Fleming
Barcy Fox
Driver JoseGeo: 41.3879, 2.16992
To Market, To Market
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
DAY SIXTEEN
Following breakfast at our hotel in Madrid, we took the limo that Tauck includes on final day but instead of heading to the airport, we headed to the train station. We were on our own.
First up, we had to find the kiosk in the station. We weren't moving that quickly as we all had multiple bags in tow. Beverly Hillbillies comes to mind. We found the kiosks, pushed the British flag and it converted all the directions to English. Patrick entered the ID number for our tickets and the machine quickly printed our bar-coded boarding passes. It turns out that folks had printed paper similar to ours that we think might have been enough to use to board; others had apps on their cell phones which I supposed would have worked for us as well, had we been more knowledgeable.
We arrived 90 minutes ahead but they didn't post our platform number until 15 minutes before. A lot of waiting.
Note of caution: I met a woman in line at the restrooms yesterday in Toledo who had had everything critical stolen in one fell swoop in Barcelona. Someone created a diversion (up-ended a milkshake that spilled on many people) and as they all backed up, they lost their focus. Her pack with passport, money, credit cards, jewels was gone in a flash. We need to be on high alert, especially now that we are traveling on our own. Vigilance is key.
As unfashionable as it is, for this trip I have my vitals in a black fanny pack from Magellan's that is made of a fabric that can't be cut and has a steel cord that runs through the wasteband so that it can't be snapped off. Hate the look but it works. Hopefully it's the perfect answer for Barcelona's La Rambla (market).
The train was a bullet train, traveling at 180 miles per hour. It delivered us in less than three hours to Barcelona, despite a few stops in between. There was actually food service in first class – free meal, beverages, etc. I felt like I'd been catapulted back to the 1950s.
The train was a smooth ride, had electrical power but no WiFi, so I began a first draft of my blog for today before 10 am.
When we arrived, we waited 25 minutes for our ride; and the car and driver turned out
to be a taxi. Not exactly what I was expecting but it all worked out. We checked into Hotel Colon, which seems nice enough but I can already tell the beds are not me. We will see. First World problems.
We grabbed breakfast bars in our room, since we were running late, and headed back to the lobby for our tour. We had a substitute guide named Yolanda who wanted to know exactly what we wanted to see. We told her we wanted a half-day city tour, but to leave out the Gaudi stuff since we have all day tomorrow with Gaudi.
We headed along some pretty streets – the architecture appears French in many ways, the boulevards are treed and wide (similar to Paris and Buenos Aires) and its buildings imposing. Before we ever pulled away from the hotel, we took in the exterior of the Barcelona Cathedral, a 14th Century Gothic across the street.
The Palace of Catalan Music is a concert hall designed in the Catalan modernista style. It is way overdone, but I like it like that. Inside and out, it's very cool.
On to La Rambla, laid out in 1766, it is Barcelona's most famous street. It follows the
contours of the medieval city. Because of its central location, there are markets, flowers and other goods to be had. There were live "models" imitating Marilyn Monroe on balconies, trying to woo us to the Erotic Museum, and there was a variety of buskers trying to make a living as human models/performers. My faves were Don Quixote in Madrid and Galileo in Barcelona the best.
Nearby was La Bouqueria, a large public market. My camera just loved it there. A variety of food stuffs are sold from hundreds of stalls … fresh fish, gorgeous fruit, olives, marzipan, spices, smoked meats and more. Wow, talk about eye candy!
Tomorrow is Christopher Columbus Day (Debby's birthday – Happy Birthday, Little Sis!) and although Spain doesn't make a big deal about it, they do recognize it. Several buildings were draped in flags and the Columbus statue was decorated in flowers and colorful silk ribbons. We may run into some street closures tomorrow if the festivities are more than we are being told.
We drove by the port where there were any number of cruise ships docked. The elevated road made for a scenic view of Barcelona and its seaside location. We then headed up the Montjuïc
hill for more beautiful views, a close-up look at the funicular and a visit to the National Art Museum of Catalonia. The Museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to the
1929 Barcelona International Exposition. The Palau Nacional was reopened in 1992 on the occasion of the Olympic Games. There is an “apartment” where the King stays when he visits Barcelona.
We stopped at the arena of the '92 Summer Olympics (and the '36 Olympics, except for a little thing called The Spanish Civil War and the games were moved to Berlin).
We headed down the mountain and back towards our hotel. But first, an obligatory visit to
Barcelona's beaches. We passed by El Cap de Barcelona, a surrealist sculpture created by American Roy Lichtenstein for the 1992 Summer Olympics. Its English title is The Head. And we took selfies at Frank Gehry's huge fish sculpture, made from intertwining gilded stainless steel strips. Jose suggested we take selfies here – quite fun, even if not quite good.
It was a long day so we opted for local at dinner time. We strolled to nearby Neyras Tapas Bar at the Concierge's suggestion. We had Tapas and some good laughs about the day's event. We stopped at a Pharmacia for Barcy and at Starbucks for me before falling into our rooms.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.025s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
trish1117
non-member comment
Tommye & Patrick: I hate to see this trip end!!! I really enjoyed every day of our travels with you all. Tauck is the best - we have done many of their trips. Have a safe trip home. You miss a terrible storm that hit the east coast.
Now you are back in time to VOTE!!! OMG!!!