Catalunyan Style
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2005
1
35
41
Trip End
Dec 19, 2007
Barcelona, Spain
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Unlike Morocco we decided to enjoy some slow travel and had a relaxing time touring solely around Barcelona and its surrounding area of Catalunya - a unique state of people with a distinct language and culture from that of the rest of Spain. We spent about four days in Gaudi's Barcelona, day-tripped to the mystical crags and cliffs of the religious pilgrimage site of Montserrat, tasted our way through the wine country towns of Sant Sandurni & Villafranca, viewed the Roman ruins at Tarragona, walked around medieval Girona, and gawked at the displays, paintings and exhibitions at the Dali Museum in Figuerres. Catalunya - specifically Barcelona - was more expensive than we had planned but the food, wine and sites all over the region were also far richer than we had imagined.
Day One:
First we had to get our bearings (and a guidebook). We found a bookshop and decided to just buy a guidebook for Barcelona and not all of Spain. That day we went to the Santa Maria del Mar Cathedral and "The" Cathedral, strolled around La Rambla and the port. The Rambla is a wide boulevard lined with shops and cafes and also where we found the most entertaining "performance art". The guidebook said that it's where even the talentless can earn some money. We saw these silent performers painted and costumed standing on a box with an upturned hat on the ground. At the end of the Ramblas is a statue of Christopher Columbus pointing out to sea, although we realized that he's actually not pointing to the Americas but more toward Libya. And wasn't he Portugese anyway?
Day Two:
We grabbed what was turning into our morning ritual: cafe con leche (coffee with milk, for those of you who forgot your high school Spanish) and walked over to the Picasso Museum. We saw all of Picasso's artwork before and after he developed his crazy cubism. Probably the most entertaining part of the tour of the museum was to see a group of about 30 school children sitting on the floor in one of the exhibit rooms with a piece of paper and a pencil. Their teacher was instructing them to copy a Picasso cubist painting, perhaps to instill some appreciation for his art; which to me, his famous cubism looks like was developed by a kid messing around in art class! For lunch we met up with a sister of a friend who we knew from Peace Corps-Ghana. Louis is an American who married Josep (pronounced Ju-seb), a Catalan and has lived in Barcelona for 13 years. They are both professors at the university there. They treated us at a very nice tapas bar located off the Ramblas that was well out of our price range. We had a great time sampling various tapas and getting to know Louis and Josep. They even invited us to dinner at their house on Sunday. That evening we went to listen to a great classical guitarist Manuel Gonzalez playing in one of the old cathedrals in Barcelona. The music was beautiful and just to watch this man's fingers move all over the neck of the guitar was phenomenal!
Day Three:
We toured Antonio Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera. Although the cathedral La Sagrada Familia is still under construction after all these years since Gaudi's death, people continue to flock to this beautiful and awe-inspiring place. La Pedrera was also interesting to visit, mainly because of the innovative use of arches and pillars to construct a building without a single structural wall.
Day Four:
We went to a part of Barcelona where another Gaudi design was built called Parc Guell. The original concept of Parc Guell was to develop a neighborhood for upper class citizens of Barcelona. The project failed financially and the city of Barcelona bought it and turned it into a public park. There are plenty of walking trails that lead to spectacular views of the city and the sea, but the main attraction is the market pavilion where the roof is lined with a serpentine bench covered with a mosaic of ceramic tiles. It seems Gaudi was obsessed with using ceramic mosaics as an aesthetically pleasing way to protect all of his structures including rooftops, chimneys and fountains. The result is something you might imagine in a fairy tale or the land of Oz. Later, we went to our new friends Louis and Joseb's house for dinner with their two children. We had a fairly typical American meal, but the dessert was definitely Mediterranean: fresh oranges and figs, turron (sweet cake made from almonds and honey), nuts and raisins accompanied with Muskatel (dessert liquor) to wash it all down. It was fabulous (and free!). But it wasn't all about enjoying good food, we also learned a lot of Catalan history from Josep and also current events with immigrants coming from North and West Africa. The children also taught us a Catalan Christmas tradition that has to do with beating a log until it poops presents out.
Day Five:
We took the train out to the mountain monastery of Montserrat. From the train we took a thrilling cable car up to the mountain where we toured the cathedral where the legendary Black Virgin sculpture is kept and listened to the boys choir sing Ave Maria and the Catalan National Anthem. Afterwards we hiked up to an overlook and ate a picnic lunch and admired the views of the rocky mountain we were on. Later we took a funicular to the top of the mountain where we walked around looking for the hermitage that supposedly St Peter hid the Black Virgin in thousands of years ago.
Day Six:
We took the train to San Sadurni to tour the Codorniu winery that makes Cava, a sparkling wine much like champagne. The building was extremely old, beautiful and gigantic, boasting the largest wine cellar in the world, bottling 165 million bottles a year. And we believe it because part of the tour we had to take a miniature train-like ride through the cellar because walking would take too long. At the end of the tour we got to sample a glass of Cava, which was so good we had to buy a bottle of our own. Back on the train and we headed for the next wine making town of Vilafranca. The wine tour was at Mascaro winery and was more like an interview with someone from the food network than a tour. Probably because we were the only people there at this small family operation and Chris wouldn't stop asking questions! However we did find out that Mascaro is very famous for their brandy, which we also sampled along with another glass of cava. Then we headed for our final destination of the day: Tarragona.
Day Seven:
We saw the remains of the Aqueducts, Amphitheatre (think Gladiator), Circus (chariot races), Public Forum (government buildings), Pretorium , Paleo-Christian Necropolis, the archeological museum and walked around the wall that surrounded the ancient city of Tarragona. It was a full site-seeing day! Sorry no digital pictures, but we did buy a fun-saver camera that we've been using to take pics along the way.
Day Eight:
After finishing up the sites at Tarragona we went back to Barcelona just for the night. It was Thanksgiving so we called our families. It certainly didn't feel like a holiday to us, and even with all the wonderful yet expensive restaurants in Barcelona, we opted for a cheap Mexican dive. Yes, we had burritos and Corona on Turkey Day!
Day Nine:
Took the train to Girona where we walked around the old city and visited the Arab baths and the cathedral. It was probably the most interesting of all the gothic cathedrals that we saw, simply because there was an audio guide that explained everything about the cathedral to us. We got a recommendation for a nice place for lunch and ending up splurging on a three course meal and bottle of wine. It was incredibly delicious food and somehow made up for eating burritos on Thanksgiving, although we still didn't eat Turkey! After lunch we strolled the streets of the beautiful stone-built old city until we found the staircase leading up to archeological wall and then walked along there taking in the views of the city from above.
Day Ten:
We took a short train ride up to Figueres, Salvador Dali's hometown. Here we only visited the Dali museum, which turned out to be our favorite museum in Catalunya. It doesn't have all of his famous paintings, but enough of his other artwork is there to show you how truly wild his imagination ran. We took the train back to Girona. Later that night we found a popular-with -the-locals creperia and ate some of the most magnificent gourmet crepes ever made. Who would have thought goat cheese on crepes? But it's to die for!
Day Eleven:
Travel day. Cheap Ryanair flight to Switzerland where we meet up with our good friend Bill Case. Now that's where we finally had Thanksgiving dinner - Swiss style: turkey schnitzle.
Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception! (Malta's holiday today)
Sayward & Chris
