Exploding with Happiness!: 2014

Sunday, May 25, 2014

In Closing

Saturday morning, Steve and I headed to the Barcelona airport for our flight home. All went smoothly (well, our flight from London to LAX got delayed for an hour or so, but no big deal) and we are now home.

Before leaving Barcelona, I took one last little tourist excursion, visiting La Boqueria, the big covered marketplace off La Rambla near our apartment. Laura had said it was amazing and indeed it was. There were dozens of stands selling all kinds of beautiful produce, seafood, meat, baked goods, candy – pretty much anything edible. Since we were leaving, all I bought was some fruit for our breakfast.

The kids spent a relatively quiet day in Barcelona. Evan went shopping for souvenirs and all three of them had another huge sandwich at Bó de B, the terrific sandwich shop we visited our first day.

Now (Sunday) Laura is studying for her exams, Sara is already in Paris (she took a train from Barcelona this morning and met the friend that she’ll be traveling with for the next month), Evan is on a plane bound for San Francisco and Steve and I are back in Manhattan Beach. Since we had no groceries at home, we went out to get breakfast burritos this morning. Although we had a wonderful vacation and will treasure our memories of it fondly for years to come, it was nice to eat in our own backyard.

La Boqueria

Fruit

Veggies

Ham (always ham)

Eggs (including quail and ostrich eggs)

Salted codfish

Exotic meats (at least by American standards)

Live lobsters and other shellfish

Souvenirs

Big, delicious sandwiches from Bó de B

Breakfast burritos at home

Friday, May 23, 2014

Montserrat

It's hard to top a day that starts with fresh churros. Sara and I went exploring the ancient alleys in our neighborhood this morning (i.e., we got a bit lost) but found the wonderful little churro shop we were seeking. We had to wait while a fresh batch finished cooking in the big bubbling vat behind the counter. The wait was worth it. We left with five paper cones filled with hot churros - four with just sugar and one with decadent chocolate covered churros. We took them back to the apartment for breakfast. Way better than donuts with our scrambled eggs!

At Laura’s suggestion, we had booked an afternoon excursion from Barcelona to Montserrat. Montserrat means “serrated mountain,” which is a good description of its appearance. It is about an hour from Barcelona by bus.

However, before we set out for Montserrat, Sara, Steve and I first walked over to see the central part of the University of Barcelona. Laura’s Spanish literature class meets here. Her other classes actually meet at other UB facilities, widely scattered through the city. Later in the day, we passed the building where her economics class meets. Anyway, the old university building was beautiful – stately, peaceful courtyards and halls with gothic carving and stained glass as well as utilitarian classrooms. While we were all wandering around Laura’s school, Evan took a run down to the beach.

Mid-afternoon we boarded our bus and headed for Montserrat. Our tour guide, who was Catalán, did a marvelous job of telling us about all the sights we passed heading out of Barcelona, some of which we had visited, but many of which we hadn’t. We passed the Casa Batllo in the “Block of Discord” on Passeig de Gracia, the giant, former textile factory of Sr. Guell (we learned that textiles were the backbone of Barcelona’s economy in the 19^th century and that at one time, Sr. Guell was the wealthiest man in Spain), a major Barcelona publishing company (we learned that Barcelona is the world capital of Spanish language publishing), and the practice facility of the FCB soccer team (we learned they were one of the first to provide residential facilities for their players and schools for the kids of the players in order to foster close friendships among the players).

Soon, Monteserrat came into view. It stands isolated, surrounded by relatively flat terrain, which seems to enhance its height. The peaks, which are sedimentary rock eroded into weird, rounded shapes, jut up into the sky. Montserrat has had a Benedictine monastery near its top for about 1000 years. The monastery that is there now was built mostly during the 19^th century. Older buildings were burned by Napoleon and also suffered in the War for Independence and the Spanish Civil War.

When we got to the top, we admired the magnificent views. Our guide then took us on a brief tour of the town and the monastery. Inside the church, the prized possession is the “Black Virgin.” According to legend, this statue was found in a cave hundreds of years ago by shepherds and has the power to grant wishes. We lined up with everyone else to make a wish as we touched the orb in the Virgin’s hand. Hope our wishes come true!

The dark clouds surrounding Montserrat opened up and started raining on us as we came out of the basilica, which dampened our interest in doing much hiking. Instead, we poked around the little town some and looked at the shops. However, as the rain wasn’t really heavy and Steve and I had rain jackets, the two of us eventually walked up one of the trails a ways and were rewarded with magnificent vistas. On our way down, the sun actually broke through, making for some splendid views. Our tour guide introduced us to various forms of Catalán music on the drive back to Barcelona, winding up a great excursion.

Back in Barcelona, for our last dinner together, we found a nice restaurant in the Barri Gothic not far from our apartment and had delicious tapas and sangria. AND there was a gelato shop right across the street. How perfect!

Courtyard, University of Barcelona

University of Barcelona

Courtyard, University of Barcelona

UB campus where Laura's econ class meets

Montserrat from the bus

View back toward Barcelona from Montserrat

Montserrat

Basilica at Montserrat

Inside of basilica

The Black Madonna

Sun on Montserrat

Montserrat

View leaving Montserrat

Last gelato in Barcelona!

Sagrada Familia and Park Guell

We’re back in Barcelona. Today was our Gaudi day. We had tickets to visit Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, including going up in one of the towers and taking a guided tour.

The cathedral is spectacular. I must say, I was blown away. The inside soars with height, light and creativity. Every element is a radical reinterpretation of what we customarily think of a cathedral as looking like. Gaudi’s driving aesthetic, as we learned from our guide, was taken from nature. He analyzed nature and applied the principles he extracted from his study to his creations. He was also very religious and every aspect of his design is a celebration of the holy family. The outside of the cathedral too was beautiful. I had not previously found the external appearance attractive, but upon closer examination, I must say the sculptures and overall design are impressive.

After spending several hours touring the cathedral (which was actively being worked on, by the way – the goal is to try to finish it, in accordance with Gaudi’s detailed plans, by 2026, which is the 100^th anniversary of his death), we found a nearby restaurant for lunch, including the most enormous skillet of paella ever (okay, maybe we were all so hungry we over-ordered a little). It was delicious, although we had leftovers that wound up in Laura’s refrigerator.

To continue our exploration of Gaudi’s work, we headed next for Park Guell. Park Guell was originally planned as an exclusive residential development in the hills to the north of the city of Barcelona and designed by Gaudi. However, due to various factors, including WWI, the project stalled. Eventually the land and the improvements that had been constructed were given to the city and turned into a huge park. It is a wonderful place, filled with trails, beautiful trees and vegetation, and of course, Gaudi’s creative, fanciful designs. The two remaining Gaudi structures (the often photographed “gingerbread” houses) were built as the entry point to the development and the porter’s lodge. Surrounding them are fountains, walkways, a colonnaded “marketplace,” a broad terrace with magnificent views of the city, and many sort of mysterious, grotto-like areas that appear to blend into the landscape. We really enjoyed spending the late afternoon and evening wandering around, seeing so many locals and tourists also enjoying the park with their kids and dogs.

As the daylight dwindled, we headed back to the Metro to return to our apartment. It was a magical Gaudi day.

Nave, Sagrada Familia

Side chapel, Sagrada Familia

Windows, Sagrada Familia

Looking down from the Nativity Tower

Fantastic fruits and ongoing construction

Tree of Life, Nativity Facade

Tower staircase

Looking down on Nativity Facade

Nativity Facade

Passion Facade

School Gaudi built for children of cathedral laborers

Lunch, including enormous paella

Panoramic view from Park Guell

Looking down on Barcelona

Gaudi buildings at Park Guell

Terrace, Park Guell

Gaudi colonnade

Salamander fountain

Gaudi's house

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Madrid Museums, Part 2

Today started for Evan with another workout in the beautiful Parque Retiro. As we will head back to Barcelona tonight, we also had to pack our bags this morning.

Having bought our three museum combo tickets yesterday, and having been to only one of the three museums (the Sorolla museum was not on the combo ticket), our plans for today were pretty clear. We set out together first for the Reina Sofia museum, which is near the train station. To get there, we decided to take the scenic route through the royal botanical gardens on the Prado side of the street. The gardens were lush and beautiful. We enjoyed walking through them. They are quite formal, with symmetrical paths, plantings and fountains throughout. However, when we got to the far end, we realized that we were fenced in. The modest ticket price we paid to enter meant that entrances and exits were restricted. Guess we should have figured that out. We had to circle back to our point of entry, so our scenic route was more of a scenic detour, but it was very pleasant nonetheless.

We spent a couple hours touring the Reina Sofia collection, which contains quite extensive holdings of Picasso, Dali and Miro, among lots of other artists. By mid-afternoon, we needed a break and some sustenance, so we left the Reina Sofia and headed back toward our apartment. Along the way, we stopped for a delicious, efficient and completely different meal at a Thai restaurant.

After lunch, we continued on our way to the third of the combo ticket museums. Our weather in Madrid has been a bit iffy. We were surprised by showers on our first day, and the forecast the next two days was mixed, but with a good chance of rain (i.e., 100%) for today. However, it wasn’t raining and the afternoon was actually very pleasant, so we thought we would work in a brief visit to the Parque Retiro along the way so that Sara and I could see it. The park is beautiful. It was originally built by the Spanish royalty for their own use, but was later converted to a public park. It is huge, diverse and very well-maintained. We didn’t cover much of it, but saw the lake and rowboats as well as some beautiful gardens and paths.

Our final museum was the Thyssen-Bornemiszma Museum, which is even closer to our apartment. It was the private collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemiszma (not too sure who he was, but he had a great art collection) and was established as a museum open to the public in 1992. The building also holds the still-private art collection of his wife, Carmen, so in fact the museum is two collections. These collections span about 900 years of art. Most of it is paintings, and much of it is European. However, while more limited than the Prado collection (it might have one or two paintings by a particular artist), it is more diverse. Of the three museums, I think it was my favorite.

When the Thyssen Museum closed at 7:00, we returned to our apartment to stretch out for a few minutes and rest our weary feet before taking our suitcases to the train station. Once there, we had time to search out the turtles we had heard about. In the middle of the cavernous main area of the station there is a sort of rain forest with a pond at one end in which there are hundreds of turtles. Different.

As I write this, we are on the train back to Barcelona. It’s nice to be sitting.