Barcelona and Gaudy Gaudi

A short 1 ½ hour Easy Jet flight and we feel as if we have arrived in the tropics -- the temperature is up about 20 degrees, and our ride from the airport passes palm trees and gentle Mediterranean beaches. We have rented an apartment for the next 9 nights in a warren of tiny streets in the old Gothic Quarter near the magnificent Santa Maria del Mar, the finest Gothic church in the city. We really hit the jackpot with an amazingly spacious apartment. Even the bathroom is huge, and the separate bedroom is bigger than our whole hotel room in London! 

Typical staircase in Gothic home

As soon as we entered our apartment, we heard a choir of young school girls performing in the street right below our balcony, and we immediately fell in love with Barcelona. Especially this old section where the narrow streets and medieval stone buildings remind us of Italy. Barcelona definitely has soul! Unfortunately, all that soul comes at a price. We had barely stepped out of the taxi when we were approached by our first scammer -- a harmless guy with a hard luck story looking for a handout. Sadly, Barcelona has a reputation for pickpockets and scammers, so we will need to be “en guarde!”

We kicked off our first full day here with a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter. It is remarkable how much of the medieval city and even the Roman ruins still remain! We came here to see the ‘modernisme” architecture of Antoni Gaudi but are blown away by the ancient city. We also visited the history museum descending deep below the city into a 2,000 year-old past where we saw the Roman ruins of a marketplace with shops, a community clothes washing facility, a fish salting/drying factory, and even a winery that once held 10,000 liters of wine in clay amphorae! Interesting how wine has been a commodity that has survived the ages.

For a change of pace, we wandered over to the Picasso Museum. The paintings were presented in chronological order giving us the chance to see how this genius evolved. It is fascinating to see how Picasso learned from everyone. We could see influences from Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Seurat etc. Picasso could have been a successful artist of any type, but of course, he was a renegade developing his own unique cubist style.



Spires of Sagrada Familia

 On Monday, we dove into the modernisme part of town to see what all this fuss is about Antoni Gaudi. One look at Sagrada Familia (his masterpiece of a church that has been under construction for over 100 years) and we were hooked! Words cannot describe this riot of twisted stone figures, flower-topped spires, and elongated pillars that look like giant palm trees.

Christ hang-gliding in for a landing

(What we guess will be) the altar has a statue of Christ hanging from some mushroom-like structure that makes it look like Christ is paragliding into the sanctuary. We took the lift up into one of the towers and walked down the narrow, sometimes claustrophobic, spiral stairs to fully enjoy some close-up views of Gaudi’s creation. Lots of surprising color with a green tree filled with white doves and pillars that look like they are holding piles of red and yellow soccer balls. It really is unlike any church (or building) we have ever seen.

Now that we have been bitten by the Gaudi bug, there is no stopping us. We headed north to Parc Guell with its overwhelmingly colorful ceramic park entrance that includes a polka-dotted spire, a multicolored lizard that doubles as a fountain, and wavy walls decorated with flowery tiles. We wandered around enjoying the beautiful day and the strange walkways made of rough piles of rocks that look like aqueducts and feel like grottos.

Fantasy features of Parc Guell

Parc Guell sits high on the hillside, so it is all downhill from here to our apartment. The 3-mile walk gave us a chance to see the city at close-range. Along the way, we came to Gaudi’s apartment building, Casa Mila (aka La Pedrera), and it was still open so we climbed to the rooftop for a view bathed in late afternoon sunlight. The roof is dotted with strange geometric figures that somehow reminded us of chess pieces. As always, everything swirls, and there are no straight lines or corners in sight. Gaudi liked to emulate nature in his architecture - lines of his art flowing according to natural structures - like tree branches, or beehive colonies, or vertebrae.

Rooftop of Casa Mila

By now, it was dark and the ornate streetlights were shining as we walked past graceful Mediterranean-style buildings with delicate wrought iron balconies. But we haven’t finished with Gaudi -- his Casa Batllo is the prettiest building yet and looked like something in a fairytale book, with all the swirls and colors illuminated by strategically placed spotlights.

We were too exhausted to cook dinner tonight, so we ate tapas at a small café, treated ourselves to a gelato ice cream for dessert, and collapsed in our apartment with visions of Gaudi swirling in our heads.

On Tuesday, we hiked over to the famous Palau de la Musica Catalana and signed on for a tour of the colorful and ornate musical auditorium that was build back in 1908. The polished marble staircase that ascended to the balcony was accented with amber glass balusters, and a red carpet that bid “welcome.” Our young tour guide seated us in the audience, center stage, and we observed an explosion of color tiles covering the walls and, in fact the entire theater, lending unusual sparkle and luster to the ambiance of the stage. The stage itself was quite remarkable with an international assortment of female musicians playing all kinds of instruments. Their lower bodies were made of colorful mosaics, but their upper bodies were
3-D sculptures that seemed to come alive as they leaned forward out of the wall. A true celebration of music!

Thru the techniques of modern electronics, our guide even played a Bach organ piece for our musical pleasure by activating the impressive organ with the push of a button. Ahhh, Bach! To think of the many masters that have performed here (Wagner, Richard Strauss, et al) on this stage boggled our feeble little minds.

We spent the afternoon up on Montjuic, the castle-topped mountain with terrific views over the city and out into the Med. We took a combination of Metro, Funicular, and Teleferic (cable car), so getting there was half the fun. Sadly, this lovely spot has a less than lovely history since the castle was once a prison and a favorite place for Franco to torture any dissidents.

We ended the day with a visit to the Mercat de la Boqueria, the best open-air market in the city. Stocked up on some goodies (including our new favorite beer, Estrella Damm) and then made a homemade meal of Pasta Bolognese. Yummy!!