Six Days in Spain

December 8, 2005:

We arrive in Madrid (at the Chamartin station) right around 0830...on a Thursday...which also happens to be a major holiday (a fact we will not completely figure out for about a day. Thanks for the help Lonely Planet. You too, Fodor’s. We didn’t REALLY wanna know about Constitution Day). The Metro isn’t running this morning so we’re forced to hop in a cab and set off for (what we believe to be...) our hostal – which I reserved online yesterday morning through Hostels.com.

The hostal is in a great location – just a few blocks away from Puerte del Sol and right on top of a Metro station. It looks great. Clean, quaint, a little bit funky. It also doesn’t have room for us. The owner/manager explains to us that he e-mailed me immediately after receiving my reservation request from Hostels.com to refute any claims of vacancy. He refunds the 5 or 6 Euro down payment usually due to Hostels.com and calls a hostal down the street which, he assures us, has much lower rates.

All goes (almost...) well: we end up getting to our NEW hostal (Cervelo), and discover too much quaint, not enough clean, and a heavy dose of funk best personified by the sagging mattress and musty bed cover that immediately begins to bother Mel’s allergies. Welcome to Madrid! Hey, it’s only one night. We toss our bags in a corner and start a-walking...right?

Of COURSE not! This is Spain, dummy! We settle in for a couple hour siesta in an effort to develop a better feel for the culture and THEN set off for Madrid’s famous modern art museum, Reina Sofia.

By the time we get to the museum, my hunger has overwhelmed my civility. Mel pulls me into a half-Italian place next to the museum and shoves a few breadsticks in to get me back on track. It seems to work and we proceed to the museum.
 

Now I’m not really a big fan of modern art if it doesn’t showcase the artistic talent of the artist. Sticking half a fluorescent light bulb into a block of concrete isn’t art. Smearing bull’s blood all over a big tarp isn’t art. Filming yourself jumping into a brick wall isn’t art. It’s pretentiousness personified (“I’m so important that you should watch me jump into this brick wall…and subsidize it as well.”). Hey, blogging is ALSO, to a large degree, pretentiousness personified but I don’t expect anyone to read what I write because it is shocking (thus proving my ability as a blogger). If you like what I write and what I write about then it’s there for you to see…and I’ll even let you take photos of it if you like. Something that is strictly off-limits in the Sofia (phooey).

ANYway…Mel loves Picasso and he has a large display here. I like a lot of Dali’s works so we look at those as well. We check out a couple of the temporary exhibits (some good – i.e. created by talented artists – and some bad – i.e. created by guys who shove light bulbs into concrete…).

After finishing up at the museum, I notice the botanic gardens are right across the street. Yeah, I know...it’s winter. We can’t really expect much from the gardens, right? Well, we’ve been spoiled by exposure to some fantastic gardens (most notably Wellington, NZ) and Mel enjoys taking photographs of flowers and unusual plants – so off we go.

Um...yeah. Note to self: don’t go to botanic gardens in the winter, moron. Note to self, don’t go back to Madrid’s botanic gardens anyway. But as long as we learn our lesson, it’s not time wasted, right? Right...?
         

 The gardens are situated about midway between the Sofia and the Prado, Madrid’s other major museum of art. We head in the direction of the Prado with a clear understanding that I will NOT be going into another museum today. Too much culture spoils the Petri dish. Or something like that. 

Instead, we buy two-day tickets for the hop-on/hop-off bus tour that departs from near the Prado and jump on the first bus we see. Skipping the Prado to ride around Madrid on top of a tour bus? Some would call this sacrilege. Ah well. We just call it "our vacation."

As usual (or at least as is BECOMING the usual), we get some great shots of buildings, statues, and sights that we really can’t locate on the map or the tour guide. So look and enjoy! Sort of like us. Who likes those snooty intellectual-type vacations, anyway? Bring on the sangria!

There are a FEW sights we can identify...La Cibeles, the football stadium, and Independence Plaza, sculptures near the Museo Arqueoligico and Biblioteca Nacional,  being four of those. Remember that comment about the need to hop OFF of tour buses to get the full effect? Yeah...we didn’t do so well on that one this time around. We only jump off as the bus slows to a crawl in traffic building up around Puerta del Sol (which has become a MADhouse, by the way. Again...the mysterious holiday strikes). Notice there are two links within Peurta del Sol...one to the Wikipedia entry and one to a blog from an American living in Madrid.
 

 
We wander through the crazy masses and finally manage to squeeze into a small tavern right off the square. The house red, olives, and some ham (they do love their ham) serve to settle us down and warm us up before we make a break for Palacio Real and the nearby Almundena Cathedral for some impressive night shots (or at least I think they’re impressive. But it’s my wife taking them…what ELSE am I going to say?).

Having finished our night shots we fight our way through throngs of merrymakers and finally get back to the hostal. It’s early and we really haven’t had dinner yet, but we’ve both had enough of our first day of Madrid. Lights out on day 1 of Madrid.

Madrid

Spain

Travel

  We check in, dump our bags at the front desk since our room won't be ready until noon, and march off toward Las Ramblas after exchanging a bit of small talk with some Chinese guests of the hostal. The winding route to the northern end of Las Ramblas takes us by some excellent examples of the street art that seems to adorn every alleyway we look into.

       

   

      

  

   Heeding our own advice, we set off on foot into the Ribera district...and almost immediately happen upon  the church of Santa Maria del Mar. 

The winding neighborhoods around the church are teeming with tapas restaurants, cafes, and small shops. We duck into a tapas restaurant for a collection of tapas and some house red and then begin to work our way back toward the hostal to officially 'check in.' It seems that every twist and turn along the narrow streets of Ribera reveals a new 'best view' of the old city.    

 Once again, we're bitten by the Christmas disease. The Christmas market out front, although interesting to walk through, takes away from the full effect of the cathedral - as does the ongoing repair work. Ah well. We're s'posed to be merry about all that stuff, right? And, after all, there really wouldn't BE a cathedral here if it weren't for JC and his birthday, right?

  After a long day of wandering the city, we wrap it up with a late dinner at Els Quatre Gats in the Barri Gotic. We manage to slip in shortly before they switch to reservations only for the night. Our table is perched on the narrow catwalk surrounding the main dining floor, giving us a great view of the goings-on. The food is great (if expensive) and the ambiance is impressive. We consider it the perfect end to a great first day in Barcelona.

Barcelona

Spain

Travel

Gaudi

December 11, 2005

Looking for a photo log instead?

 So we get up early and hit the road as the sun rises, right…? Riiiight. ANYway…we roll out of bed late (as usual…hey, vacations are kinda fun like that) and head down the street to grab some coffee and pastries at a nearby café (they’re scattered fairly liberally through this section of town - just south of Placa de la Universitat on Sant Antoni). As usual, the coffee is strong and the pastries not quite as sweet as we expected (have ALL Americans been spoiled by Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts? I shudder at the thought). It’s a chilly morning today – but sunny. We have high hopes that it will warm as the day progresses.

From the pastry shop, we start working our way down toward Placa de Catalunya where we hope to jump on the hop-on/hop-off tour bus for our journeys to the Casa Batllo (they have a fantastic website, by the way...), and Park Guell. As you can see, we’re starting to get a better idea for just how much ground we can cover in a day. Based on our experiences yesterday, each Gaudi exhibit tends to take between 1 and 3 hours if we hope to really appreciate his work.

Anyway…we jump on the bus and hop off as it stops alongside Casa Batllo. Again, if viewed as part of the neighborhood, the house looks horrifically out of place. Too many curves, too many colors…just too much. Viewed as a standalone piece of art and architecture…very impressive. We spend nearly an hour and a half wandering through the house, periodically listening to the free audio guides we were given at the entrance. Are the guides a bit heavy on hyperbole? Of course they are! Gaudi may not be quite the savior of mankind portrayed by the friendly recorded voice chattering away in my ear, but his talent still shines through and there are enough facts buried within the praise to make the audio experience worthwhile.

The photos here offer a glimpse of how unusual the building looks compared to its neighbors...and truth be told, the building to the immediate left is...um...a bit overdone as well (making it difficult to get a feel for the uniqueness of Gaudi's work).

Inside the house, Gaudi has chosen to go for a...how to define it? An underwater look? There are swirls, scales, and deep blues throughout.

If the interior of the building stirs images of an underwater kingdom, stepping onto the roof is like surfacing into a rolling sea. Many of the lines strongly resemble waves cresting and falling.

 
A tough tour (and small pastries in the morning…) tend to build an appetite. We cross the street and enter yet another restaurant for our early afternoon snack. What would that be? Tapas and sangria, maybe? You bet. We’re getting predictable now, aren’t we? Or were we already predictable? Hm. A question I ponder deeply while drinking my sangria.

 
Hopping back onto the tour bus, we set off for Park Guell. Enroute, we pass by the Sagrada Familia and some other photo-worthy stuff (or so my wife tells me as she clicks away...).

Park Guell (yes, it deserves separate links for each word) is about a five minute walk up from where the tour bus drops us off. We wind our way around slower-moving tour groups and individuals (don't these people know we're on a SCHEDULE! Okay. Just kidding. We're not really that bad. Then again, we WERE walking faster than everyone else. Hm...). I'll let Wikipedia give you a better description of the park than I can offer:

The design of the Park is clearly the work of an architect and Gaudí's unique style is also easily distinguishable. Wavy, lava-like shapes, at places tree-like or in form of Doric columns or stalactites, sometimes lavishly decorated with ornaments of broken ceramic fragments. The landscaping of the Park is largely in tune with the natural terrain; steep slopes and cliffs have been allowed to remain, with winding paths, cuttings and grottoes adding to the natural feel.

Although it sounds unlikely, the place is skillfully designed and composed to bring the peace and calm that one would expect from a park. The buildings, though very original and remarkable, are relatively inconspicuous, considering other buildings designed by Gaudí. They have fantastically shaped roofs with unusual pinnacles. The focal point of the park is the main terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the form of a sea serpent. Gaudí used a naked man, sitting in clay, to design the bench. The curves form a number of enclaves, creating a more social atmosphere.

The large cross at the Park's high-point offers the most complete view of Barcelona. It is possible to view the main city in panaroma, with la Sagrada Familia and the Montjuïc area visible at a distance.

 

Pictures, you ask? Well...we can handle that part.

 
The park is more than just Gaudi's artwork. There were throngs of visitors during our wandering hours-long tour visit. Some were tourists, some were lovers, some were performers, and some appeared to be locals just enjoying a beautiful day in beautiful surroundings. After much dilly-dallying (and with some reluctance...) we finally wandered away from the park and back to the tour bus stop, anxious to get in one more stop before the sun sets.

From the top of the tour bus we catch a glimspe of La Rotonda and Mel gets the best picture she can under the circumstances.

 
Another impressive architectural work in a city that seems filled with them. We continue on the bus until reaching the small neighborhood of Sarria. The small chapel, the narrow streets, the quaint neighborhoods, and the interesting public squares all make for great photos as the sun slowly ducks below the horizon.

 Although most of the shops and restaurants are closed, we spot a small cafe open for business and step inside to grab a sandwich, some drinks (non-alcoholic...if you can believe it), and a pastry to tide us over until dinner.

 By the time we've jumped back on the tour bus and ridden back to the head of Las Ramblas, night has fallen. We walk the alleys between Las Ramblas and El Raval and wander (somewhat lost...) through Barri Gotic before settling in for dinner at a small seafood restaurant near the harbor. This is our chance to try seafood paella (washed down with...of course...sangria). We've had our share of paella in the States...and while we've always HEARD good things about it, the restaurants never really came through. Sadly, that seems to be the case here as well. Perhaps it's time to admit...we just plain don't care for paella.

We take our time at dinner and wander off into Barri Gotic afterward, anxious to wander through the narrow streets and soak in more of the ambiance. Speaking of ambiance...who's up for a Foodball?

 No? Good choice. It seems a bit odd to us as well. We laugh a bit at the concept and continue our exploration, eventually winding up at a small bar buried deep in the heart of Barri Gotic. We compete for the "best photo taken without moving the camera off of the table." The competition is fierce...

 ...but I think Mel wins. Somehow I'm not surprised. Our walk back to the hostal takes us by some interesting night shot opportunities. Of course we stop.

 
By the time we finally get back to the hostal, we fall quickly asleep with one clear objective for tomorrow...Sagrada Familia.

Tags:

Barcelona

December 13, 2005:

 Looking for a photo log instead? 

Day 4 in Barcelona is really sort of a bonus. We’re here because the French rail worker strike forced us to change travel plans…and that meant booking a flight for tomorrow morning.

Our goals for the day are limited. We want to take a closer look at the “dragon gate” designed by Gaudi, tour the Monasterio de Pedralbes, and check out a few other recommended sites from our different tour guides.

As I’ve mentioned previously, wireless Internet access has been pretty easy to come by throughout our trip. However, our room at Gat Raval is buried deep inside the building and the only network I can detect is the pay-for-service Telefonica. I feel the urgent need to connect and upload more pictures and shell out the cash for 24 hours of service (which turns out to be fairly cheap).

We decide to stop at another of the small cafes that seem to surround Gat for coffee and pastries…at which point I discover a strong, free wireless signal. Ah well. That’s how life goes. I don’t think Mel is all that interested in sitting there all day while I shuffle pictures to Flickr anyway.

We wrap up breakfast (if you want to call a pastry and coffee “breakfast”) and set out for Catalunya Square. From the Square, we hop a bus for the monastery and pull in to the monastery some time around noon(ish). It's an interesting place. We spend over an hour wandering through the different rooms and the inner courtyard, catching much of it on digits.

 Having gotten our fill of the monastery, we jump back on the hop-on/off bus and hit the stop near Gaudi's dragon. An impressive work.

Our next stop isn't QUITE so impressive...to say the least. It looked good on the photos! Ah well. We learn our lesson (fairly) quickly and move on.