Farewell Barcelona

Our last day, and J seems to be on the mend and close to her usual energy, so we plan a big day out.  Our first stop is the Park Guell, where Gaudi lived for about 20 years and designed a weird and wonderful garden for his patron, Guell. We walk up to Plaza Catalunya and catch the metro to Vallcarca, where a short walk and a series of long escalators puts us at the top of the gardens.  Its a pleasant stroll downhill, with Gaudi’s influence and density of the crowds steadily increasing to a crescendo at Casa-Museo Gaudi. 

The relatively uncrowded gardens were wonderful, and approaching the Casa Gaudi area of the park as a finale to the visit was a really nice way to enjoy the park.  So interesting to see many of the new design elements in the Sagrada Familia also present here.  It seems to me that this could have been his laboratory for testing out ideas and resolving design problems before incorporating them into his buildings.

A quick walk down to the metro at Lesseps and a quicker trip back into town for an early (by Spanish standards) lunch of pizza (spinach with sultanas!) in a quiet, shady square. Then a visit to the Picasso Museum, which has a focus on his early development.  It was interesting, but a bit disappointing too because there were no works at all from the periods of his most iconic work, and no information to fill in the gaps in the collection.  So we found it a bit disjointed.

Then a pleasant stroll and a coffee in the Parc de la Ciutadella before heading back to our room to pack and get organised for the flight tomorrow morning.

A search for a pre-dinner drink took us to the square in front of the Cathedral, where we scored a table outside a tapas restaurant that our host had recommended and that we’ve tried to get into a couple of times since arriving.  We settled in with a very nice wine, watched the sun setting on the Roman walls and Cathedral tower, and took turns to visit the tapas bar, bringing back goodies to sample.  Grilled asparagus on camembert has become a favourite since Zaragoza. Also interesting were the little pan of snails in a lovely sauce.

I think the sauce was better than the snails themselves. It was quite a feat actually getting the snails out of their shell. You had to skewer one end and keep tugging until the very last bit of the snail was extracted. It all came out in one long rubbery looking piece.

This bar uses a system common in Barcelona – all tapas are the same price and each has a wooden skewer holding it together.  You just help yourself to whatever you want, when you want, and the bill is toted up at the end of the night by counting your skewers!  Its a relatively expensive way to have a feast, but fantastic if you want to try different tastes and you’re not a big eater…!

We finished the day by taking the metro back to la Sagrada Familia, where at 10 pm the floodlights came on.

Writing this blog the next day at the airport as we wait for our delayed flight. There is a strike in Milan. Hope this won’t alter our connection in Singapore. Well, we did say we didn’t want to go home yet, but that didn’t mean we wanted to spend longer in the airport!

The genius of Gaudi

Anyone visiting Barcelona cannot escape without seeing at least some Gaudi. As I am interested in mosaics, Gaudi’s work was high on my list of things to see. I wasn’t disappointed.

His most famous work is La Sagrada Familia, the huge church which was begun early last century and is hoped to be finished in 2026, the centenary of his death. Gaudi worked on this church for 40 years. It came to dominate his life. He even lived on the site, leading a near monastic life. Eventually, he was killed when he was run over by a tram. Although his name was well known, he had lived as a hermit for so long, that his body was not at first identified.

This is a huge structure, based on Gothic principles, with columns holding up a vaulted ceiling, and towers dominating the Barcelona skyline. All the elements of a traditional Gothic church are incorporated into the building, but tweaked to fit Gaudi’s vision, which was to pay homage to the organic nature of life. The facades include animal and plant carvings around the two main portals, as in a traditional church, but in Catalan modernist style.

After eight weeks travelling, and seeing some pretty impressive architecture, I have to say that this building moved me like no other.  I think it’s gob-smackingly beautiful.  The exterior is challenging, but the interior is just wonderful.  Then you start thinking about what design tools Gaudi had 100 years ago – none of the computer modelling available today – and you begin to realise what an achievement this building is.  All funded by donations.  I’d love to get a better understanding of how the building design and construction has changed as design and building technologies have evolved over the last century. 

We took the option to go up one of the towers, which was really interesting.  You take a lift up, and find yourself in a building site with cranes, workers in hard hats and a lot of scaffolding.  Seeing how it’s put together way up there was fascinating, but would not be a happy experience if heights worry you!

We then walked to La Pedrera (the quarry), an apartment block Gaudi designed in the early 20th centrury just before launching into La Sagrada.  Again, an amazing structure.  Even the door knobs were custom designed. Again, what an original and beautiful structure.  The famous roof was beautiful and the attic, where you walk under the parabolic brick arches supporting the roof, was wonderful.  This was originally where the domestic servants did the laundry apparently, but its a beautiful space.

A short walk to view the outside of Casa Batlo, another work of Gaudi’s, then for a change of pace, we walked La Rambla without being pick-pocketed, and really enjoyed the market.  After a deal more wandering, we finished up in the Cathedral square drinking sangrias.

And very nice too…

Hola Barcelona!

Well, our last stop on the itinerary before we fly home. We are in Barcelona for 3 nights. We arrived by train from Girona, after a lovely morning revisiting the Cathedral and another walk along the river admiring the painted houses, and then walking more of the city walls.

In Barcelona, we are staying in the Barri Gotic, a part of the old city, and opposite the amazing Palau de la Musica, a modernista building of fanciful mosaics and leadlight glass. The view out our balcony is of the beautiful tiled columns on the first floor, and of the milling crowds waiting to attend the flamenco performance.  Downstairs is a music school, so we are entertained during the evenings by a continuous and varying cacophony of violin / percussion / piano / oboe / teacher shouting and clapping time.

Unfortunately, I am not feeling the best, so we have a fairly quiet afternoon. We wander one block to view the Gothic Cathedral, which we can see at the end of our street. The Placa is filled with people, sitting in the sun, drinking wine, listening to the various musicians in the square. At last, warm weather. Bliss.

The Cathedral has a Gothic style facade, built in the 1800s, but based on a medieval design. Inside, the church dates from the Romanesque to the 16th century. We especially enjoyed the 16th century organ, which was being played while we were there. The music was ecclesiastic, but then, as we took the lift to the roof, a saxophonist in the next building let fly with blues. It seemed slightly surreal to be on top of a cathedral, looking out over a sunlit city to the sea, listening to a cruisey “Summertime” being played.

As I was feeling quite tired, we just had a stroll around the old city, taking in the vibes and people watching. It was Sunday evening, and it seemed that everyone was out on the streets, eating and drinking, or just walking. After dinner, I retired early at about 9.30, and Mike went out exploring till 11.30 … I believe that he bought a gelato …

A Dali postscript

Gala posing as Leda, in Leda and the swan.

Been doing some reading up on Dali. Here are some snippets which are too good to waste:

Dali once gave a lecture on Surrealism while wearing a deep diving suit with helmet. He had to be cut out of the suit before he nearly suffocated.

Gala, Dali’s wife and muse, had a residence where she demanded that Dali visit her by appointment only. She would receive him, seated on her throne.

The weirdness of Dali

One cannot visit Dali’s Theatre/Museum in Figueres without asking – What was he taking?

Figueres is our last stop before we arrive in Girona and say goodbye to our little car (it really was pretty gutless, but no accidents, and got us around quite conveniently). The only reason to visit Figueres is to view the Dali Theatre, and on a very wet Saturday morning, the place was busy. We had to actually queue for the first time in ages, maybe even for the first time on our trip.

But this didn’t matter because it quite suited the madness that was Dali. The Museum is very extensive, and one would really need several visits to try to appreciate the breadth of his vision. In fact, I commented to M that it was necessary to leave any sense of reality at the door and just enjoy the theatricality of his work. He painted, sculpted, drew, designed jewellery, and prepared installations, before this was even an arty term.

One thing that I did appreciate was his skill as an artist, and the amazing creativity that he brought to art – not that I really understood much of what I saw of course. The whole experience reminded me in its weirdness of the Oliver Sacks book, The man who mistook his wife for a hat (M says “Que???”)

The pictures tell the story:

And so, to Girona in the pouring rain. Fortunately, the rain had mostly stopped by the time we are car-free (that’s not care-free mind you, as we manage to get lost in the city as we attempt to find our accommodation). Girona is a lovely town, but I can attest to the fact that some parts are not quite so scenic.

However, we did have a lovely walk along the river to the Cathedral, and then along part of the old walls, giving views of gardens and churches and rooftops.

It would be nice to say that we then retired for a restful night – but the couple next door arrived home about 4pm, the lady being very giggly and flirty and (French) for about 40 minutes, till they began to get a bit familiar. At which point, M made a disgusted noise, and I thumped on the wall. Coitus interuptus and silence, golden silence …

Romanesque Catalan

Today we left the Pyrenees after 6, six!! days of walking. We are heading east over the next 2 days to Girona to drop off our car. We have timed things well, with rain predicted in the mountains over the next few days, and finer weather in the east. I am hoping for a few days at least of sandal weather before heading home to winter.

We had about 4 hours of driving today via La Seu d’Urgell, close to Andorra, then nearly to France at the Tossa Pass, (M cursing the TomTom as it took us on another twisty, narrow road) then through Ripoll to Camprodon.  We broke the journey with some strategic stops to view various Romanesque edifices.

We stopped at La Seu d’Urgell to look at its Cathedral, started in 1166 and never actually finished!  It had a fabulous, dark atmosphere, a product of the massive walls required to hold up the barrel vaulted ceiling.  We agreed that we really like the scale and proportions of Romanesque architecture which seems less impersonal that your typical Baroque.  The cloister was pleasant, with some interesting beastly capitals, and the museum was extensive.  I now know far more about 10th century ecclesiastical symbology of the Apocalypse, than I need to from the Beatus manuscript held here; including the seven seals and the seven cups of wrath, and the seven headed beast with seven crowns and ten horns, the lady on the white horse, etc – just hope Dan Brown never gets his hands on this or he will inflict another tome on us!

Next we took a look at the Monastery in Ripoll, founded in 888 by Guifre el Pelos (Wilfred the Hairy to you and me, who was the first Count of Barcelona and the founding father of Catalonia), famous for its carved portal, which is now under a glass enclosure to protect it from further damage and erosion. This is an impressive carving, showing Biblical scenes from the Old Testament. Must admit that I obviously don’t know my scripture very well, apart from the obvious Adam and Eve, Tower of Babel, Noah, etc.

The actual church was mostly destroyed by an earthquake in the 1400s, but most of the cloister survived. It is a lovely two story building, with garden and fountain. I wonder, could I include one in our house?

Lastly, Sant Joan de les Abadesses, a small market town with Romanesque bridge and two Romanesque churches, one founded as a Monastery by good old Guifre. This had a small, peaceful cloister, quite plain, but a lovely Church, which we both very much admired. It was the most atmospheric of the churches that we have visited so far by a long way.

Our home for the night was Camprodon, in a beautiful Pyrenean valley very close to the French border. The weather was fine that night, so in proper Spanish style, we took an evening walk to enjoy the views of, you guessed it, a Romanesque bridge, then off to a very pleasant restaurant for some traditional Catalan cooking including rabbit and duck, with some free cava and soup thrown in.

Hard to believe that we will be home soon.

Encantados

Another day in the mountains dawns bright and clear, and with about a week’s washing done and drying on our two little verandas, we buy some bread and ham for lunch and check out the options for getting up the mountain. 

We choose to drive to a car park about half way, then impatient with waiting for a taxi, enjoy a beautiful 4 km walk up through forest and meadows into a mountain wonderland at Sant Maurici Lake.  This part of the Aiguestortes National Park is called “Encantados”, or “Enchanted”, for good reason. 

It. Is. Just. Beautiful.

   Walk options beyond the lake are limited at the moment because there is still a lot of snow around, but one trail we’ve been advised is open heads around the lake then climbs to a higher lake, Estany de Ratera, and perhaps on towards Les Agulles d’Amitges (the Amgites Needles). How far we can get will depend on the snow.

Every few metres there is a new panorama. We climb up past the Cascade de Ratera and into snow just before the Estany de Ratera. At 2 pm it’s time for lunch.

No sooner had we settled in than these two guys turned up, and we were inseparable for the rest of our time at the lake.  They had no fear and were very keen about anything we might have to eat.  

Have you ever been chased by two waddling ducks while trying to make speed on slippery snow?

The Estany de Ratera is the most beautiful place, but we had to accept that we really didn’t have the gear to go further up this route, so headed back down with the intention of trying a different walk from Sant Maurici Lake, lower down. 

However, on the descent to the lake we agreed that the building clouds looked remarkably similar to the ones that had hailed on us yesterday…. 

At Sant Maurici Lake we were able to jump into a 4WD taxi down the mountain almost instantly, and got back to our apartment just in time to get our washed and dry clothes inside before the rain started – and it hasn’t stopped in hours…

Sadly, that’s the end of our walks in the high Pyrenees.  Tomorrow we are on the move again, heading east towards Barcelona.

The Besiberri range

We are staying in a village called Erill la Vall in the Boi Valley of the Western Aiguestortes, an area of cultural significance because of its Romanesque churches and also because it is the gateway to the Besiberri Range in the Aiguestortes National Park.

It was raining the evening we arrived, but the next morning was quite sunny, though rain was forecast later in the day. This made our choice of itinerary easy. We would walk for half a day, and then spend some of our afternoon en route to our next booking touring some of the Romanesque churches of the valley.

Vehicle access to the park is restricted, and our hostel advised us to maximise our time up high by taking one of the taxis which operate in the park. This saved us 2 hours of walking uphill to the really spectacular scenery on the Plannel d’Aiguestortes. From here, it was possible to do a number of walks, weather and time permitting.

The drive up to the Plannel was lovely, past one of the estany, or upland tarns or lakes which are dotted throughout the park (there are over 200), past numerous little streams, jumbled boulders everywhere and into an alpine area ringed by craggy mountains still with quite a bit of snow.

We had planned on doing a short walk on a nature trail before walking back down to our car, but we got chatting to a very nice Dutch couple who were walking out to Estany Llong, which was as far as it was feasible to walk into the mountains before the snow became too deep.

This sounded so nice, and the area was so lovely to walk in, that we also decided to head that way for an hour before turning back. So, stepping it out, we headed along the plain towards the mountains with the serious snow cover. The only way to describe this walk is “delightful”.  Easy, well maintained path, little streams and rivulets everywhere, crystal clear water, cascades, lovely forest, and views to the mountains. Around every bend was another photo opportunity. We kept putting off the decision to turn back…

Just before Estany Llong we met snow on the track. As we were so close to the lake, we decided to continue until we had a view before we turned back. We had to crunch our way upward across snow for about 5 minutes before coming to the saddle – and the wonderful view down over the lake was worth the extra time. We again met our Dutch couple who were on their way up as we finally headed back to the car park. We couldn’t linger - we now estimated that we wouldn’t get back to the car until 3 pm.

As we had left the lunch in the car, and had a 2 hour drive to do, we again stepped it out, detouring via the nature walk before beginning the 2 hour trek down the mountain. Although parts of the descent were lovely, especially around the Estany de Llebreta, much of it proved to be ho-hum after our morning’s walk. We must be getting fussy!  Also, it began to cloud in, then to rain, and then to hail (ball bearings, not golf balls, thankfully!). And it was really steep in some parts, so much so that it was very slow walking down hill on the scree slopes.

By the time we reached the lake it was hailing…

Finally, lunch (at a fashionable hour for Spain), a quick look at two of the famous churches, only one of which was open, (but lovely) and then on the road through more rain as we headed higher into the mountains and up into the snow over the Port de la Bonaigna pass.

At last, Espot and an apartment for the next two nights.  M spends a very frustrating evening trying to get our netbook and the apartment’s wifi to talk to each other, without success.