So, where was I? Oh yeah, that's right... Barcelona
Bonus points if you identify the quote in the title! Hint: *points at icon*
Okay, not that the points are worth anything anyway. And unlike DWX, I am talking about the city, and not some planet where the dogs may or may not have noses. But yeah, Barcelona. I'd heard that it was a cool city, but never really had the burning desire to go there. But on my last visit to the UK, Jane, an old friend (from my uni days) whom I was visiting said "Next time you're over here, we are going to Barcelona!" and I agreed.
Now, of course, I'm wondering why on Earth I didn't go sooner coz the 5 days we spent there weren't nearly enough.
So, I arrived in Barcelona midmorning on a Saturday, after having almost missed my flight (I can admit it now, so long after the fact) out of London City Airport due to misreading the timetable for the DLR. Still, much quicker than trying to get to Heathrow!
I met up with Jane at Barcelona Airport and we caught a taxi to our hotel which was right by the waterfront, not far from the Diagonal Mar, arriving about lunchtime. And to be honest, we decided to take it easy on the first day. This was a holiday, after all. You're supposed to relax. Just a little walk to go get some lunch maybe...
And we ended up walking all the way to the Arc de Triomf (about an hour away) and had lunch at a street market that was there (actually there was a disarmament protest too, but to my shame, I can't remember exactly what the issue was).
Then on to Placa de Catalunya (another 15 mins or so). Yeah, so we did end up do a bit more walking than we originally intended, but we did wimp out and catch a taxi back.
After indulging in that fine Spanish tradition of taking a siesta which help cope with the jetlag (hey, it wasn't as bad as travelling from Oz, but still a time difference to deal with), we decided to have dinner at the hotel. I was a little apprehensive at the total lack of any other patrons at the restaurant, until I realised that, in Barcelona, if you have dinner before 9pm, you are definitely part of the "early crowd". We took our time over dinner and found that the restaurant started filling up around 10pm.
The next day, we started "touristing" in earnest, and I got my first look at the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. Believe it or not, when I arrived in the city, I'd never heard of the man, but now he's just about my favourite architect ever! Seriously.
The hop-on-hop-off tourist bus is such a good deal (especially if you get the two-day ticket) that we got tickets for all 4 remaining days. It took us to all the places we wanted to go and we got also got a drive-by audio tour of a lot of places. You also get coupons for discounts at various tourist sites.
And our first stop was the Gaudi-designed Casa Mila aka La Pedrera. Cuddles and I stared in wonder.
I love the curves and arches. I love the mosaics. I love the shameless use of colour.
(Actually, I have to admit that it crossed my mind that the similarity between the words "Gaudi" and "gaudy" might not be coincidental and that his work was derided as such by the unappreciative, maybe even where the term "gaudy" was derived - but no, it's apparently just a coincidence.)
Also, my 3-year-old nephew is hugely into Batman and so seeing this in the giftshop totally cracked me up.
But La Pedrera was only the beginning of my introduction to Gaudi that day. We then walked just a short way down the street to Casa Batllo. And while La Pedrera impressed me with it unconventional arches, mosaics, twisted wrought iron and wonderful use of space and light, stepping into Casa Batllo is a bit like stepping into something out of a Jules Verne novel - probably 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Gaudi apparently aimed to mimic the patterns of nature and often, more specifically, forms of water. The results are spectacular.
More wonderful, colourful mosaics. (Really, I couldn't get too much of these.)
And I thought the roof of La Pedrera was cool, but Casa Batllo is probably even more so.
Yes, Senyor Gaudi already had me won over in less than a day, but there was still more to come.
The next day we debated on whether or not to see his "unfinished masterpiece" the Sagrada Familia (or to give it its full name the Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia) and sitting on the bus and seeing the line stretched around the corner we figured that "tomorrow was another day" and we carried on to Parc Guell. The irony would come back to bite us about 24 hours later.
Not that the decision to see Parc Guell in the sunshine wasn't a good one. Yet another place that wears the wonderful influence of Senyor Gaudi extremely well. And yes, more colourful mosaics, but the dragon in this park is perhaps my absolute favourite.
The park was apparently considered to be a "failure" in Gaudi's own lifetime. It was supposed to be divided into classy allotments and only a few were bought - or something like that. But failure back then has meant that the city of Barcelona today has a magnificent garden open to the public. Staircases and statues and concourses and a small museum.
We also took the rest of the journey on the tour bus, past the Olympic sites and Port and University.
And on the Tuesday, we decided to brave the crowds at the Sagrada Familia. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...
So, we're in the queue that virtually encircles the block where the church is. I kid you not, from where we joined the queue, you could turn around and see the entrance behind you. But the queue did move amazingly quickly and we were more than half, but less than three quarters of the way there when we realised there really were quite a few more police around than you would expect. And was that more fire trucks arriving? And an ambulance? And could that be smoke? And suddenly the queue is moving unbelievably fast - because it's actually being dispersed. The news filters around that church is being closed for the day because someone tried to set fire to it. I kid you not!
Well, at least we got a few photos of the exterior while we were queuing outside.
But it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to get to see inside on that day, so we walked back into town. Wandered past some markets and we did briefly consider going in to see the Cathedral but the crowd outside was a bit discouraging (this was the week before Easter and now with the other major tourist attracting church in town closed for the day...) So we went shopping instead. I've now got a very nice Spanish leather jacket.
So, we were fiercely determined to see the Sagrada Familia the next day (our final chance as we were flying back to the UK that evening). And yes, there were no further arson attempts. And yes, even though we went early there were crowds (we weren't the only ones disappointed the day before). But we made it and it was so, so worth it. That place is gorgeous, inside and out. It's still being built, despite having been started at the turn of the previous century, and won't be finished for another 15 years or so. Hugely ornate with a mixture of older styles and more modern. Fantastic uses of colour and light. Amazing views from the tower and cool stuff in the crypt museum.
This church has been and is being built over the course of more than a century and is Antoni Gaudi's last, great, unfinished work, so obviously he's not the only architect that I'm gushing over here. Gaudi designs mixed with those of more modern architects and the whole thing fits together wonderfully well IMHO.
I don't pretend to be an architecture aficionado, you know what many people say about art - I know what I like. And in addition the Gaudi buildings, there was one particular piece of modern architecture that caught my eye.
This is Torre Agbar. Remind anyone of any buildings in London?
Very much a Spanish very of the "Gherkin", if you ask me (and yes, I'm not the only one whose noticed). I just couldn't resist taking a photo or two.
So, both Jane and flew back to the UK on the Wednesday. She had a flight to Manchester (since she lives and works in Lancashire) and I flew back to London for the second conference. Thus ending my first, but hopefully not my last visit to Barcelona.
Been back home in Oz for a month now and to any Catalan speakers who may stumble across this, I apologise for any butchery of the language on my part. I actually love the words and phrases that I encountered in Barcelona, but I don't pretend for a second that I'm any good at speaking and/or writing the language.
And tomorrow I'm helping to host a 6-year-old's birthday party. So, I'm going to grab an early night's sleep.
See ya!
Okay, not that the points are worth anything anyway. And unlike DWX, I am talking about the city, and not some planet where the dogs may or may not have noses. But yeah, Barcelona. I'd heard that it was a cool city, but never really had the burning desire to go there. But on my last visit to the UK, Jane, an old friend (from my uni days) whom I was visiting said "Next time you're over here, we are going to Barcelona!" and I agreed.
Now, of course, I'm wondering why on Earth I didn't go sooner coz the 5 days we spent there weren't nearly enough.
So, I arrived in Barcelona midmorning on a Saturday, after having almost missed my flight (I can admit it now, so long after the fact) out of London City Airport due to misreading the timetable for the DLR. Still, much quicker than trying to get to Heathrow!
I met up with Jane at Barcelona Airport and we caught a taxi to our hotel which was right by the waterfront, not far from the Diagonal Mar, arriving about lunchtime. And to be honest, we decided to take it easy on the first day. This was a holiday, after all. You're supposed to relax. Just a little walk to go get some lunch maybe...
And we ended up walking all the way to the Arc de Triomf (about an hour away) and had lunch at a street market that was there (actually there was a disarmament protest too, but to my shame, I can't remember exactly what the issue was).
Then on to Placa de Catalunya (another 15 mins or so). Yeah, so we did end up do a bit more walking than we originally intended, but we did wimp out and catch a taxi back.
After indulging in that fine Spanish tradition of taking a siesta which help cope with the jetlag (hey, it wasn't as bad as travelling from Oz, but still a time difference to deal with), we decided to have dinner at the hotel. I was a little apprehensive at the total lack of any other patrons at the restaurant, until I realised that, in Barcelona, if you have dinner before 9pm, you are definitely part of the "early crowd". We took our time over dinner and found that the restaurant started filling up around 10pm.
The next day, we started "touristing" in earnest, and I got my first look at the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. Believe it or not, when I arrived in the city, I'd never heard of the man, but now he's just about my favourite architect ever! Seriously.
The hop-on-hop-off tourist bus is such a good deal (especially if you get the two-day ticket) that we got tickets for all 4 remaining days. It took us to all the places we wanted to go and we got also got a drive-by audio tour of a lot of places. You also get coupons for discounts at various tourist sites.
And our first stop was the Gaudi-designed Casa Mila aka La Pedrera. Cuddles and I stared in wonder.
I love the curves and arches. I love the mosaics. I love the shameless use of colour.
(Actually, I have to admit that it crossed my mind that the similarity between the words "Gaudi" and "gaudy" might not be coincidental and that his work was derided as such by the unappreciative, maybe even where the term "gaudy" was derived - but no, it's apparently just a coincidence.)
Also, my 3-year-old nephew is hugely into Batman and so seeing this in the giftshop totally cracked me up.
But La Pedrera was only the beginning of my introduction to Gaudi that day. We then walked just a short way down the street to Casa Batllo. And while La Pedrera impressed me with it unconventional arches, mosaics, twisted wrought iron and wonderful use of space and light, stepping into Casa Batllo is a bit like stepping into something out of a Jules Verne novel - probably 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Gaudi apparently aimed to mimic the patterns of nature and often, more specifically, forms of water. The results are spectacular.
More wonderful, colourful mosaics. (Really, I couldn't get too much of these.)
And I thought the roof of La Pedrera was cool, but Casa Batllo is probably even more so.
Yes, Senyor Gaudi already had me won over in less than a day, but there was still more to come.
The next day we debated on whether or not to see his "unfinished masterpiece" the Sagrada Familia (or to give it its full name the Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia) and sitting on the bus and seeing the line stretched around the corner we figured that "tomorrow was another day" and we carried on to Parc Guell. The irony would come back to bite us about 24 hours later.
Not that the decision to see Parc Guell in the sunshine wasn't a good one. Yet another place that wears the wonderful influence of Senyor Gaudi extremely well. And yes, more colourful mosaics, but the dragon in this park is perhaps my absolute favourite.
The park was apparently considered to be a "failure" in Gaudi's own lifetime. It was supposed to be divided into classy allotments and only a few were bought - or something like that. But failure back then has meant that the city of Barcelona today has a magnificent garden open to the public. Staircases and statues and concourses and a small museum.
We also took the rest of the journey on the tour bus, past the Olympic sites and Port and University.
And on the Tuesday, we decided to brave the crowds at the Sagrada Familia. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...
So, we're in the queue that virtually encircles the block where the church is. I kid you not, from where we joined the queue, you could turn around and see the entrance behind you. But the queue did move amazingly quickly and we were more than half, but less than three quarters of the way there when we realised there really were quite a few more police around than you would expect. And was that more fire trucks arriving? And an ambulance? And could that be smoke? And suddenly the queue is moving unbelievably fast - because it's actually being dispersed. The news filters around that church is being closed for the day because someone tried to set fire to it. I kid you not!
Well, at least we got a few photos of the exterior while we were queuing outside.
But it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to get to see inside on that day, so we walked back into town. Wandered past some markets and we did briefly consider going in to see the Cathedral but the crowd outside was a bit discouraging (this was the week before Easter and now with the other major tourist attracting church in town closed for the day...) So we went shopping instead. I've now got a very nice Spanish leather jacket.
So, we were fiercely determined to see the Sagrada Familia the next day (our final chance as we were flying back to the UK that evening). And yes, there were no further arson attempts. And yes, even though we went early there were crowds (we weren't the only ones disappointed the day before). But we made it and it was so, so worth it. That place is gorgeous, inside and out. It's still being built, despite having been started at the turn of the previous century, and won't be finished for another 15 years or so. Hugely ornate with a mixture of older styles and more modern. Fantastic uses of colour and light. Amazing views from the tower and cool stuff in the crypt museum.
This church has been and is being built over the course of more than a century and is Antoni Gaudi's last, great, unfinished work, so obviously he's not the only architect that I'm gushing over here. Gaudi designs mixed with those of more modern architects and the whole thing fits together wonderfully well IMHO.
I don't pretend to be an architecture aficionado, you know what many people say about art - I know what I like. And in addition the Gaudi buildings, there was one particular piece of modern architecture that caught my eye.
This is Torre Agbar. Remind anyone of any buildings in London?
Very much a Spanish very of the "Gherkin", if you ask me (and yes, I'm not the only one whose noticed). I just couldn't resist taking a photo or two.
So, both Jane and flew back to the UK on the Wednesday. She had a flight to Manchester (since she lives and works in Lancashire) and I flew back to London for the second conference. Thus ending my first, but hopefully not my last visit to Barcelona.
Been back home in Oz for a month now and to any Catalan speakers who may stumble across this, I apologise for any butchery of the language on my part. I actually love the words and phrases that I encountered in Barcelona, but I don't pretend for a second that I'm any good at speaking and/or writing the language.
And tomorrow I'm helping to host a 6-year-old's birthday party. So, I'm going to grab an early night's sleep.
See ya!