Barcelona… we’ll be back

Friday, January 13 - Sunday, January 15 2012

Part of the risk of traveling in the off-season is that museums and exhibits might be closed, hours of operation will be limited, and there is less daylight than in the spring / summer.  We thought a more southern destination, like Spain, would be safe (or at least safer than other cities) against these risks, but unfortunately they caught up to us this time.  Another risk we’ve never had to deal with is getting sick during a trip, but when Sunday morning came around and we both felt a little off, we realized this risk had, too, caught up with us.  Put all these mishaps together and we ended up missing several of our intended sights and food experiences, which we’ll need to see in the future (hence the title of this post… ‘we’ll be back!’).  All that being said, we had a good time in Barcelona amidst the many challenges.

We took Friday off of work and flew into Barcelona by noon, anticipating our first visit to highly-recommended Spain.  Probably one of the most recognizable tourist destinations in Barcelona is La Rambla, a long street running down the center of old-town which has all sorts of vendors, entertainers, and history to boot.  We lucked out to find an affordable hotel right in the middle of all the action and our room actually looked out over the main drag (this was pretty cool in the morning and evenings, but a little loud at night). :)  Some highlights of La Rambla throughout our trip included:

Pet shops like this, where they sell small animals like fish, turtles, rabbits and ducklings for apartment dwellers who need companions that fit into a smaller space… although don’t ducklings grow up?  We tried not to ponder that too much and just enjoyed how cute they were.

Café Viena, which boasts the best sandwich in the world, according to one New York Times writer (a marketing tool that they use to their full advantage).  The sandwich consists of really good baguette bread with thinly sliced beef sausage and tomatoes.  Of course we had to try one.  It was good, but the best in the world?  You’d just have to try one to decide yourself…

La Boqueria market is just off La Rambla and is a classic food market with a ton of choices in fresh meats, cheeses, veggies, fruits… pretty much whatever you’d want, we imagine (yes, they even had cheddar cheese, a rarity in Europe).  Locals have been doing their regular shopping here since 1217, but this particular structure dates from 1914.  It’s a sweet market—pretty sure we’d do our weekly grocery shopping there, too, if we were locals.  We took advantage and stocked up for some cheap breakfasts while in town.

At the end of La Rambla sits a monument of Christopher Columbus, who was commissioned by Spain on his explorations.  What’s kind of odd is that the statue is pointing toward Africa, not the Americas as you would expect considering they were his most famous discoveries.

Another must-see in Barcelona is anything “Gaudi”.  Barcelona is known for its over-the-top ‘Modernista’ architecture, and Antoni Gaudi is easily the most famous of these creative designers.  As part of our own tour we first strolled up the street known as the ‘Block of Discord’, which is named as such because of the number of Modernista homes all competing for attention.  We didn’t actually see a whole lot of discord, only a couple buildings, so they must have not been too obscure (although the ones we did see were pretty strange).  One of Gaudi’s most famous designs, the Casa Milà, was to be our first stop on our Gaudi tour, but unfortunately it was closed for the weekend for some reason.  It’s the one below with all the rounded edges and apparently it’s pretty interesting inside… we’ll just have to find out another time.

Casa Mila

Apartment buildings aside, Gaudi’s most famous work in Barcelona is the Sagrada Família, a Modernista church that has been under construction for over 120 years and has another 30 to go.  It’s kind of weird to think about investing your life into building something that you’ll never see the completion of, but it’s exactly what Gaudi did and what many of the previous builders have done.  This church is as strange as it gets... although very light and attractive at the same time.  Gaudi’s biggest inspiration in his architecture is nature, which you can see elements of in the photos below, especially the interior which is most impressive with columns that appear more like tree trunks leading up to the leaves of the trees.  While it’s not necessarily our taste, it’s really impressive and unique, to say the least.  We’ve already set our calendars to come back in 2030 when construction is scheduled for completion! :)

1896 Construction

Another Gaudi creation is the Parc Güell, a city park that was originally intended to be a gated community for the wealthy.  The project fell through but the park remains, along with the gingerbread-esque house entry gates, the grand staircase, the market square (amongst all the pillars), and a lookout point over Barcelona lined with ergonomic benches that fit your back with perfect comfort.  We wanted to take a section of the benches home! 

We rounded out the evening wandering La Rambla a little more and trying as many delicious tapas as we could.

Saturday morning we started off with a city walk of the oldest part of Barcelona, the Barri Gòtic.  We didn’t realize that Barcelona’s roots are actually Roman, starting around 2,000 years ago.  The Gòtic center was formerly enclosed by walls so its streets are narrow, winding, and old… perfect for wandering.  Here are a few highlights:

We walked past this church, which Gaudi attended for years.  Look at all the damage at the base of the wall – shrapnel caused this during the Spanish Civil War, which occurred from 1936-1939.  Looking back, we’re surprised we didn’t really learn much about the civil war and anything we could tell you now would be just copy/paste from Wikipedia (we’ll spare you that). :)  It seems strange that no Civil War museums or monuments were around, or at least popular enough to hit the radar of our guidebooks.

This square, named Plaça Nova, is just outside the old walls of ancient Barcino (Barcino was the name of the original Roman city, formed in 15 B.C.).  That wall and archway you see there are original, ancient Roman (and the archway is part of the original aqueduct system)!   

We saw a little more Roman stuff later in our walking tour – these columns were part of the original Temple of Augustus, which was a 120-foot-long temple built in 1 A.D. to worship Emperor Augustus.  It’s as old as Jesus walking the earth… sights like these never cease to amaze us. 

This church, the Catedral de Barcelona, has been the center of Christian worship in Barcelona since the 4^th century, and this particular structure was built in the 14^th century.  One unique part of this church are the cloisters, where geese like these have inhabited the church for over 500 years.  There are always exactly 13 of them here, commemorating the death of 13-year old Saint Eulàlia, who was tortured 13 ways and martyred by the hands of the Romans.

4th century baptism fount

Tomb of Saint Eulàlia

Often in catholic cathedrals, visitors will pay a Euro to buy, light, and place a prayer candle on a decorative rack, which can create a pretty cool atmosphere if there are enough candles going at once.  This church has taken this tradition to a futuristic level that is unfortunately less atmospheric - instead of buying and lighting a candle, visitors can put their Euro coin into a coin slot and an electronic candle will turn on from a light board.  Less of a fire risk?  Whatever works, we guess!

This bridge connects the Catalan government building on the right with the ceremonial Catalan president’s residence.   Nothing too special, but the picturesque architecture is worth sharing. 

This square, Plaça del Rei, is where Christopher Columbus returned in 1493 with Native Americans after his discovery of America.  It’s surreal to walk the same stones as the man who discovered our great nation.

Near this same square is the Barcelona City History Museum.  This was an opportunity to see even more Roman ruins and also learn the history of how Barcelona developed over the past 2,000 years.  The highlight was an elevator ride descending 20+ feet underneath the current street level (think Seattle underground but slightly older). :)  The museum reminded us a lot of the archeological dig underneath the Geneva Cathedral, which did a good job illustrating how the current remains piece into those that are now gone, through detailed sketches.

A couple interesting things stood out to us at this museum.  First we learned that the ancient Barcelonans would disinfect and bleach their clothes with urine...!  There were clay pots sitting out around the city that people were encouraged to pee into, which was then used in the public laundry services.  It’s a wonder why that practice faded away… Also, those big holes in the ground that are partially filled with a big round (broken) pot were used to ferment Garum.  This is an appetizing sauce made of salt and fish guts/heads/leftover bones, left to marinate for 20 days.  What is wrong with these people?!

 

One normal thing was this ancient wine making room.  Fun fact – wine consumption back in these days averaged at nearly one bottle per person per day (kids included, although likely not at that rate)!  And we feel bad when we go a week averaging a glass or two a night… :)

After the museum we walked back across town to visit the oldest church in Barcelona, Sant Pau del Camp (built in the 11th century).  There was a cute old nun at the entrance who asked for our 6 Euro fee, and then hand-wrote us a receipt in case we needed it for tax purposes, (that’s a first). :)  The church was dark inside but still so beautiful and very peaceful as we were the only ones there for most of our visit.

On our walk to the church we happened to walk by this athletic club and peered in the window to find a youth indoor soccer match going on.  For some reason we were drawn to go take a closer look.  So after our church visit, we joined the locals (mostly the kids' families but there were still a surprising number of people watching) to watch these extremely talented kids at play for a bit!  We were amazed at the ball control and skill that they showed – we hope this video does them a little justice.

Next we headed to the Museu Marítim (Maritime Museum) to check out what is said to be the best-preserved medieval shipyard in the entire Mediterranean.  But alas, we were saddened to find out that the museum is currently closed for renovations… for the next 2 years…!  BUMMER.  Strike two.  (Although here is a sweet old submarine that was at the entryway.)

That night we were really excited to go see the highly regarded ‘magic fountains’ near Plaça d’Espanya.  Lo and behold, this was yet another one of the aforementioned sites that was shut down (for the night? the season? who knows?).  We made the best of a bad situation and used the time to stroll the streets of Barcelona as if we were locals, something we don’t often have the time to do as we’re always on the move.  We even popped into a local pet store to see some puppies, birds and fish.  We rounded out the night with a stop at La Granja for the thickest and perhaps most delicious hot chocolate we’ve ever had – we could literally spoon it out like pudding.

Former bull fighting arena,
turned shopping mall

Sunday morning… we’re not going to lie - Sunday was rough.  At first we thought we were just lightweights from the couple of beers we had the night before.  But as the day progressed it was clear that there was something else wrong.  We’re getting ahead of ourselves - more on that later.  We were troopers and started off the day still in sightseeing-mode.  We had read a really good review about an old hospital (Hospital de Sant Pau) that, you guessed it, was also designed in the Modernista style—this history sounded intriguing so we had to pay a visit.

After a slight struggle to find the entry point (we learned later that the tour is a fairly new attraction as the hospital was just recently closed for renovations) we showed up in the knick of time to make the guided tour... which they would have canceled if we didn’t show up because we were the only ones there.  Haha.  What a deal though, a private tour at group tour rates! :)

The compound itself was very interesting as it was built with the spirit of beauty to help with patients’ morale and to encourage healing, but also was very advanced for its time with disease control (all the floors and walls were tiled, which is easy to keep clean & disinfected) and the ventilation system brought in direct fresh air constantly.  The original building plan was for the hospital to fill the entire group of city blocks that you can see in the photo below, but funds ran out quicker than expected.  You can see this in the buildings that were completed, too - the last few buildings became less ornate on the outside and the tile covered less of the interior walls (ceramic tile was very expensive back then). 

Another interesting feature about the grounds was that all the buildings were linked by an underground tunnel system in order to increase the above ground beauty, allowing for more gardens and walking spaces without all those pesky halls getting in the way.  As mentioned earlier, the hospital was shut down for renovations just a few years ago and ever since then they’ve been restoring the old buildings and features to their original state to be reused as administrative buildings going forward.  Our guide showed us examples where you couldn’t tell the difference between original and restored – they’re doing a great job!

Our last major tourist sites were all located on the nearby Montjuïc (“Mount of the Jews”, although there was nothing particularly Jewish about this hill).  First stop was the Montjuïc Castle, which didn’t get a ton of hype in our guidebooks but was certainly one of the largest castle grounds we’ve visited.  It stood proudly on the highest point of Montjuïc and offered commanding views of Barcelona.  In fact that’s why the castle was originally built in the 18^th century, for the central Spanish government to keep an eye on Barcelona and subdue any citizen revolt. 

One of Barcelona's 3 booming ports, always full of activity

Those alive in 1992 may remember the summer Olympics were held in Barcelona, specifically here on Montjuïc.  There was a museum depicting all of the highlights of those games (the Dream Team anyone??) but we decided that the Olympic museum in Lausanne that we went to was the best of the best, so we skipped this one.  We did however get to see, and take a peek inside, the track and field stadium.  The entire Olympic complex was pretty impressive – very well done, we can imagine the excitement to have been there at that time.  As we walked down the grand entryway to the stadium we joked at how we would both look and be dressed if we were here back in 1992 (spandex, neon colors, mullet/big hair, fanny packs, and oversized tank tops for sure).

We finished our descent of Montjuïc back toward the grand Catalyan Art Museum and non-functioning magic fountains to Plaça d’Espanya and caught the subway back toward our hotel. 

It was at this point that things started to go south for us.  We had already had to check out of the hotel that morning, so we didn't have a place just to lay down.  Dave had the joy of finding a garbage can in an alley (we’ll spare you the other details) and shortly after we decided just to head to the airport early because walking (or eating, standing, and living in general) :) just wasn’t fun anymore.  We were especially bummed because Sunday was supposed to be our tapas day where we were to visit two highly-rated tapas places for lunch and dinner.

We hopped on the bus back to the airport and once we arrived, just laid on the ground in the airport for a good 2 hours looking like death warmed over.  We scraped ourselves off the floor and put on our best faces at the ticket counter so they wouldn’t deny us boarding.  The plane ride consisted of us fading in and out of consciousness, fighting nausea and discomfort the entire time.  We finally made it home around midnight and thanked the Lord that we were in our bed instead of trapped with the flu in Barcelona!  At first we thought it was food poisoning due to being hit simultaneously – but after a few days of it we determined it must have been some brutal Spanish-strain of the flu. :)

After all this we still have great memories of Barcelona and can’t wait to get back and check off the rest of our list!