Exactly the shape of hock bottles

Sunday, September 29
A Day in Barcelona

Sunday was another day where Jan’s foresight in getting us hop-on-hop-off bus tickets proved to be a great idea. After finding breakfast coffee and crossants in a bakery a block away, we struck out along the now-deserted Rambla for the Plaça de Catalunya to board one of the west route buses. This time our ear-buds were a lovely orangish-red (reddish-orange?), adding to our growing collections. More importantly, we enjoyed continued beautiful weather and were able once again to sit in the upper deck where we could see everything quite well. We rode that route its full length, snapping photographs left and right like all the other tourists.

I had forgotten about the 1992 Summer Olympics having been in Barcelona until the sight of the still-in-place flame receptacle brought that memory back to the surface. But what really surprised me was riding up the hill through the Parc of Mont Juic, seeing ‘exotic plants’ we recognized were common yard plants during our years living in Texas. Cool!

I don’t guess anyone goes to Spain without thinking of bull fights, and for people like us, nobody goes to Barcelona without thinking of Gaudí. This bus ride didn’t disappoint, as we drove past the old bull ring, now a shopping mall, and more Gaudì buildings that I knew existed. I do wonder what it would be like to have an apartment in La Pedrera; knowing that’s what my building looked like could be disconcerting at times.

When we had completed the circuit and arrived back at the Plaça de Catalunya, we decided to get off the bus and walk to the Cathedral Square, one of our goals for the day. It’s hard to say which of our activities there was more fun. We found the WCs, always important, we ate more tapas for lunch and had our first Sangria of the trip, also important, we browsed a few market stalls (and maybe a few shady people selling knock-offs of purses), Mark and I went into the Cathedral for part of Mass (a sermon in an unknown language sent us out), and we listened to a folk orchestra/band with far too many harsh-sounding double reeds play folk music.

KC even joined in one of the circles of dancers, and I managed to get an iPhone video. If my HTML skills were up to snuff, I could include the video on this page, and you could watch it on your desktop, your laptop, your tablet, your smart-phone, or maybe on any other iDevice you could think of. As it is, you’ll just have to click here and go to YouTube to see her dance. KC, I’m really glad you did it. Good job!

After all that fun break in the middle of the day, we hopped on a bus that took the other part of the east-west route, right from the Cathedral Square. More convenient than we deserved, now that I think about it. This time we were on the eastern route, so we went past many of the newer neighborhoods of Barcelona, including the beach area we would visit later in the day. So some day we’ll go back to Barcelona, just so I can visit Sagrada Familia again. All we did was ride past on the bus, and I’m a bit undecided about it now. I don’t think George Orwell was right, but you never know from only one quick look; you really have to experience a building from the inside out.

Our afternoon concluded with a visit to the Barcelona Ice Bar, the only ice bar on a beach where you could actually swim instead of just ice-skate. KC had make reservations for us, and we had a ball! Eighteen degrees below zero Celsius? No problem; they provided fur-lined parkas. Picking up a glass made of ice and trying to drink from it? Surprisingly, not a problem at all. Staying longer than our allotted 15 minutes might have been a problem though, from a number of different standpoints. We were all glad to get out of the freezer and back on the beach.

We sat and watched beach volleyball, we watched the clouds, and we commented on the warm air while we sat on the wall next to the beautiful sand beach. A more restful evening could not have been imagined, and I thought we were blessed to just have a few moments to sit and not be part of a schedule once again. There’s a whole page of Barcelona Photos. Check it out to see the peaceful family.

After finding a place in a beach-front restaurant and enjoying dinner there, we took cabs back to the Hotel Principal and prepared to take a train to Madrid early the next morning.

Credits:

For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to have a look at the cathedral–a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world. It has four crenellated spires exactly the shape of hock bottles. Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona it was not damaged during the revolution–it was spared because of its ‘artistic value’, people said. I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance, though they did hang a red and black banner between its spires. – George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia, 1938

Unattributed photos from Jim’s camera.
Ice Bar photo from KC’s camera.