SPAIN JOURNAL ENTRY
September
16-20, 2001
BARCELONA, SPAIN
The cruise is over. It is with some sadness that we depart the ship mixed with relief. Life was easy aboard the ship not having to worry about packing and unpacking and meals, however, Mike and I did feel like a floating target on the ship. One day, a plane could be heard off in the distance. It got closer and closer and I ran out on the deck to see what was going on. As I looked around, most of the passengers on the starboard side of the ship were on their decks as well. The plane appeared to be a military plane but it flew low and came very close to the ship. At dinner that night, I heard other passengers talk about how fearful they were when the plane "buzzed" the ship. Anyway we were happy to be on solid ground.
We checked into our hotel and spent the next few days getting to know Barcelona. I know a small amount of Spanish but was lost here. Because of the Catalonian influence, the language is much different than the Spanish we learn in school. For instance, Barcelona is pronounced, Barthelona. "C" is pronounced "th." The hardest thing to get used to was how late dinner was served. On the ship, we typically had dinner around 7:30 which was late for us because at home, we usually eat dinner at 6:00! In Barcelona, no self respecting citizen eats before 10 p.m.! We held off having dinner until 8:30. The good news was we never had trouble getting a reservation. The bad news was the only other people in the restaurant were American and British tourists.
One night we went to see a Flamenco show. The dancers and the musicians started off slow and controlled. As the show progressed, the dancers and the musicians got more into their own world and the show heated up. It was as if the dancers were performing for each other rather than the audience. As one dancer performed, the other dancers, who sat on the stage, had their eyes glued to the performer's feet watching his or her technique. There was one female dancer who had incredible eyes and a sultry voice I can still hear. As a performer danced, she would say something that sounded like "OLE," except replace the o sound with an a. We asked the doorman what it meant and he told us it is a word of encouragement.
After the show, we walked home on "La Rambla." ALL of Barcelona strolls along La Rambra from grandparents to infants. I mean, we're talking 11:00 p.m.! La Rambla is a paved area down the middle of the road with trees on both sides. Car traffic goes on either side of the wide pedestrian area.
We hired a guide to show us around the next day. I was particularly interested in seeing the buildings designed by Antonio Gaudi and I was not disappointed. Gaudi was born in 1852 and he later studied at Barcelona's School of Architecture. His work was and still is completely original.
We saw the Casa Mila (or La Pedrera) which was built in 1910. It completely departed from the established principles of the time and the intellectuals of Barcelona hated the building. Casa Mila is 8 stories high and there is not a straight wall in the entire building. On the roof are extraordinary sculptures that serve as air ducts and chimneys. We also visited Parc Guell, designed by Guidi as well. There are pictures of the park on our web site.
The final Guidi masterpiece I will bore you with is the "Sagrada Familia" church. He became obsessed with the church which he started in 1883 and Gaudi lived like a recluse on the site for 16 years! The church IS STILL under construction today! I can't even put into words what it is like to see the church. We walked around the entire church which takes up a city block on each side!
The next day, we visited the "Museu Picasso" which is one of Barcelona's most popular attractions. The museum is housed in 3 adjoining palaces which date from medieval times. The kids learned about Picasso's "Blue" and "Rose" periods which we still quiz them about! It was lunch time by the time we left the museum so we went by foot in search of a restaurant. We took small streets that cars couldn't fit on. When we came to a decision point on which way to go, we just followed our instincts and we finally ended up in a square that had a delightful restaurant. We liked it so much, we went back there the next day!
I would highly recommend a visit to Barcelona. The people are friendly and very family oriented. Children are welcomed and encouraged to join in on all activities. You can see the magnificent buildings of Gaudi. The guide books warned us about pick-pockets and they said to keep a careful eye on luggage when checking into a hotel, but we did not experience any situations where we felt we had to be overly watchful.
----------