Travel Day
Traveling to Barcelona, we had our earliest departure yet, a 9:40 a.m. train from a different station than the one at which we had arrived. Thanks to Google Maps, I was able to find a metro route that took us to the stop right next to the station. I did need to purchase tickets and while the machine said it took bills of most denominations, at the time it was only accepting 5 and 10 euro bills. Unfortunately, I had nothing smaller than a 20 euro bill and I had no change. There wasn’t much open at 8:15 a.m. but I did come across an automotive shop that was able to provide me some change. Whew! Crises averted! Once we got to the station, I was easily able to print our tickets inside and we had a short wait until we were able to board our train. Just enough time for coffee, orange juice and some pastries.
The three hour trip had multiple stops along the way but the route followed along the coast and it was a pleasure to gaze out the window … when I wasn’t dozing off. I think I have mentioned before that I don’t tend to sleep particularly well and it is especially bad just prior to travel. The lulling movement of the train allowed me to catch a bit of shut-eye.
When we were walking to the metro station in Valencia, we felt a sprinkling of rain and the rain followed us to Barcelona. Upon arriving we found ourselves in a downpour. In our 24 days of travel, so far, that was our 2nd day of find-yourself-a-dry-place-to-wait-it-out kind of rain. We have been lucky.
We met with our contact for the property, Rosa, who showed us to our abode for the next five days. I have to say, this is the least impressive property in our Spain experience. Photos from airbnb are fairly accurate.
But upon further inspection, it is a bit rough around the edges. Not quite as clean as it appears in the photos and it has been well-used. It needs an all-around refresh. But, we can make it work and in actuality, we all had a great night sleep … it was so quiet, I didn’t wake up once which is unusual for me. The littlest sound will drag me out of a sleep and I did not experience that last night which was lovely.
Facebook had a few restaurants to recommend so we found the closest one and Reece and I finally partook in Spain’s traditional tapas. We each ordered an empanada, which was delicious!
We also ordered the barbarechos which are cockles or clams. The photos look a bit like clams and I expected some steamed clams in some sort of broth. Perhaps the were steamed but they came out already shelled and in a tomato broth. They were actually delicious though not what I was expecting. Reece and I both enjoyed them. Keith, not so much. This is what was left.
We weren’t sure if we were supposed to drink the broth and since we didn’t have any spoons we decided not to risk the mess that was sure to transpire should we try to slurp the broth out of that square bowl.
Keith was going to go with a hamburger … better safe than sorry, I guess. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any hamburgers so I ordered him chicken with fries and a salad. He was very pleased and ate every last bit.
We, of course, imbibed in the local drink … Keith with beer and wine for myself and Reece, who had her very own glass. She is still quite self-conscious about that. She still feels like she is doing something she shouldn’t be doing. And then she got dizzy and couldn’t finish the small glass. Mom to the rescue!
We found a grocery store and picked up a few supplies to get us through our next few days. I have to say that what our apartment lacks in “finishing” our host, Rosa Maria, made sure it was stocked with necessities above and beyond what we have gotten at other properties: a coffee machine with pods, fruit, milk, juice, butter and jam. We had relatively little that we needed to pick up other than bread, cheese and some veggies for a salad later in the week. It was very welcome and a lovely touch that won’t be forgotten.
Day One
We have found a routine that seems to work for us … we tend to spend our first day getting a lay of the land by walking. Keith did some research and being the sport fanatic he is, really wanted to check out the Olympic Stadium, or the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, and discovered it was only about a 40 minute walk from our digs. It was quite cooler than what we had experienced in Valencia but on the bright side, it wasn’t raining and the day eventually produced some blue sky and sun. Barcelona was the sight of the 1992 summer Olympic Games. The stadium was actually built in the 1920’s and opened in 1929. Barcelona bid to host the 1936 games but those were awarded to Berlin. It was renovated in 1989 in preparation for the summer games three years later.
It was quite a hike to the top but the view was spectacular. Even though it is winter, there were a few people out and a group of athletes using the facilities for a work out.
The National Art Museum of Catalonia is near the Olympic Stadium and as per our luck on this trip, we discovered that day (Saturdays) it was free to the public from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. It was lunch time so we walked around the Olympic venues and down to La Plaza Espana and found a street café where we had some lunch. Guess what Keith had? A hamburger. This is his 3rd one and two out of the three have been barely cooked. I think this is the way the Spanish must eat their beef. Maybe Keith is warming to Spanish customs more than I thought (he seems to be quite comfortable with the midday cerveza) because he ate it all. However, he did mention about looking up how to say “well done” in Spanish for the next time.
The museum was quite beautiful and I am glad we went. They have three main areas.
We explored the Renaissance and Baroque Art wing and the Modern Art wing. I am not a huge museum attendee but we have seen a few while traveling and the NAMC is, by far, the best laid out of any that we have visited.
The rooms were designed and arranged in such a way that there was only one choice of direction and therefore, no threat of missing hidden exhibits or rooms. The NAMC featured mostly Spanish artists and the Renaissance and Baroque area were filled with, as you might expect, primarily religious paintings but it was great for Reece to see, first-hand, examples of the periods she’s been studying in World History.
After a couple of hours of exploring, we decided we had walked enough … yet we still needed to get back to our apartment. We walked … another 40 minutes and were glad to rest and put our feet up for the day.
Day Two
As day two dawned, we still hadn’t completely decided where we wanted to explore that day. Reece was up and had the motivation to go for a run among the streets, avoiding dog poo and drunk girls tottering around on stilettos. After breakfast and some research and remembering that it was Sunday, we decided to head to La Sagrada Familia via the metro and then walk to Park Guell.
La Sagrad Familia is the largest, unfinished Roman Catholic church in the world and was designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi. It was proclaimed a minor basilica by Pope Benedict as there is no seated bishop, it cannot be deemed a cathedral. Construction began in 1882 and Gaudi took over the following year, incorporating his distinctive design style, using both traditional Gothic and Art Nouveau forms. It is still under construction and is set to be completed in 2026 which is the centennial of Gaudi’s death.
Surprisingly, even in January there was quite a line of tourists cueing up to pay their money and get inside. We don’t have that kind of interest or patience. It was pretty impressive from the outside and that was good enough for us. Maybe we will come back after 2026 and see the finished product.
We walked to Park Guell … a public park system composed of gardens and architectonic (of or relating to architecture) elements. It had its origins as a housing development and was designed by Gaudi and built in the 14 years between 1900 and 1914. It was officially opened as a public park in 1926. We wandered and climbed throughout the park and like La Sagrada Familia, it was teaming with people. Maybe because it was Sunday or maybe more people are choosing to travel in January, what with global warming and all, January seems to be, in my experience, a pretty good time of year to enjoy sun without the heat of summer. At any rate, the lines were again long and as I mentioned, we have no patience for that. Or I am cheap. Probably both. But more cheap. We enjoyed climbing to the almost top of Carmel Hill, part of the Collserola mountain range upon which the park sits. We saw part of a soccer match and the view was lovely from the top.
Making our way back down was a bit tougher on the old knees, particularly after the longer day we spent yesterday walking around. We were tired, hungry, though nothing really appealed to us and being Sunday, many places were closed and there weren’t a lot of choices. We headed back to the apartment, whipped up a late lunch/early dinner and are relaxing doing the things we would normally be doing at home … homework, television, reading, etc. The only thing missing is Lila and the cats.
Day Three
Up and out for a quick breakfast and then to find El Mercat de la Boqueria … one of Barcelona’s many markets. We have been surviving pretty easily lodging at properties with wi-fi and do some planning each day before heading out. Google Maps is great for telling us where we are … as long as we know where we want to go. It is also great for getting us a metro or walking route for wherever it is that we are going that day. I keep the map up as we head out and take a screen shot of the metro directions which outline the metro line, metro stations and any changes we need to make. I forgot to take that screenshot today as we headed out and once we were away from Wi-Fi, it was impossible for us to figure out which stop would get us to the market. A kind older gentleman noticed that we were contemplating the subway map and communicated with us, once I told him where we were wanting to, the correct stop. He gave us a couple of options and while I didn’t understand every word, I did catch the important stuff. This was the first time while we have been in Spain that someone went out of their way to recognize us as what we are … tourists … and make an effort to assist us. I have struggled to understand the Spanish dialects even more so here in Barcelona where the language seems to have a French bent to it. However, according to Wikipedia, the Catalan language is actually not a dialect but a separate language that evolved out of the common (referred to as Vulgar) Latin that the citizens used to speak. Interesting.
We had lovely weather and decided to get off at the stop that would force us to do a bit of walking. We found ourselves at La Rambla, a tree-lined pedestrian mall that was on my list of things to visit. Although Keith wasn’t particularly keen on visiting the Mercat de la Boqueria (in his words … when you’ve seen one market, you’ve seen them all) he did want to get to the Gothic Quarter and Old Towne. As luck would have it, La Rambla rambles right through the Gothic Quarter and Old Towne.
Barcelona is also a coastal town so we had to find and check out the beach. Again, La Rambla led the way and before too long we were among the sun bathers and surfers.
After a late breakfast and a lot of walking, we made our way back up to the La Rambla and saw, what we believed, was a good deal on a meal … the special consisted of 3 tapas and a choice of pizza, pasta or paella for 7,95 euros. We didn’t get much in the way of amount or choice with regard to the tapas. The only choice for piazza was the pizza Margherite and the paella of choice was the seafood and two others. I was anxious to see if Barcelona paella was more like Madrid or Velencia and Reece was hankering for pizza. We have a plan for spaghetti tomorrow night so Keith resigned himself to the paella though he didn’t care for it when we had it in Madrid.
The service was quick, the tapas were good, though few. Reece scarfed down her pizza (though she did share two slices with her dad) and the paella was better than what we sampled in Madrid but not as good as what we had in Valencia. Of course that didn’t stop us from eating it all up … with help from Reece. One might think we never feed her.
However, what started out as an inexpensive meal ended up costing more when adding drinks … as I suspected it might be since drinks were not included in the menu. One beer, one ice tea and one Pepsi later and our 25,00 euro meal was now 45,00 euros. There is always something to learn in new situations. And something for which to be grateful … which is I didn’t have to cook.
Day Four
Our last day in Barcelona and we had to make the most of it. My sports enthusiast husband wanted to go back to the Olympic Stadium but with only four days in a city of 1.6 million, I figured we could find some new stuff to see. We decided to go see the Botanical Gardens … Jardi Botanic de Barcelona, which is near the Olympic Stadium so I guess Keith won that round. The Botanical Garden specializes in plants and communities from areas of the world with Mediterranean climates and the gardens are divided into areas representing those main areas. It was a lovely walk but as it was winter, there wasn’t much blooming.
My favorite part was in the Canary Island region that was represented where there are these large palm trees called Canary Palms.
And you might deduce, the reason they are called Canary Palms is because they are located on the Canary Islands. It also might be because of the canaries that LIVE in the palm trees. They were singing up a storm … so cool.
While we were meandering along the grounds, I noticed some buildings in the distance … buildings that I thought might have been athlete housing during the Olympic Games as they were just up the hill from the venues.
After finishing in the Botanical Gardens our curiosity got the best of us and we decided to see if we could find the buildings we saw from a distance. And we did. And they DID end up being a kind of housing, in a manner of speaking.
Keith had noticed a sign that we were headed in the direction of Castell Montjuic (Montjuic means “Mountain of Jews”) so we kept walking onward and upward to the now military museum and castle. The views are incredible but we didn’t take the tour because by the time we climbed and clawed our way to the top, we were exhausted. A few days earlier, we had observed a tram going up and down the mountain and had wondered as to its destination. We discovered just where today. As it wasn’t running, we would have had to find alternate methods, regardless, for getting up the hill (both the train and the bus were options, unbeknownst to us). Had we known just how much of a hike we were actually taking, we might have decided on another plan.
It was time to head back down Montjuic and we found a very scenic route through some other gardens.
We couldn’t even make it down the hill … and that’s the EASY part! So we stopped off and caught the metro and took it to the station that we were planning to catch it from tomorrow as we head to the airport. I went back and forth between the advantages and disadvantages of a taxi versus the metro … because I couldn’t find any good information on which metro line might get us to the airport in the morning and in a timely fashion without having to make a bunch of changes. I finally stumbled on some information that directed me to the Tarrasso station (which ended up being a bit closer at the same time) that got us on a direct line to Terminal 1 at the Barcelona Airport. I guess you’ll have to read my next post to find out how that worked out for us. Off to Greece!
Cheers!
Teresa