Barcelona

Friday, June 23rd - Travel & Arrival

Larry and Robin drove us to the train station and we’re off to Barcelona. They are going to Madrid and we’ll see each other again at SFO in a week.

Our AirBNB in Barcelona is in the Eixample neighborhood and has both a large patio and air conditioning (we are excited about both). Our unit is essentially the penthouse of this building but there is no lift; luckily we’ve been walking and hiking so much that the 80 stairs are not a big problem. The Eixample neighborhood which is has large one-way streets in a grid plan but does not have open spaces or plazas. Each block was supposed to be built around an empty core but those have mostly been filled in with more buildings. Also there are no small pedestrian streets or areas lined with cafes and restaurants. There are some cafes and restaurants around here but not super obvious. Mostly we’re eating out when we’re out and finding things to bring home to eat at other times so we don’t have to venture down the 80 stairs and who knows how far to a restaurant. We’ve also done a little bit of cooking.

This is our first visit to Barcelona and there is a ton of stuff to see. Barcelona is also super popular with tourists and long lines at the sights are quite common. But by booking tickets in advance online we can skip the queue. Most of our visits to the sights were pre-booked for specific days and times but we had an entire week here so we also had plenty of down time in between appointments.

Our first appointment is to see Gaudí’s famous La Sagrada Familia. We knew the building was unfinished but until we saw the models showing what was done and what was still in the works we had no idea how much there is still to do. They hope to have it finished in nine years (100 years after Gaudí’s death) and we think that’s a very ambitious timeline. What is done is fantastically beautiful (mostly the inside) and a bit weird (more so the outside). The basilica is designed to celebrate three key moments in the life of Christ: his birth, death and resurrection. The two exterior sides relating his birth and death are essentially done but the “glory” facade which will be the main entrance is not. When the basilica is completed, it will have 18 towers. Each of the towers is dedicated to or represents someone. Right now only the eight shortest towers are done (I think they represent the apostles even though there are only eight towers right now). These towers are only 328’ and still we can see the basilica from any vantage point in the city. The tallest one, which will be dedicated to Christ, will be twice as tall at 558’. Gaudí was quite religious and according to him the works of man shouldn’t exceed those of God so the Christ tower is 1 meter shorter than the locally tallest mountain. When La Sagrada Familia is completed it will be the tallest religious building in all of Europe.

After viewing the interior and exterior we took an elevator up one of the towers. The view was cool and we did get to see some of the decorations up close but there is so much construction that many were obscured. 

As we were walking this afternoon we were hearing lots of fire crackers and small fireworks. One of the staff at Sagrada Familia clued us in that this weekend is the Feast of Saint Joan (John). We looked it up and it is a solstice event that involves lots of bonfires and fireworks. We picked up some Empanadas (common in the bakeries here) and enjoyed those with some wine on our roof-top patio. The fireworks got more exuberant and more visible after dark. But our bedroom has no windows and is up against another apartment so it was quiet enough for a good night’s sleep.

Saturday, June 24th

Walked this morning to Casa Mila (aka la Pedrera) which is a Gaudí-designed building. We learned a bit about him as an architect yesterday at Sagrada Familia but learned more today. He was trained in architecture but studied nature extensively and applied his observations to his architecture. He was also quite innovative in creating multi-purpose spaces and making necessary aspects beautiful. An example of the former is built in seating that functioned as a stairway railing and for the latter he is famous for his highly decorative rooftop chimneys and air ventilation shafts. Here at Casa Mila he made a ramp that would allow cars (a fairly new extravagance) able to drop people off right at their apartment no matter which floor they lived on. It’s common in these large buildings for the owner/family to occupy one or two levels and rent out the other floors to help cover expenses for the building as a whole.

We are wanting our last week to be relaxing so we brought lunch home and relaxed in the novelty of an air conditioned space (in case you haven’t been reading all the blogs, we have had super high temps and no AC for over a week now).

We went back out in the afternoon to tour the Palau de la Música which is also a Modernist building but not designed by Gaudí. It was a beautiful building and it would be cool to see a performance here. They played some organ music so we could hear the acoustics. It was very warm this afternoon but we wandered around and explored Placa Catalunya and the Ramblas a bit. Almost everything is closed today because it’s still the Feast of Sant Joan. What is open are some restaurants and cafes (not all of them though) and touristy shops. Even the major Spanish department store El Corte Ingles was closed.

In the evening we were scheduled for the tourist bus so that we could see things lit up at night without having to find our own way to all of them. In particular we got to see the magic fountain show which only runs a few nights a week in the summer time. Other than the magic fountains the rest of the tour was the same as the daytime tour and lots of the sights were not particularly well lit for night time. The weather though was delightful and walking home at midnight was pleasant.

Sunday, June 25th

Today we have an open ticket to the Catalan Art Museum so we can show up when we want but being Sunday it does close at 3pm. This is the same place where we saw the magic fountains last night so it was cool to see it in the daylight. There was a lot of modern art which was what we enjoyed more than the gothic and renaissance art. We combined walking and subway getting back to the apartment and then watched a MotoGP race on Jeff’s computer. Dinner was items from a local bakery and a local deli. 

Monday, June 26th

We had to get up early today so we could get to Park Güell on time for our 8:30 a.m. admission. Serena booked an early time slot so we could experience areas of the “Monumental Zone” before they were swarmed with people. Perhaps the light rain first thing in the morning helped since we were successful in getting pictures of the site without a ton of strangers in every shot. There’s no time limit on how long you can stay in the Monumental Zone but they only allow a certain number in every half hour. We wandered for about an hour then went to explore other areas of the park by which time the sun had come out.

Long ago Serena found a reference somewhere to a park with a hedge labyrinth. It’s been on the list as a potential place to go and it’s only a short walk/metro ride from Park Güell so we went. The park was peaceful and the maze was fun but not super challenging. It’s still early so we added one more thing to today’s agenda - a motorcycle museum. We saw an ad for it in the program at one of the races. From the museum we explored the Ramblas neighborhood then went home and Jeff cooked dinner for us.

Tuesday, June 27th - Happy Birthday Serena 

Our initial plan for today was to go to Monserrat but we were so exhausted a day or so ago that Serena proposed instead a low-intensity day. The Palau Güell (briefly the family home of the Güell’s) was not on our list of places to visit before we got here but things we’ve read since made us more interested so we went online last night and bought tickets.

Eusebi Güell was VERY wealthy and a good friend and consistent client* of Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí designed every facet of the remodel of the family home and since money was not an issue, he used only the finest materials. The result is quite beautiful but also showcases again how creative and innovative Gaudí was in making mundane life beautiful. 

*Park Güell, Bodegas Güell, and Palau Güell at minimum.

We followed a restaurant recommendation from our Rioja wine tour hosts and ended up at the beach. Our shared dish of rabbit/chicken/veggie Paella was delicious. We also tried Sangria made not with red wine but rather with Cava (Spanish sparkling wine).

Back at the apartment Serena immediately took a nap (blame the Sangria) and Jeff did internet and photo stuff. We had leftover Paella, oreos, wine, and other snacks for dinner. Serena worked on our travel journal and this blog entry while we watched movies pushed to the TV from Jeff’s laptop. Serena had a lovely birthday.

Wednesday, June 28th

We started our morning at Casa Batllo (the Gaudí-designed house with the “dragon-skin” roof line on the facade). Everything in the house is curvy and it is beautiful. This one is empty of furnishings which allows the curves and details to be easily seen. It was and still is quite common with these high-end houses for the family owners to occupy one or two levels and rent out the rest in order to pay for their lifestyle and the house. Casa Batllo has quite a number of private doors off of the stairwell landings. The parts we toured were the roof and the interior spaces that Gaudí remodeled for the Batllo family.

Pretty much immediately afterwards we went right next door and had a guided tour of Casa Amatller (the Amatller chocolate family). This house was not designed by Gaudí and it has ALL of it’s original furnishings from the turn of the century. The last of the Amatller family died without heirs in 1960. Before her death she created a foundation which took control of the property and has preserved it. Tours of this house are guided so despite the furnishings (which they usually try to keep the public away from) we were able to go everywhere and get right up close to the decorations. At the end of the tour we were given a small piece of Amatller chocolate. The factory and brand are owned by someone else but they say they are still using the recipe from more than 200 years ago.

This concluded the planned portion of our travels and time in Barcelona. We did some more wandering around town and saw sites and neighborhoods we hadn’t experienced before. The weather today was warm and windy so it was a nice walk. We spent part of the afternoon getting clothes washed and strategizing about getting packed to fly home. 

In the early evening the wind really picked up and it rained a bit. Despite traveling for 10 weeks we have had very little rain and only twice were we really out in it. And one of those days it was pretty light and only sprinkled half the day. Overall we’ve had a lot of warm weather and here at the end it’s been HOT.

There are more pictures below than in our past blogs for a few reasons.
   1 - We were in Barcelona for a week
   2 - It's a very photogenic city with many photo-worthy sights.
   3 - We've included random shots of art or other things that were eye-catching.

This is the "Nativity" facade of La Sagrada Familia. At present it is the most detailed of the facades.
When we did our tower visit we went up in an elevator on the right, crossed behind the ceramic "tree of life" in the center and walked down a spiral staircase on the left.

This model shows what is done (tan) and which parts of La Sagrada Familia are in progress (white).
This is a view of the "passion" facade.

The interior is done and it is beautiful. The pillars resemble branching trees which leaf out into palms at the top.
The decorations that resemble bottle tops were not explained.

The stained glass windows gradually shift from warmer to cooler colors.

Ceramic fruit decorations reflect the different seasons' produce.

View of La Sagrada Familia from Park Güell.
When it is complete the tallest spire will be twice as tall as these we can see.

Gaudí is famous for using catenary arches to create very strong buildings without interior load-bearing walls or chunky space-taking pillars. He calculated them by hanging chains from two points. This photo is a model of one of his buildings. The model is hanging and this view is from the mirror below.

Catenary arches in the attic of Casa Mila (aka La Pedrera).

Gaudí is also known for highly decorative chimneys and swooping roof tops.
The swoop is due to the different sizes of catenary arches inside the building.

Scale model of Casa Mila. La Pedrera is the nickname.
It mean's "the quarry" since people originally thought the house resembled a working quarry.

The background of the stage in the Palau de la Música is mostly mosaic but the women's torsos, heads, and musical instruments are 3D. Their clothing and the instruments reflect different cultures around the world.

There is meaning to pretty much every decorative aspect in the music hall. What I can remember right now is that the 200 ceramic roses on the ceiling relate to the legend of Saint George slaying the dragon.
Sant Jordi (as he is known here) is the patron saint of Barcelona.

Jeff was not a fan of this art but Serena was.

Close-up view.

Magic Fountains.
There was music playing to accompany the water and light show.

Torre Agbar is an office building named after the multinational corporation that owns it and has their headquarters here.
It really doesn't fit the skyline of Barcelona but you get used to it eventually.

Torre Agbar is even harder to miss at night.

Casa Batllo at night.

The Catalan National Art Museum is in this building which was built for the 1929 World Expo hosted in Barcelona.

Some of the curvy mosaic benches at Park Güell.
Gaudí designed them with lumbar support so they are actually comfortable.

Park Güell was supposed to be a planned residential community of 60 houses on the outskirts of Barcelona. Primarily only the public areas got built. One house was completed but no one wanted to buy it so the project stalled.

This is called the Dragon. Some people say it looks more like a salamander but Serena thinks it is an iguana.

This is the mosaic ceiling under the area surrounded by the curvy benches.
This was supposed to be the marketplace for the community.
The cream/tan bits are also mosaic. We've been told that Gaudí used recycled materials for all his mosaics.

Labyrinth in Horta Park.

The former bullring has become a shopping mall with a city view tower (that you have to pay to access).
We did not go to the mall; we just took pictures of it.

Palau Güell has a forest of decorative chimneys on their roof.
There are so many chimney's because each of these houses is usually made up of several apartments.

Birthday paella lunch view.
For a laugh watch this 9-minute BBC comedy bit about paella.

There were two people making paella. They generally had eight pans going at a time.

Lunch

Cava sangria. Happy Birthday!

Don't know how these decorations are applied - fresco? paint? something else entirely?
The entire building was covered with this motif.

We have no idea what this was about but it's cool.

We don't know how a crystal skull helps sell footwear but someone thinks it does because they went to a lot of expense and effort for this display piece.

Casa Batllo facade.

Casa Batllo garden wall.
This is decorated the same as the facade but you can see it up close here.

Fireplaces often had seating in the alcove with the stove. In the case of this mushroom fireplace there is a two-seater bench on one side for a couple and a single seat on the other side for their chaperone.

Suite G in Casa Batllo. Can you imagine if this was your front door?

Light wells in these big buildings are also super common. Gaudí designed this one so each floor gets the same amount of light (larger windows at the bottom and smaller windows at the top). Also the tiles gradually shift from light blue at the bottom to very dark at the top so the amount of reflected light stays the same.

A stained glass ceiling at Casa Amatller.

Modernist lamps with details like this one were in many of the places we visited.
Serena was a bit fascinated by them - probably because they are made of metal.
She took lots of pictures of lamps.

Rioja Wines & Logrono

Wednesday, June 21st - Travel & Arrival

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary so it was especially wonderful to spend the first half of the day packing and riding in the car from San Sebastián to Logroño. Sarcasm aside it was a lovely day. Before arriving in Logroño we stopped for a light lunch and celebratory champagne at the Frank Gehry-designed Hotel Marques de Riscal. 

AirBNB check-in was easy and since we had no plans here in Logroño today we wandered around the city center. We planned to eat out but it was too early for restaurants to be open so we came back to the apartment to snack. That easily took us until the local dinner hour but the snacks were so substantial we weren’t hungry. So we simply went out to a bar in the plaza for drinks. We followed with gelato and got back to the apartment at nearly midnight. 

It was very warm today (in the 90s) and the apartment doesn’t have AC but we do have three fans. When we opened all our windows we got enough cross-breezes to make it barely tolerable. At least it was quiet.

Thursday, June 22nd

We had breakfast in the apt and were ready at 10am for our wine tour guide to pick us up. Mel (English) and his wife Inma (Spanish) run Rioja Wine Trips. Our first stop was simply a vineyard on the side of the road where we got a lesson about the wines of the Rioja region. It was all very interesting and he talked a lot and we’ve forgotten much of it. It was also super hot standing in a field in the sun (temperatures today reached 100 degrees fahrenheit). 

Our second stop was a winery and Mel led us down into the cellar where we got another lesson about primary and secondary fermentation as well as info about the affects of different types of oak. Thankfully it was cooler here. The really amazing part was seeing the winery’s vertical storage cellar. They had dozens of super dusty bottles (you shouldn’t shift your wine about) each stored according to year. A few years were empty and some had only a dozen-ish bottles but the oldest was from 1969! We’ve certainly heard of these types of rooms but never been in one. No one from the winery was with us during any portion of our visit. Mel knew his way around and we followed. Finally going on noon we were upstairs on a terrace overlooking the landscape with some wine. The winery also provided some warmed chorizo slices, some dried ham slices, and bread.

Our third stop was a more familiar tasting experience. It looked like a tasting room and glasses were poured and wines explained. It was quite tasty and we bought two bottles to bring home and lay down.

The third stop was lunch and barrel tasting. This was another unique experience for us. Mel had a very large old-fashioned key that unlocked a wooden door in the side of a hill-top that had a tower ruin above. Inside we were allowed to taste from the barrel of “experimental” wine from the Olmeza family winery. This is their cave and Mel & Inma’s company is the only touring company that has access. It was a very small cave but it went downhill a bit and the dirt overhead went uphill so it was very well insulated and cool. There was a picnic table in the entry way (as well as a sink, dishes, countertop and cabinets). Mel set up a lovely lunch for us and we could refill our glasses as desired from the barrel. 

Back outside it was still warm but getting a little overcast and therefore slightly cooler. We could see darker clouds developing. We have one more stop and it would ordinarily be part of their “unusual suspects” tour which is more costly. But early on Mel deduced we might enjoy this more than what he had originally planned and asked if we wanted to substitute (no extra charge). We said yes.

For this final tasting experience, Mel again had a key to the door and total access without any of the winery staff being present. He is a talker and we are now technically at the end of our tour (6pm) but we haven’t even started tasting here and he’s still talking about the press clippings this winery is getting. He decanted some of their 20 euro wine (their most expensive and the one getting all the press) and then gave us glasses and took us down into the cellar/cave. This place is much more cave-like. It’s narrow, wet, moldy and cool. People have to work down here and at one point in time military personnel lived down here. We got to taste from a barrel that is an unusual  mix of the four most common wines in this area: roughly equal parts Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha & … ? (Tempranillo is indigenous to this area and the most common). It was tasty wine. Back upstairs we tasted a couple others and ended up buying two bottles. Now we were done and Mel drove us back to Logroño. Along the way we heard thunder and got rained on. We got back about 8pm which is two hours later than expected but we didn’t mind a bit.

We had dinner out and then came back to the apartment to pack. Plus we’re tired because it was a long day. Tomorrow we start our final week of this trip. Larry and Robin will drive us to the train station and we’ll be on our way to Barcelona. They will drive themselves to Madrid.

The back of the Hotel Marques de Riscal.
The actual rooms people stay in are in another building.

The front of the hotel.

We saw a lot of storks/stork nests in Logroño.

Recent vintages in storage.

Fewer bottles remaining from 1969.

View from the terrace where we were tasting at our first stop.

Our lunch time wine cave.
The entry room with the picnic table had a nice view through the door.

It was self-serve in the cave.

Outside view of the cave; ours was the one with the open door.

Gontes was our final stop. The "famous" wine is the one that's mostly black.

Look at these happy people in a damp moldy cellar.

Very briefly in Logroño we were on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage walk.

Drinks in the plaza in Logroño and yes that is the fire truck in the background.