Pride

We seldom hear any sounds from the street except car horns, and luckily, not too many of those.  Saturday morning was an exception.  We heard drums, and sure enough, there was a little parade on the sidewalk.

https://youtu.be/UdfwmqaNIwc

 

It turned out to be a parade in support of Catalonian independence, a very controversial topic in Spain these days.  There were speakers and flyers and balloons in the little square by the market.  It was the start of a weekend all about various aspects of pride.

The other big event, and this is huge here, was the soccer match between Barca and Atletico Madrid.  The teams are bitter rivals, and stand one and two, neck and neck in La Liga, the Spanish futbol big league. The streets were full of people wearing Barca uniforms and insignia.

Here are Messi and Neymar arriving at the stadium.



It's hard to overstate the pride Barcelona has in it's team.  Camp Nou was full for this match, around 100,000 fans.

All the flags were flying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8669lBfOww

 

The last flag in the video is the flag of Catalonia.  Lots of flags fly at the stadium, but there's one you won's see there, though it's all over Barcelona:  the flag of independence for Catalonia.



Barcelona unites around their futbol team, but independence is a polarizing topic.

This morning we attended Mass at Santa Maria del Pi, and while walking around the old town, we came upon another parade.  This one was against independence for Catalonia.  It originated in government square.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2fmG_RLrbg

 

You may notice that the video starts with independence flags hanging in the square, and moves to the flag of Spain being waved by the demonstrators.

Barcelona won the big match, defeating Atletico Madrid, 2 - 1.  Of course, Madrid is the capital of Spain, and there's a long history of conflict between the two cities, and not just on the soccer field.

No one knows how the latest conflict, the one for independence, will play out.

 

All of our visitors have returned to the states, and we're on our own here in Spain again.  It was amazing to have you all here, Rudy, Rebecca, Rita, Frank, and Questella.  Thanks to all for the visit.

 

 

Vintage Rally Cars

The square in front of the cathedral of Barcelona was full of vintage rally cars last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PjLHJ9HlQw

 

It was quite a contrast, the kind you see quite often in Barcelona.



The cars and the cathedral.

 



The cars and the roman walls.

 

For those unfamiliar with rally racing, here's a clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q6QEMkcwL8

 

Rain, snow, fog, gravel, mud, darkness, nothing stops these guys.  I love this crazy racing, and wish I could have seen these classic cars in action.

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I guess this was my fave.

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It's hard to imagine this vehicle on a rally course.

I wonder if there's any chance we can catch a race while we're here?

Park Guell

Today started off with good timing.  We went grocery shopping and then to the bakery where the two baguettes I ordered came to my hands still warm from the oven.  We immediately shifted our meal plans to feature very fresh bread with tasty swiss cheese and a few fresh grapes from the market.



We have these simple meals here often.  Everything is cheap, delicious, and needs little preparation.  I guess we could do the same at home, but here the raw materials are so close and of such high quality, that it only seems natural to enjoy them in a simple way.

Plus, we have more time for sight-seeing.

 

We visited Park Guell on Tuesday.



It was designed by Gaudi for his wealthy patron, Eusebi Guell, and originally conceived as a housing development for the rich.  The site is on a hill, now part of the city, but then, somewhat remote, with no access via the mass transit of the day.  Only three houses were ever built there. One was for Guell, and is now a school.  Another, at the very top of the hill, is still owned and used by the original family that bought the plot.  The third was a demo home where Gaudi himself lived for a time.  It's now a museum.

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There were three problems that caused the original project to fail:

1. The site was not easy to reach.


2. It was expensive.  In addition to buying a plot, you had to hire your own architect and build your own house.


3. There were building restrictions that limited and controlled what could be built.  This made it difficult to show off one's wealth adequately.

Later, the entire project became what is now called Park Guell.

In the design, Gaudi faced many challenges, but one was particularly difficult.  He envisioned many lush gardens throughout the development, though the area is quite dry.  Some sort of irrigation was needed.  His solution is still working today.



These steps lead to a common area, which was to contain a market.

On the way up the steps is this iconic lizard which has become a symbol of Gaudi and Barcelona.



All the structures in the park are intended to respect and mimic nature.  Here, the wall is made to blend into the ground above.



The wall uses broken tiles, a technique Gaudi used often.

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Here you can see the spine-like tops of the walls.

 



 

And more playful creatures.



 

Inside the common area at the top of the steps are massive columns and tiled ceilings.



 

Embedded in the ceiling are various artworks inspired by the phases of the moon.  If you look closely you may see that these are made of broken bottles and plates, basically recycled trash.

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What the massive columns hold up is a large, open, park-like common area on top, surrounded by a flowing row of benches, designed to be comfortable and promote conversation.



 

The benches have more broken ceramic artwork, but the designs are more free-form than the squares on the walls below.  I particularly loved some of this work.

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From the benches, there's a great view of the city below.



 

So, now you've seen Gaudi's solution to the irrigation problem.  Rain falls on the gravel of the open space on top.  What little falls on the benches is drained off through gargoyles.  The rest flows though the gravel and sand to the columns, which contain pipes that carry the filtered water to a massive cistern under the entire structure.

There's plenty more to see at the park.  In particular, this wave inspired passage.



 

The acrobatic tourist above contrasts with the washer woman to whom this passage is dedicated.



 

I'll close this entry with a few more pics of Park Guell.

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The weather continues to be unusually warm.

We are sooooo lucky.

 

Bilbao 1 - 3 Barcelona

I met up with my friend Juan Miguel yesterday.  We've been practicing English and Spanish together for several months on skype.  For anyone learning another language, I highly recommend italki.com to find teachers and practice partners.  It's where I met both Noelia and Juan Miguel.  Anyway, we met up for beer and then the game at Camp Nou, Barcelona's home stadium.  



(In case Juan Miguel's wife is reading, I can verify that we each had only one beer.)

I managed to buy five seats together, and our location was good, especially since all the goals were on our side of the field.



 

So, it was Mary, Rebecca, Frank, Juan Miguel, me, and a stadium full of rabid Barca fans.

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Seats at the stadium are cozy.  Imagine watching a game with 65,000 chanting, singing fans on coach seats in an airplane, and you'll get the general idea.  There is no instant replay scoreboard, which is maybe a good thing, given that the refs failed to call what seemed to be several hard fouls against Barca attackers.

Bilbao played well, and led by one at the half.  Barcelona seemed flat, and had problems clearing the ball from their defensive end.  It was a different game the rest of the way.  Barca's short passes started to work, leading to more and more scoring chances, until they finally broke through, ending with three unanswered goals. 

It was not the best night for Messi, but I saw him with my own eyes do Jedi-mind tricks with the ball, leaving  fans, defenders, and Messi himself, I think, wondering, how did he do that?  Though it's from a different game, here's an example of what I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmAmK6HlYAY

 

I'm so pleased to meet Juan Miguel face-to-face, and to check an item off my list, attending a game of world class fútbol.

Cook and Taste

Last night we had the best meal since we arrived, and, even better, we prepared it from start to finish.  We did have help though, from chef Maria at a place called Cook and Taste.



There were seven of us, and we all prepared and cooked a menu including:

• romesco sauce


• spinach Catalan style with flatbread and confit cod


• chicken paella


• Catalan custard


• tomato bread


• tastings of Serrano and Iberian ham

 

The spinach girls.



 

Queens of custard.





 

Maria wisely kept complete control of the torch as she caramelized the top of the custard.



 

We all worked hard, and with Maria's expert (and very personable) supervision, dinner was truly delicious!



 

 

Thanks to our daughter, Rebecca, for organizing this outing.



I think we'll all remember this evening as one of the best parts of our stay in Barcelona.

Plaza de España

Last night we went to Plaza de España.



 

We planned to see the magic fountains, but turns they are closed until February.   This is where they would have been.



So, we made the best of things with a delicious dinner at a restaurant just off the plaza.

When bullfighting is banned in your province, what do you do with your bullring?



Re-imagine and remodel it as a shopping center, of course.

Below is BU at night,



while running across the street because the light was changing.

We wound up at a college bar where I would have felt right at home about 45 years ago.



And after a few restarts, we made our way back to home sweet home at our apartamento.

 

I slept late this morning...

Mass

I haven't committed to this yet, but we're thinking of attending Sunday mass each week at one of the many churches here in Barcelona.  We started with Sagrada Familia this morning, and I was quite surprised.

Anyone can attend Sunday mass, just like at any other Catholic church anywhere.  Mass is celebrated in the crypt, below the main floor, mostly out of sight of the amazing architecture.  Here are the pillars that support everything else, and here the mass is simple, about 150 people, no pageantry, only a single priest in vestments and one gentleman to serve at the altar.  He carried a box of wooden matches to the altar to light the candles, as the organist experimented to find the right stops for such a small space.  The pews were slightly better than folding chairs, with no padding, and not even fastened to the floor.  The entire mass, though perfectly recognizable in all its parts, had less ceremony than most masses at Our Lady of Good Counsel back in Endicott.

At Sagrada Familia, in some ways, the simple place where mass is celebrated felt more holy, or maybe holy in a different way, than the majestic cathedral above.  All in all, I found the entire experience refreshing.  This mass was about the mass, and that's all.

Out of respect, I took no pictures in the crypt.  Instead, here's the little school that Gaudi built for those working on the church.



 

It's very close.



 

Here is a detail of the perspective illusion over the windows.  It's quite convincing to my eye.



 

Finally, I promise, no more on Sagrada Familia.

On Wednesday we're going to see an FC Barcelona game at Camp Nou, which is only a few blocks away.  Maybe we'll take the stadium tour later today.

 

Sagrada Familia

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We had already visited the exterior of the church.  Yesterday, we looked closer.  The entire building is dedicated to Christian symbolism and nature.  

Here is an angelic musician.



 

These leafy panels are on the nativity side of the church.



Beyond this panel, inside the church, is the cloister.  From the little opening on the lower right of the panel, if you're not too tall, you can look inside.



 

Within the panel, you can find wonderful details.

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And then, we entered the church.  It's a terrible cliche, but words fail completely.

https://youtu.be/mIbksadxM0c

 





This is such an extreme expression of faith.  I was moved, but it also makes me wonder.  Is it only about faith, or is there a tiny bit of doubt at its center?  I think of the grain of sand that becomes a pearl.

I ascended (via elevator) one of the bell towers.



 

The descent was on foot.



 

It's easy to miss details in these surroundings, but I did find some.

At the foot of the table of the last supper, this sinister dog makes me think evil is never far away, even at the holiest moments.



 

In the cloister are two other representations of evil and temptation.



I found this fish with man's head particularly disturbing.

 



This representation of a man in the coils of evil is particularly Spanish.  The round object he is receiving looks exactly like the bombs used by the anarchists in the Spanish civil war.

This last picture is not about windows, or columns, or statues.  It's about the light in the church.



 

 

 

 

Santa Maria del Pi and Picasso

We started the day by revisiting Santa Maria de Pi, the pine tree church, to see the inside.





 

At this church, instead of the inferno, we have purgatory.



 

And triumph.



 

We enjoyed a bright, beautiful day, even if it was a bit chilly out of the sun.



 

We walked up Las Ramblas to the Placa Catalunya.



 

Strolling on Passeig de Gràcia is always pleasant.  It's the high rent area of Barcelona, where you find expensive shopping and amazing architecture.



 

These are both reasonable reactions to finding a McDonald's in the middle of the poshest street in Barcelona.

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Even the street lights are classy.



 

In the afternoon, we visited the Picasso museum in El Born.  It has many of his earliest works.  You know, the stuff with faces that look like faces.  Of course, you can't take pictures there, so I'm going to just grab two of my faves with google.



This is called Waiting.  Her eyes would not let me go.

 

I love artist self portraits.



This was done in 1896 when the artist was only 15 years old.

We ended a very pleasant day with tapas at a nice restaurant in El Born, near the museum.

I may just forget about coming back to the states.