We flagged a taxi and as we were driving through the city our first interesting sight was that of a friar, in brown, hooded robe with white robe belt, walking across the street carrying a large, wrapped painting. It pays to keep your eyes open.
Our first destination was La Sagrada Familia, which is the cathedral that Gaudi spent 43 years of his life working on and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005. Lines are always long (about 3 million visitors a year) so we were up and out by 8:30 -- only bit of cheese for breakfast. By the time we arrived 10 minutes later (the church opens at 9:00 AM) the line for tickets was halfway around the block already. But luckily, once it opened the line moved fast so we were in by 9:10. Quick travel advise tidbit: we didn’t have breakfast but we did nibble on a couple of little bon bel cheeses before we left the hotel. They are the perfect non-sugary snack to keep you going if you skip a meal when traveling.)
Anyway, the building work on the cathedral is still in progress to this day and it will probably take another 50-100 years to complete Gaudi’s whole design. I was in Barcelona about 10 years ago and visited here and at that time the roof wasn‘t yet completed. It was wonderful then but the contrast between then and now was startling. Today the main interior is mostly finished, many stained glass windows are done, and some of the interior lighting has been installed, and work on additional towers is in progress. It is stunning. The entire design is organic, like being in a forest of trees with dappled sunlight coming through the leaves. All in stone and cement, decorated with amazing (and how I hate the overuse of that word nowadays but in this case it is truly an accurate description) mosaic work everywhere, especially on the ceiling, accented with brilliant, modern and abstract stained-glass windows. Gaudi carefully thought about and designed the light, making sure there was enough to illuminate and elevate one’s spirit but not enough to blind you to the greater purpose of the Christian message.
My sister and I wandered through all the information stops with our audio guides, but mostly we just stood and gawked -- spending most of our time tilting our heads as far back as we could to drink in as much of the upper regions as possible. We were there for 2.5 hours before we reached sensory overload and just couldn’t take in one more exquisite detail.
So we started searching for a restaurant, somewhere a bit off the standard tourist snack area around the cathedral. By this point we were both pretty hungry so we were focused on our goal until we happened to pass an intriguing optical store. We just had to go look. Mindful that on our Venice trip a couple of years ago, we each bought a pair of au courant eyeglass frames to take home, we decided to do the same here in Barcelona. After trying on many pairs, we each settled on something that was different from our current glasses, different from anything we’ve seen in the USA, and fun and flattering. It’s a great kind of souvenir, one that reminds me of a trip everyday.
By that time we were each very hungry and couldn’t find a restaurant. After wandering a few blocks, we spied a Chinese restaurant and decided that although it wasn’t really a Barcelona experience, we were too hungry to care. It turned out that the food was good (although I must admit that a Chinese menu written in Spanish just seemed a bit strange), the waitress was markedly listless and seemed unable to manage more than 3 syllables (in Spanish) in any conversation and even that was mostly swallowed so that we couldn’t understand her very well, and the beverage choices included sangria. But we enjoyed the meal and were sufficiently full by the time we left.
We walked back to the cathedral then caught a cab to our next destination, Parc Gruell, which is an outdoor park designed by Gaudi and commissioned by Senor Gruell. It has something of a fairyland look and was crammed with visitors, with Gaudi-esque gingerbread houses at the entrance crowned with white mosaic roofs that look like cake icing and typical, whimsical mosaic chimneys. One of the most famous parts is a very long mosaic bench that is in an undulating snake shape and that circles an upper platform in the park that overlooks the city. Every few feet of the bench is a different mosaic design and it is fascinating.
Did I mention that the park is built on a hill so that everywhere you go involves major steps up (and then down)? By the time we left, we were both exhausted and our knees and hips were definitely begging us to just give them a rest for awhile. But once again, the place is so fascinating that we ended up spending a couple of hours.
By the time we caught a cab back to the hotel it was 4:00 pm and we were way too tired for hot chocolate (how sad is that?) so we limped to our hotel room and simply crashed for 3 hours. After we revived, it took a couple more hours of puttering and a bit of time to do hand laundry before we were ready to forage for dinner.
We walked out of the hotel into a drizzle -- not cold and not a heavy rain, but definitely wet enough to require an umbrella. It was Saturday night and the activity on Las Rambles was not dampened by the weather -- vendors were selling cheap souvenirs, gelato booths were doing a brisk business, and lots of people were strolling up and down. This is a major pickpocket area, which several people warned us about as did all the guidebooks, so we are always extra careful when walking around. Anyway, we decided to return to the restaurant from last night, MataMala. Yes, I know, it isn’t as adventurous as one might hope, but it was so good that we wanted more. It turned out that we ordered completely different dishes this time and even a different wine -- a red Catalan wine made with garnatxa grapes (nope, I haven’t heard of it either) and everything was, once again, wonderfully delicious. One cute thing was that my entrée was described on the menu as cannelloni with cheese au gratin. Nothing like a little au gratin on your cheese! On the other hand, I loved sitting at a table with a couple on the left speaking Catalan and a couple on the right speaking Castillian -- I felt very much the world traveller. It was 12:30 AM by the time we left.
We didn’t feel very tired so both of us read and I worked on my computer a bit. By 3:00 AM we decided we needed some bedtime chocolate (note the word “needed,” don’t you love it?) so we nibbled on one of the chocolate bars I bought at the chocolate museum. We finally got to bed by 3:30 AM, somewhat dreading our full schedule the next day, but heck, that part of the travel experience.
Total score so far: 2 hot chocolates, 3 liters of sangria (shared), 2 bottles of wine (shared). I think we’ll try to bring up the hot chocolate count tomorrow.
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