Gràcia, El Born and Art Nouveau Nirvana

When we travel, we make a genuine effort to get off the beaten tourist track so we can really take a peek at how and where the real people live. Along with a trip up to Park Güell, we had a decadent Lebanese mezze platter for two in Gràcia, a village that became part of Barcelona in 1897. It is a lovely Middle Eastern district.

A tour of the Palau de la Musica Catalana was also something I highly recommend (in a city with many choices). Take the guided tour, wandering through isn't an option. I fell in love Palau images in an art nouveau book, but seeing it in person takes the breath away. This 2,000-seat theater attracts the likes of Norah Jones and Cecilia Bartoli. It is one of the more superb modernism/Art Nouveau spectacles Barcelona has. It was built to house the Orfeo de Catalunya (Catalan Choir) and is a symbol of the rebirth of Catalonian culture that happened around the turn of the century. The resurgence of Catalonia’s native music in the 1960s post Franco was strongly tied to the labor movement.

Afterward, we walked around El Born and neighboring areas. El Born was once a less desirable district (enclosed within the Old Town) but its cobblestone alleys, huge wooden warehouse doors and darkened windows make you feel like you’re in Medieval times. Graffiti and house/techno blasting through windows brings you back to our century pretty quickly; El Born is now a hip and arty place be.

We also visited the Museu de la Xocolata where we found a strangely marketed Belgian chocolates localized to Spain: cat tongues or Langues de Chat. Barcelona’s Arc del Triomf shown here all in chocolate. The liquid treats we had at the museum were on par with our local delights. I’m a chocolate supremacist so it’s hard to impress me. Here’s the real arc.

We ended the day with dinner at l’Orangerie in the Hotel Florida which sits on the mountain most of the way up to Tibidabo. It was a lovely dinner there that prompted David to ask me under what circumstances do I actually like and eat olives (I have an on and off again relationship with them- the salt bugs me). It was this restaurant that gave me the critical insight: when I see menus with burgers on them priced at 21 €- that’s when I eat olives.

I must also note that all over Europe, I have continued to hear various selections from Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles album. Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, France, even way out in Plitvice Lakes- the restaurant and elevator muzak is selections from this album. I have no idea why- maybe it's been re-released? Its songs are part of the auditory background to my memories of this trip.

St. John vs. St. Graciela

About 2 hours before the scheduled commencement of our drive to southern France today, we discovered that the downtown Barcelona garage where we had the car was closed in celebration of St. John (Barcelona’s Solstice weekend started today). We were also scheduled to pick up Shira, the teacher of the workshop on our way out.

In talking with locals, David discovered neighbors that had the key to the car park, but to get anyone to believe he wasn’t a car thief and was merely trying to retrieve his rental car took the powers of Graciela, our bed and breakfast’s proprietress. On the 4th try of ringing doorbells in nearby apartments, she and David found someone who believed our story and came down to allow David to get the car out. That, combined with the delay on Shira’s flight left us arriving in France at Latitude just in time for dinner. Graciela called it bad luck of the new moon and St. John.

Rural southwest France has a magic to it. Even the light of the sun is different than anywhere else I’ve ever been. The sounds, colors, air, wind and the constant thrum of vibrant life is all around you. Driving in we saw magpies, birds of prey, giant moles, pheasants, horses, cows, pigs, and sheep being raised in open fields and farm areas.

It's sort of like a moist and more humid Tuscany. There is much more water, but still miles and miles of wheat, corn, vegetables, grasslands, deciduous trees, and ancient stone walls all around. Our journey in incorporated almost 35km (convert it yourself) of one lane winding country roads with few houses, many flowers and wide open fields. Google maps plotted our route (David thought this was funny, ridiculous and his theory is that it is not capable of creating routes without factoring in which are single-lane country roads) and we were amazed it got us here without one wrong turn.

Catalonia

Our first time in Spain. Nothing markedly different than Europe but Catalan has a Portguese and French quality to it that is more sensual than Spanish. David says, "crowded, a little overwhelming but otherwise a great city with delicious food." We spent the day tooling around the Eixample [Ehshampluh] where our bed and breakfast was located.

Visits to Gaudi's famous Casa Batlló and Casa Mila, the usual touristy stuff. In the guest book for Casa Batlló someone wrote in the book (about Gaudi himself), “The man was on drugs.” Some tourists are indeed quite starved for imagination.

This photo David took of me shows Sagrada Familia and what I call "the vibrator" behind me in the distance. The vibrator shaped structure is called the Torre Agbar and was inspired by the mountains of Montserrat. Besides my take on the structure, this wikipedia link talks about some of the other things people call it.
There isn’t much I have to say yet about Barcelona except that I didn’t expect to be quite so vast. It is cooler here but still warm and moist. We will be returning on June 30th for a longer stay.

Gotta love that dragonback!

Here's a view you don't often see from Casa Batlló (don't know what it was about this place but it really set off my fear of heights- so I just pointed the camera over the edge for this one. Eeek!