Chapter 12: Final Days in Europe

1/2/2014: We spent the day walking around Gaudi's buildings: the Music Theatre, the Block of Discordia all were cool looking buildings but I'll be frank: we've just about spent all the money we can on Museums this trip: and Barcelona is the most expensive of all! Just to go in the Music Museum and stay for 1 hour wold have cost us 50€, (which is about $70). So, since it was so warm, and since there were so many street side wonders to take in, we acted like we belonged on the streets of Barcelona (which we did).

That night, we went looking for another building we hadn't been near, but knew was there: the Agbar. It was designed by Jean Nouvel, who wanted to pay homage to the Sagrada Familia, and the mountains of Montserrat. HOWEVER, ther have been a lot of people who may not know that little bit of info, and they say things like, "It sure looks phallic  to me!" And they're right but the COOL thing about this building is that it is completely lit up at night: every square foot of this 37 story building! We took pix away from it so we could get the whole thing in, and we took pix standing not 10 feet away.

We then found Glories, The Modern Part of Town and found the kids skating in a peewee ice rink (in 60 degree weather, no less) with McDonalds and Starbucks, and Burger King: we got right back on the subway and headed out to Pura Brasa, again, to have some ribs and a couple of beers. As we were walking in, this couple was walking out. They looked at us and both said at once, "Do you remember us?" They were a Japanese couple we had met at a place we ate dinner in Madrid, right after the Reina Sophia. How'd they remember us, a week later, coming out of a restaurant? But it's good that we remembered them also. Andy and I often said afterwards, "I wonder where our friends are today?"

1/3/2014: The Final Day

We woke up to a rather cloudy morning, with the thought that we take the funicular up to Mont Juic and walk around a little. Met a cool couple from, well, they were from all over, but the guy had lived in Greensboro. Two cute little kids, and some time away from Siberia (or at least somewhere that sounded like to other end of the cold, cold earth!) Up there, in Mont Juic, it seemed like we were mountains away, too. We ended up walking around the 1992 Summer Olympic Stadium and observing the now empty playing fields and venues. The cell tower that is often tied with the 1992 Olympics is still there, but rusted. Our Dream Team was in Barcelona, almost a lifetime ago for Grace and Alice.

And then we found an escalator and rode down to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya level,  which is two levels above the place where we watched the Magic Fountain the other night.The sun came out as we were here, and we saw a birds eye view of the whole of the city, with the Sagrada Familia rising out of the houses and apartments, the Agbar rising just as much and the ships sailing around the harbor. So absolutely spectacular!

As we were getting ready to leave the art museum venue, a we started noticing that young people were dancing around a float, and it was playing music: they looked like they were practicing for a parade, or some such thing. They were! January 6, just three days from today, is Three Kings Day for Spain: the time when all little kids need to be good, or else the Three Kings won't come to their house! (and leave what? frankincense and myrrh?) it was then time to sit and watch and be still and realize that this whole trip was coming to an end: although we don't want it to...we are kind of excited to get back home. Andy used his "nose for a restaurant" and found our last one. It was evidently a working man's place, but everybody seemed to know about it. And don't even think about speaking anything but Spanish.

After a little exploring during one evening near our block (but which turned into 3 Metro stops away) we had one last drink on the boulevard. This would definitely be our last one for a while. It would be back to Kitty Hawk tomorrow.

 The Music Theatre

 A stop  at Obama's coffee shop

 The Block of Discord

 Strange door knockers!

 The Agbar Tower

 The site of the 1992 Olympics

 La Sagrada Familia

 The Magic Fountain, in Mont Juic

Getting ready for the parade

We're getting ready to go back home.

Chapter 11: So This is 2014!

Picasso on New Year's Eve

December 31, 2013

This morning, we were off to Picasso Museo: he had lived in Barcelona too!  We found ourselves in line at a narrow cobblestoned lane, on a sunny and sixty-degree-in-the-sun, (but we were in the shade) morning. No one was speaking English: pretty much par-for-the-course. The girl in front of us was able to speak a few words, and I'll have to give her that she knew a lot more English than I did Japanese. But we sat there in line (Andy was off taking pictures) and we both played around about "being so smart"  and "coming so early" because as we stood there, a line began to form, many times longer than what had been there to begin with! Forty-five minutes later, when we got in, we had had a nice conversation about how the girl learned English (yeah-she really was able to talk at length about it) and we filed in, to learn about Picasso. Spent a good three hours in there, learning about him as a 13-year-old protege, his early years, and then his later years (after he had become a genius in the painting world). There was a special event, by a photographer, David Douglas Duncan, who had lived with Picasso and his new wife, while he was in his 70's. That gave us an idea of what the man was like in his daily life - interesting, as well.

That afternoon, we went down to the waterfront wandered around a bit. We did some map searching, and found the Barceloneta, the place our friend (wo had been in Nags Head) had told us of. It was a long walk, but it was warm enough to take our coats off and wander a bit. We were near the Mediterranean  Sea, but it looked just like Southern Shores to me. Long walk through the harbour, but a good start to the New Year, on New Years' Eve.

We went to see the Majic  Fountain, or Mont Juic. It was New Year's Eve, after all! We walked down to the Playa Espanya, turned left and went up the (giant) walk to the edge of the fountain, which was not working. It was dark, and it was supposed to be! We noticed policemen (and I haven't even begun to tell you the beauty of the Spanish Policia! Just ask Grace!) TV crews, many people with lots of children...we realized that nothing was going to happn until midnight: and if you know us, you'll know we went home and got into the Champagne that Javier gave us, and stayed up till 12:00 - and watched the breathtaking fireworks happening at Mont Juic from our front veranda!

Wednesday, New Year's Day

It's another year: 2014! With another early morning wake up call - this time to Gaudi's La Predera - we met some other folk out on the travelers trail. A very interesting person we met was Cristine, an Italian woman that was now living in Belgium working for the European Union. She spoke 4 languages, and kept all the line-people translated and informed. We WERE the second and third in this line, which consisted of two older men from Canada, a family from Connecticut, and ladies from Italy! But we all shared stories about where we had been and what we had done, and then Poof! - the Museo opened and we all went merrily along on our separate ways. (But were able to make contact with Cristina and get her address, if we ever go to Belgium.)

La Pedrera was an interesting house, made in the styleo of Gaudi, and after an extensive tour of the rooftop, we had a long session in the attic where we learned about how Gaudi brought these spectacular pieces of architecture together. But back to the roof: another place where those with fear of heights need not be observers! I'd say that 7 stories above the ground, you begin to notice that this house doesn't have an average, chimney strewn roofline. The chimneys look like little men from space, all a bit different, but definitely not of our lineage...then, the rooftop itself goes to and fro, up and down. And of course, since this is tourist season, there were so any people up on that roof that it was difficult to get a shot off without someone posing or cheesing it up! The attic was made up of a lot of arches made out of brick: Andy explained it to me, but it wasn't clear to me how they stood on their own. The most incredible thing was that Gaudi made these hanging chains and then put them in a mirror to see how they take the load: these things were called "cantenary arches", and were the model for Sagrada Familia and a few others in his bunches of houses in Barca. The rest of the house was spectacular in their use of ergonomically made handles and cool door/window framing. Wanted to buy everything in the gift shop.

There was not sign of it really being a national holiday, except that just about all museums were closed. We had no problem finding a place to eat. Of course, without our interpreter, Grace, we had some difficulty with the menu: because were always trying holes-in-the-walls, where the waitstaff doesn't usually speak English, and the menus are mostly in Spanish, only. Doesn't matter however: buen comida.

So back to Mont Juic it was, to see the Magic Fountain. This was placed in Barca way back in '29 for (I think it was) The International Exposition. It was supposed to jazz up the look of their park, right in front of what is now the Art Museum. When they kicked those lights, fountains and music on, my goodness, what a show all these children and adults were given! Every type of fountain, in all colors of the rainbow against every type of music (opera, pop, jazz, blues, kids songs and of course, Christmas Carols) were combined to make an absolute spectacle for two straight hours! One of the things on the "Top Ten" of the things to do in Barca, for sure. Our suggestion is to be on the same level as the 4 Big Columns, and get there about 20 minutes previous to the show's beginning.

Another sleep tonight,without a particular time to arise tomorrow.

 The birds were around, just like cardinals!

  Christopher Columbus.

 In front of The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.

 New Year's Eve

 La Pedrera's roof

 La Pedrera's attic

 This is it: La Pedrera

 Unusual! Also unusual that the little girl wasn't screaming!

 Magic Fountain: One of many colors and spray patterns

Chapter 10: Bueno Barcelona

Sunday

We left Madrid on a sunny Sunday, and throughout that trip, we were very glad to have gotten the first class seats on the trains: lots of room, great views and a 3+ hour trip that seemed like a lot less. And it was a high speed train, so again, it was one in which we had to "look NOW" , or we wouldn't have seen 1) washing day 2) a house garden 3) a herd of goats. We were just flying along, and I swear, we went through Nebraska (rolling hills with farms and ranchlands), Nevada (arid, dry areas), California (hilly, cavernous areas) and finally, Northern Florida. Yes: this was all on the way to Barca.

We zipped into a taxi (they were yellow and black, as opposed to Madrid's white and red), and he declared we were there, at 439 Gran Via. Javier was there waiting for us and ushered us into a beautiful, modern (looked very manly) apartment on the 3rd floor of his 7story building (his mother lived on that floor.) The building had been in their family for many years, and the two apts that he showed us had been refurbished in the past few years. Excellent for Andy and me!

We did the things that we had done in Paris, Donostia, and Madrid: went out and bought some things for breakfast (and wine/beer time). We're getting so good at this. We also bought two five-day Metro tickets and were thrilled to see that the Rocafort stop was down at the corner, with an elevator (in case my legs got sore.) We then went in search of a corner place to have a little Sunday night dinner: Pura Brasa, which was like a sports bar with a huge TV in it: if Andy couldn't get basketball, maybe he'd be a little happy with futbol. (Not really). We DID meet a man sitting next to us who had lived in Washington DC, and had even taken his kids to Nags Head, many moons ago. He asked why we were here, and when we told him we had never been here before, he launched into a tale of the city. As part, he told us about a locals favorite, a restaurant called Barceloneta, down on the waterfront. We said we may enjoy that around New Years Day, and he said he may take his grand kids to Nags Head, since he had met us and we had renewed his interest.

Monday: Gaudi is Close to God

I'm just saying that when Gaudi builds a Cathedral, he goes ALL the way, not just half: we saw this in the first big building that we looked for in Barcelona. Let's take a step back, here, and tell you that EVERY time we went looking for a particular place, all we had to do is come out of the dark subway stop, look into the light, and voila! "The Place" was there! And so it was with la Sagrada Familia, exclusively pointed out at our Metro, and all we had to do was wait in line for about 50 minutes. It was beyond belief: not only the stunning stained glass windows - in all colors, like a rainbow, and changing every hour - but the architecture itself was incredible. As well, the thought that Gaudi (and the others Post-Gaudi) put into every door, window, altar, choir loft, arch, crypt and stairway (circular!) was a thought process that would have taken yours truly much more time and energy than this man obviously did in a very short amount of time. Andy was taking photo after photo (and wishing his cousin Ray was here with him, to advise him on the photographic process). When we left, we hated to go out the gate of the cathedral.

What I mean by the title of this missive is that Gaudi wants to put his faith very close to the eyes and arms of God in an extremely important cathedral, who's breadth and width and height wouldn't be finished in his lifetime, or even his children's, or his children's children. How do you do that: make a building who's construction outlives your lifetime? I guess all of the builders and architects of all these cathedrals we have found ourselves guests of were in the same boat, and if they weren't doing it for God, then what were they doing it for?

All deep-thinking aside, we found a 3pm place for lunch, and the took a siesta, and went out looking for another cathedral! We found one (it is t hard to do, here in Europe)  and we were looking through The Cathedral de Barcelona, or the Barcelona Cathedral, built in the 13th through the 15th century. Very old, not very restored, but real cool choir area: again, these workmen and woodwrights  were very good about making every seat different for thee people who sang the congregation into heaven (or as near as they could get.) We saw some ET men (that's what we began calling the Eiffel Tower men) in the square, shooting helicopters into the air that would rain down with blue and red lights ("2 Euros each".) After a brief stop at a place with a neat name - Petit Jet Lag - we were on the run, again. We wanted to see the Arch de Triumphe one more time. Not in France, not in Madrid, but in Barca. And it was right where the Metro said it was ("whoa! That's it! The Arch!") but there were only some young kids, doing tricks on bikes and skateboards around....not much excitement. So back we went to our apartment. Time for sleep.

 Atoche: Train station in Madrid

 La Sagrada Familia: passion facade

 ...and it's still under construction.

 Altar

 Absolutely incredible nature-inspired works

 See the altar? See the hole in the ceiling?

See me standing in front of the circular staircase?

 Barcelona Men

Our place on Gran Via

The Barcelona Cathedral

The Arc De Triomf! Again!

Chapter 9: Christmas Day is Here!

December 25-29: Really - more photos than words for Madrid

At last! We really were celebrating Christmas in Spain! Seems like we've been planning this for a long time, and it's finally here. We did have a big stocking waiting for us in Nuria's apartment, but it had nothing but an ancient bag of chocolate candies in it...I think they must have been leftover from 1998. But Grace got a few things from her sister and her cousins: and we also heard from her sister and her grandparents today, too! And Grace was also giving us a present tonight: she had us a  table booked for "Las Tablas" and Flamenco Dancers! Can't wait. Can't believe she's taken care of us again!

We strolled around the Plaza Mayor today: it was a lot more "human" than when we had found our way to it the other night! The street people were made up of men and woman in costume: one made was dressed up in copper colored attire and face paint, and was posed as if he was performing a motorbike trick; another was a woman who was standing in mid-air (Grace said she had a seat from the cane in her hand- David had found it online). Anyway, it was much less crowded than it had been the night we had bee there before. We also went to Retiro Park, which is gigantic! Reminded me a bit of Central Park in Nuevo York. As we were walking, we heard the sound of an accordion playing Jingle Bells: a song that will always remind me of Christmas Day 2013. Of course, as we got a little closer to this street player, his song turned into  "oh When the Saints Come Marching In." I'm not certain how this concerns Christmas!

Grace showed us where the Prado was, and a couple of other places, and she had booked us again at a place called The Bull (or El Toro). And then, we fought out way in, and actually had a chocolate churro from the place that all buen touristas have while in Madrid, the sweet shop. Then, it turned into night, and we had atable waiting for us at "Las Tablas", a fine, small venue: we got to watch ACTUAL FLAMENCO DANCERS do their thing for two hours! They were absolutely fabulous, as were the musicians that accompanied them. Muy bien, Grace!

And I can't keep up! I'll have to do brief notes through Madrid, and try to stay current in Barcelona.

Chapter 10: A Brief View of Madrid

Went to the Temple de Debod: an Egyptian "gift" to the country of Spain and very cool hieroglyphics.

Went through a home with all kinds of art and spectacular items. The Museum Cerralbo (Spanish: Museo Cerralbo) is a museum that houses the collection of Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, Marquis of Cerralbo.

Went to the Palacio Real de Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family at the city of Madrid, but is only used for state ceremonies. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:  "The palace has 1,450,000 sq ft of floorspace and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the largest palace in Europe by floor area. The interior of the palace is notable for its wealth of art and the use of many types of fine materials in the construction and the decoration of its rooms. These include paintings by artists such as Caravaggio, Velázquez and Francisco de Goya and frescoes by Corrado Giaquinto, Juan de Flandes, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Anton Raphael Mengs. Other collections of great historical and artistic importance preserved in the building include the Royal Armoury of Madrid, Porcelain, Watches, Furniture, Silverware and the world's only complete Stradivarius string quintet." You can see its mighty fine.

Ate at the Cafe de Oriente: excellent cuisine.

Went to Maria/Javier's in Posuelo del Alcaron, and met her children and her parents.  (He had gone hunting.) Very interesting people, with interesting info on Spain, and of course, darling children. Eduardo (6) and Leonor (4) were sweet. Although I can see where Grace can get a little weary occasionally - they are always moving! Just like kids!

Friday

Toledo: very interesting cathedral but oh my goodness. Not the town for a person with horrible hips and knees! The one very cool thing that both Andy and I recalled for Grace, (who had also seen this) was the choir room : it was incredible to look at very closely: every seat the choir room was completely different!  Also saw El Greco's home in his museum. Got home, and said good-bye to Grace for the night: she was going to pick up David at the airport Saturday morning.

Saturday

Walked up San Bernardino, just to check out "our neighborhood" - one thing for sure: Madrileños have no lack of places to shop for for footwear.

Went out to lunch with David and Grace at a charming place "in our neighborhood, that she and David had already been to. We had an excellent lunch, with Mimosas, and quickly said "good-bye" to Grace, because we wouldn't be seeing her for quite a few months!

We then trekked to the Reina Sophia Museo, with more modern art (and the painting by Picasso "Guernica"). This place is in an old hospital and was a very interesting and fairly "modern art" style Museo. Also has a terrace that was 4 floors up, with pure glass as the gates. (Our friend, Chris, would not like to be on the 4th floor!)

We ARE still walking through the old, old places that have been kept up so nicely, with our jaws dropping, although we have learned to walk around without the gaping. Here's some things about Madrid:

--their Metros are very clean

--there still are alot of graffiti artists on the prowl for clean benches and walls

--they are very pleasant people

--they know some English, but not much (especially wait-staff in restaurants)

--they are a very proud people, who have told us much about their recent history (I'm really not sure that I ever knew that the reason they weren't in WWII is because they were getting over their own Civil war, in the late '30s.) oh my gosh: so much more.

And now, we're off to Barcelona....

Here's Toledo:

Ham shop!

 Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo (Spanish: Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo)

 Grace and Sue with Miguel de Cervantes

 Lovely daughter...

 At El Greco's home: here is Christ