A quiet day “at home”

For some reason I had a grueling, sleepless night. I was still awake at 4am.  We also realized there was a time change one hour back as daylight savings ended here, even gaining an hour did not help!  Today we had planned a day trip to Montserrat but we decided not to go after all. It seems like a good day for a little R&R and John is enjoying a book he is reading on his tablet with the Kindle app.  It depends on our timing but we might go to Montserrat on Wednesday instead, or it will need to wait for our next visit to Barcelona!  The older we get the more challenging things can be of course. Actually we see few travelers in places much older than we are.  We could not really afford to travel much when we were younger, only to Brazil to "get our babies" and then taking camping trips, which were lots of fun in our pop-up trailer.  It is true “youth” is wasted on the young!  Travel all you can before creaky knees and achy backs are daily companions!  BUT, we love to travel anyway!

Today we finished the Barri Gòtic walk, which was  very nice and we even saw inside the Deacons quarters, which were closed yesterday.  We planned to go to the market and get more water and some milk but we never did.  We will manage with what we have and perhaps pick some up tomorrow on our way back from Figueres. 

Our friends Stuart and Darlene arrived in Barcelona this evening and we met them at their hotel along La Ramblas and went out for a bite to eat at La Porta Ferrissa. It was tasty and a good price.  I think it was E$9, for 3 tapas and a glass of cava (sparking wine.)  We met Stuart and Darlene, from Boise, ID, on our trip to Europe for our 25th Anniversary in 2009, they were on the Rick Steves portion of our trip there (which was fantastic).  Stuart is writing a blog as well so if you are interested you can read his blog for a different perspective of the same trip!  Anyway the restaurant closed while we were eating so we migrated back out to la Ramblas and had a giant glass of sangria and visited for awhile.  We walked partway back to their hotel with them and then veered off in the direction of our flat.  They have two days and their calendar is full.  Tomorrow we visit our cousins in Figueres so we hope to wake refreshed in the morning! 

The Barri Gótic

Today we decided it was a good day to “rest” and just see our own neighborhood, the Barri Gótic!  However, we needed to do some laundry first so we didn’t get an early start.  I have never used a European washing machine and even though Dany gave me some brief instructions I was not sure I was actually doing it just right. Thankfully the succession of little lights kept lighting up in order and when the “stop” light came on the clothing smelled clean and fresh!  It is hanging on a little rack to dry so we will repeat this process on Wednesday as well so we can start the cruise with all clean clothing. 

As we headed out today the streets were more crowded than ever. Clearly the weekends are the most crowded even in this off season.  Having a sunny, beautiful day surely brought out the people to enjoy the various plazas around the city.  We headed toward the Cathedral where the Sardana was lively and entertaining.  This time I was brave this time, knowing it was probably my last opportunity, and entered into the festivities.  I told a couple of the older women who looked nice that I was Catalan, that my Great Grandparents were Catalan.  One asked if I could speak the language but since I could not she lost interest in helping me learn the steps, that or it was my two left feet!  Anyway, I participated!  Of course what I did was not the Sardana but I had a good time and felt I gave an effort!

From there we went back to Bilbao Berria for our lunch.  Today they had some of the same things but also different things. They had a lot of grilled veggies on skewers and a delicious crab mixture on top of the sliced baguette as well.  We shared a cozy table outside with another couple and after they left three more joined our little table.  Since we were now revived from the dance we continued on with our plan to do the Barri Gótic walk from the Rick Steves book. 

A few of the places listed in the walk were closed.  However, we enjoyed the walk and the beautiful Barri Gótic area.  There are two stone walls near the Cathedral, these are old Roman walls, the big stones at the bottom are actually Roman stones.  These walls protected the smaller city of Barcino (which Barcelona was called at that time). The Palau de la Generalitat is worth a stop just because it is lovely, we didn’t take the tour but just looked around the entrance a bit.  This has been the home of the Catalan Government for more than 600 years.  

On to Plaça de Sant Jaume (jow-mah).  We were actually here the other night, but we were not exactly sure of the name of the plaza at that time.  We saw business men coming out then and assumed it was the place.  The plaza was once the Roman Forum and has been the seat of the city government for 2000 years. It is only open to the public today (Sunday) from 10:00 to 13:30, so we could not go in. Keep in mind the nations leaders AND soccer heroes greet the public from these balconies on significant days.  By now we are tired, still close to home, and we went back to relax for awhile and ended up not going out again today.  We are fine, just tired and it IS the day of rest!  For dinner we had some white wine and we cooked a premade pizza we bought at the market. John went down stairs to Buenas Migas and bought a green salad from Phillipe. Ensalada Verde while I cooked the pizza and set our table.  We don’t really have a dining area as such but a desk and coffee table, which works fine for us.  John pressed the wrong thing at some point on the remote and we no longer have a TV, just snow…but we never did find an English station anyway.  We rely on our friends to send any significant news by email and of course browse the Internet a bit. 

About the Barri Gótic, we think it is a good area to stay (like Rick Steves suggested) for a trip to Barcelona.  We are glad we are in this area as it is vibrant and interesting with so much to do and we feel very safe.  We love the Cathedral, the Catalan history, the various plazas, quaint shops, restaurants, etc.  We really enjoy hearing the Cathedral bells as well. Sometimes we don’t even hear it anymore and that is disappointing.  One quickly becomes part of the surroundings.  Oh yes, being four flights up is interesting!  I am glad Dany was here to help us UP with the luggage, it will be very interesting going down.  It is not just the stairs but it is winding and very narrow.  A suitcase will need to be either in front or behind us.  We will have to think about that before departure on Thursday.    

A couple of maps:

Here is a map showing our flat in Barcelona:

Here is a map showing our future travel on the cruise.  Swiped this from our friends who are going on the cruise as well. 

• White dot on left is Barcelona, our starting location; white dot on right is Dubai, our ending location
• Black dots are the Suez Canal, a 1AM - 6PM venture
• Red dots are stopping points along the way

1. Civitavecchia, Italy
2. Messina, Sicily
3. Aqaba, Jordan
4. Eilat, Israel (same red dot as Jordan, they're only 3 miles apart)
5. Muscat, Oman
6. Abu Dhabi, UAE

Gaudi and beyond

Wonder where we got out word gaudy?  Well even if someone wants to say it comes from Antonio Gaudi, that is not the case…but maybe it should be!  It was supposed to rain today but it was only cloudy so off we went.  We used up our second and last day on the HOHO tour bus to go on the blue line and see the Gaudi sites.  We first walked to the Renfe station to see how long we need to allow to walk to the train station, buy our ticket, and find our train on Tuesday when we go to Figueres to meet our cousins there for lunch and a visit to the Dali museum.  We must figure one hour to do that since the walk was a brisk 35 minutes.  After our walk we treated ourselves to a Café com leche and a bagettini at a small Catalan shop. 

As I said we got on the blue line near that location, on the block of discord, and headed to Sagrada Familia and planned to get off there and go inside for a visit. Our plans quickly changed for two reasons; 1) it took two stops to get a good seat on the upper level of the bus (photos are impossible from the lower level) and 2) when we saw lines around several corners to even enter this cathedral we were quite discouraged.  Instead we decided to ride the full blue route then see if the line was shorter upon our return.  If it was not we would skip that and enjoy Guell Park instead, which is exactly what we did.  While it would have been interesting and fun to see inside Sagrada Familia we did not want to devote the time to waiting to get in.  We took photos of the different facades but it is so large you cannot get it all in one photo. You see there is scaffolding all over as well. It is a work in progress of course.  I believe they said when it is done in 50 years it would have 16 towers. So we passed that up and went to Guell Park.  This place was to be an upper class residential community that Gauti planned.  It would be self contained with its own markets, etc. but the idea just didn’t fly so his venture failed.  It is now a park and a very nice one indeed.  I am not sure if it was so crowded because it was Saturday, but it was crowded and impossible to take photos, or good ones anyway, because of all the people.  However, once we were past the entrance it didn’t seem near as crowded and it was very enjoyable. The whole place to me is a cross between Lord of the Rings and Hansel and Gretel!  It is gaudy but cute, interesting and fun.  This photo of the entrance is not taken by me but from the internet. We spent several hours here walking all over the park and toured the only “house” in the park that was built as a model to sell homes there.  It is not furnished with original furnishings but it does have many items of furniture that Gaudi designed and architecture speculations for many aspects of the building and features he planned.  Back down the hill and back on the bus, past the famous FCB stadium here and noted the hordes of people happily on their way to the match tonight. This stadium is the largest in Europe holding close to 100K people.  If Steven was with us we would be seeing a Football (soccer) match in the fabulous stadium! We disembarked at Placa de Catalunya and when walking back to our flat we we happy to see that we did not miss the Sardana dancing by the Barcelona Cathedral.  For me this was really the highlight of my day.  Sardana is the patriotic dance of the Catalan people, of which I am remotely one via my great grandparents (French Catalan).  I SO wanted to attempt dancing but I did not think I could do it and not ruin it for someone else.  I would have joined a group that looked like they were beginners but all of the dancers looked very good!  Well, perhaps tomorrow.  It was amazing to watch people toss their belongings in the middle of the circle, join hands, and reach back to the days of their ancestors.  The music was fantastic and moving as well. 

Tonight we met Phiilipe who is our “neighbor” at the little café downstairs, right next to our flat.  We had a small snack there before returning to our flat for the evening. Pesto Lasagna might be our new favorite food!  Barcelona is amazing!

Picasso and beyond…

It rained most of the night, and pretty hard too.  We know this because we woke up about 3am and though John did doze off and on I never went back to sleep.  Hopefully our sleep patterns will be in place a bit better tonight.  It’s only 9pm here and we are tired but forcing ourselves to stay up at least an hour longer. 

We decided to start our day seeing the Picasso Museum because of the rain. It was a brief walk for us just past the old wall that fortified the city.  It was an enjoyable walk despite the sprinkles still coming down.  However, when we arrived there the line to get in was at least a block long, so we opted to walk past to the Santa Maria Del Mar and come back around 1pm as RS suggests.  We enjoyed viewing this Cathedral with its Catalan history. The building of a place like this so long ago is always amazing. The pillars are a marvel of engineering.  The first Cathedral stood here in 303 AD but the one here today is much newer, the first stone was laid in 1329.  It took 54 years to build this Gothic church, which is really fast considering some take hundreds of years.  The stained glass is beautiful as well.  Taking photos with my simple camera does not do justice for such sights.

After the church we went for a bite to eat to kill a little time as it is more fun to eat than stand in line!  We tried Taller de Tapas from the Barcelona book.  It was reasonably priced and the food was delicious.  I was really hungry for some veggies so I asked for a sliced tomato.  I got it alright and really dressed up with a couple anchovies, thin sliced onions, parsley, with a touch of oil and vinegar.  No, we aren’t drinking any wine this early in the day but they have these unopened bottles on every table.

So back we go to the Picasso.  The line was still there but it was just a 20 minute wait this time, about 1/4 of what it would have been earlier.  They do have a senior price, which is E$6. We opted not to get the audio ticket as we had our book to explain the various rooms of his work.  We really enjoy his early work, right through the Blue, Rose and Cubic periods.  I like this Science and Charity 1896.  Neither of us are fans of his later work.  It really isn’t quite disturbing but just not fitting for our taste.  He said when he was young he was forced to paint as an adult and when he was old he painted like a child.  I guess that is true.  There are free lockers to store you bags but I was allowed to take my purse, though no photos are allowed, even without a flash.  This is typical so I got a few postcards I can scan and use in my album when I get home.

Now we walked about in the Riberia area for a bit deciding what to do.  The HOHO (Hop on Hop off) bus came along so we hopped on and bought a two day ticket riding the full red line route today.  We saw numerous sites:  Estacio de Sants, Crue Coberta, Caixaforum, Placa de Espanya, Pable Espanyal, MNAC, Anella Olimpica, Fundacio Joan Miro, Teleferic de Montjuic, Miramar-Jardins Costa Llobera, World Trade Center, Colom-Museu Maritim, Port Vell, (cruise ships), Pla de Palau, Barri Gotic (our neighborhood), and several different Catalan buildings along the way.  The drive was pretty windy along the ocean front but we enjoyed it.  Remember, these we all drive by sights as we didn’t feel we had time to get off today.  We have tomorrow to go on the Blue and Green line and also return to some of the special sites we want to see in depth, like Gauti. 

We also got off by Renfe train station and got a schedule to figure out the times to go to Figueres to see our cousins on Tuesday.  John’s checking that schedule right now while I am typing the blog. 

We ended today’s adventure back at Plaça de Catalunya and walked slowly back to the area of our flat searching out a place for dinner.  As we passed these old Roman walls on Avinguda Portal de l’Angel I was happy to finally get a photo because it has either been dark or raining the other times we passed by.  For dinner we opted for  El Café d’en Victor right near the Barcelona Cathedral.  I finally had the paella I have been waiting for and John had chicken, fries, and veggies.  Delicious green olives were served as an appetizer along with tomato bread, we topped the meal off with crème Catalan.  It was so nice after the meal we walked all over the area passing by Plaça de Sant Jaume, which is home of the Catalan Government.  I also bought a couple scarves from a merchant, and strolled back to the flat. 

We close another out another night with what must be quartet down the street singing in marvelous harmony.  I wish you could all hear it.  

The Ramblas Ramble

We took this walk from the Rick Steves book today and then beyond that we walked along the Rambla del Mar (by the sea) out to the big mall area.  The area out there was all built for the Olympics in 1992. We really weren’t very interested in the mall but we went there to find a public restroom.

Our coffee was Uganda style (June will know what I mean) since there is no coffee pot to brew it.   We thought we would buy one today but we didn’t see one.  I think the lack of cooking utensils is the draw back to having a male landlord but he sure did run up all those stairs with our suitcases very fast!  However, despite not having a coffee pot the other cooking utensils are adequate for what we need.  We left the flat and walked to the tourist info place on the Placa de Catalunya gathering some info for our future ideas.  Shortly after we began our walk we became hungry and stopped for lunch at the first place we saw.  We had our first (but not our last) Sangria with lunch, salad, spaghetti, and pizza.  It was either really delicious or we were starving!  The spaghetti was not special but the pizza reminded me of those we ate in Italy, scrumptious!  One of the most enjoyable stops was La Boqueria Market.  The vast array of luscious fruits and vegetables was amazing.  We did buy a few tomatoes but other than that we didn’t anything else.  There is every sort of fruit or veggie you might want along with meat, fish, and of course the ever present “mystery” meat we see in countries we travel to.  I can say the heads, tongues, and various innards of animals could almost turn me into a vegetarian!  We are just not used to seeing most things like that. 

We walked all the way to the bottom with stops along the way to see the highlights.  Sadly the bird Rambla was closed.  Maybe I forgot to mention we missed most of the downpour of rain while we ate lunch!  We arrived at the Christopher Columbus statue, avoided the areas of prostitution, and then on to the Rambla del Mar, then back up the Rambla also stopping at various places.  We saw our first glimpse of Gaudi and his first public work in the Placa Reial showing two colorful helmeted lampposts.  Continuing our walk back up the Rambla we saw the hotel our friends will be staying in and past that we took a turn back toward our flat.  We looked at a couple places for just a snack on the way back and chose a place very near the Cathedral de Barcelona and had an interesting little snack. It was Bilbao Berria where everything you eat has a large toothpick or small skewer in it.  It is self serve and you choose how much or how little you eat and they count up the toothpicks for your check.  Tasty and interesting!  So many choices, even little desserts to John’s delight! 

We love having the Cathedral de Barcelona right next to us.  Dany (our landlord) said the bells were a small problem every quarter hour but personally I love it!

Barcelona!

Our flight left Fresno on time and we had our lunch @ LAX. Our next flight was delayed due to Air Force One taking off so we left about 30 minutes after the scheduled time. The Capt. said we would make up the time since it is a long flight, and we did. I can say I was impressed with KLM. Decent snacks, beverages, and meals. We also had a nice (disposable), warm hand towel before each meal time. A blanket that appeared clean and sanitized along with a pillow was given to each person. I did doze for about an hour, John watched his monitor the whole time. Since we flew on a 747 we each had a private screen for viewing movies and TV. There were video games and may other things to do with the hand held device as well. All this helps but spending 11+ hours in an airplane is never enjoyable. I should say not in economy anyway. At check in they offered an upgrade to “comfort economy” for $200 each. You get 4 extra inches, of course we did not do it. At least there was an empty seat by me in the middle section of the plane and John had the aisle.  The Amsterdam to Barcelona is a vague memory for me at the moment!  Being at the airport there is sort of like a tulip festival of its own!

Anyway…

We made it to Barcelona!  The sun was shinning when we arrived, which was a pleasant surprise after the rain in Amsterdam. It was a snap to get on the Aerobus and come directly to Plaça de Catalunya. (E$5,30 each) We called Dany right before our stop and he told us where to wait for him, and he arrived about 10 minutes later.  It was a brief walk to the flat along Las Ramblas, then a short side street and four floors up to our home for the next 8 nights. John’s standing to the outside door to our flat.  Walking here we went right by the ancient walls that we saw on the Rick Steves video but there was no time for a photo.  Dany walks like a RS guide even toting along my suitcase! Anyway, it is more than charming here and we love it already!  We unpacked everything we will need and went to a nearby market for our supplies. We hear the church bell ring every 15 minutes and right now I am listening to someone singing on a nearby plaza where someone was playing a harp earlier.  There is a warm, happy sound floating through the tiny balcony from the people strolling below.  Lots of choices for things to do tomorrow but it will be an early evening for us, I’m fading fast!  

Our Flights…

Heading out in the morning!  We already know it will be grueling and we are prepared, or as prepared as we can be!  It will all be worth it when we get to Barcelona (and beyond!). 

 

Tuesday, October 25     Flight Delta 7413

Operated by American Eagle   

Departs 9:05 am Fresno, California

Arrives 10:10 am Los Angeles, California

Tuesday, October 25     Flight Delta 9379

Operated by KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines

Departs 2:00 pm Los Angeles, California

Arrives 9:15 am (October 26) Amsterdam

Wednesday, October 26      Flight Delta 9603

Operated by KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines

Departs 12:50 pm Amsterdam

Arrives 3:05 pm Barcelona

Tomorrow is the big day!

Less than 24 hours and we will be on our way!  We are very excited about this trip because we are doing some really different things that will hopefully stretch our horizons and help us see new people in a new and different light, particularly in the middle east.  Barcelona is equally exciting because this is the Catalan area and this is my genealogy history and ancestry. We’re not sure yet if we will see my cousins from France, but maybe…

“The WORLD is a book, and those who don’t travel read only a page.”

Saint Augustine

Phones…

Even with a global phone it is not going to work well in the places we are going…SO dragging out the old World phone we have and taking it.  Please only call in an emergency or text as well.  To dial from the US the number is: 

011-44-791-213-3277

FOUR MORE DAYS!

Less than two weeks!

We will depart for Barcelona in less than two weeks.  The excitement it growing since we have packed a few non-clothing items into our suitcases.  We are nailing down the things we want to do when we are in Barcelona.  There is so much to do there.  We thought 8 days would be enough, and it will be, but I am sure we could also fill 14 days easily.

When reading about the ship a little bit more and watching some videos about it, we discovered there is a POOL TABLE on board!  Actually two of them.  I know where John will be on Sea Days!  It will be interesting to see how that really functions on a ship.  There is always his standby, ping pong of course.  Since the Middle East will be hot I suspect we will enjoy the pools and perhaps even the water slide!