Thursday 11.18.2010


Lawdy, Lawdy it’s Gaudy Antonio Gaudi


The rain is gone and the air is fresh and cool this morning with bright blue skies. In order to prevent crabbiness we hustle down to Passeig de Gracia and find “Tapas Tapas” for a morning sandwich for John, croissant for Mary and a couple cappuccinos.


The Passeig de Gracia is the Michigan/Fifth Avenue of Barcelona that extends out of the top of the Placa Catalunya. If you picture a vertical bow tie, the knot is the Placa Catalunya, the lower bow is the old city and La Rambla stretching down to the harbor, and the top bow is the “Eixample,” an upscale neighborhood of fancy apartments and hotels with every big name in retailing represented (we’re not talking Target and Wal-Mart here). The people strolling the streets in this neighborhood are noticeably different than on La Rambla.

Our restaurant is on the “Block of Discord,” a collection of crazy-exotic building designs for a one-block stretch of the Passeig. The culprit behind these styles was Antonio Gaudi, either the greatest or the craziest architect in the world at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. The houses here and elsewhere around the city are fairy tale-like designs with weeping windows and mushroom peaks.

We continue our walk north along the Passeig oohing and aahing at the fancy shops and opportunities to double the expense of our trip with one little shopping bag of goodies. There is one more big Gaudi design a few blocks north along with many copies by his compatriots and competitors. Love it or hate it, it is dramatic and, for many, defines the personality of this city.


We make a right turn and angle a bit back south to Gaudi’s acknowledged greatest work, the “Sagrada Familia,” or Holy Family Church. Gaudi worked on this for the last 43 years of his life, which ended under a trolley car in 1926. The church is still under construction and will be for another thirty years (estimated), but one look and you get the idea. When finished this church will be certainly the most unusual temple of worship in the world. Much of the work since Gaudi’s death has been designed and built by others, but to our untrained eyes it seems they have captured the essence of the original. We took a bunch of pictures, but they don’t do it justice, so once again we suggest that anyone who is curious should find it on the internet and check it out. Our jaws were on the ground.

It is recommended that if one wants to continue the Gaudi tour, one should catch a bus from near the church and ride it uphill a couple miles to Parc Guell. We think, "how far can it be that we can't just walk on such a beautiful day?" We are huffing, puffing and sweating forty-five minutes later as we back door the park and now understand the bus recommendation. There are some hills in Barcelona after all. The Parc Guell was supposed to be a 30-acre upscale housing development when it was conceived and Gaudi was hired to make it a unique property. Alas, the rich folk didn't want to make this walk either so no housing sales and Gaudi's infrastructure was blended into a city park with beautiful city and harbor views.


It is mid-afternoon which means John has to have a small pizza-bread sort of thing and a cold beer from a little stand for the bargain price of 12 euros (almost $17). US Open pricing here to go with the views. Mary passes. While snapping pictures of all the unique elements of the park our camera battery dies, so once again look at the park on the internet. We are a bit refreshed and since you can't remember pain we decide to walk back down and it really is easier. We pass our hotel and find the tapas bar we enjoyed last night so Mary can get something, and with different people and late afternoon aging tapas it isn't the same. It will have to do. There is a little Patisseria on the way back to our hotel so we pick up a couple treats for tomorrow morning.


We take the late afternoon-early evening break and have a plan for this evening. Several people have told us about a tapas bar near the market and we think it is in Rick Steve's book as well. Taberna Basca Irati is "only" about a mile walk from our hotel and near La Rambla which makes it perfect for our last evening memory of Barcelona. Here they give you a plate, you help yourself to anything you see, and at the end of the evening they count the toothpicks and you pay accordingly. They also come marching around with hot tapas right out of the kitchen and you just grab from the tray like an upscale cocktail party. It is easy, fun and the food is pretty good. There are a couple Japanese girls next to us and we volunteer to take their picture which leads to further conversation. They are from Osaka and are doing a week in Spain which is the reverse of our final week so we get some pointers on Madrid. We are toasting with "Cheers!," "Salud!," and "Compai!" Still just tourists.


It is a pleasant evening for our last walk from the middle of La Rambla back up to Placa Catalonya. There is a group of break-dancing gymnasts who are as good as the folks you see on the dancing shows on TV. The finale has one of the guys doing a running cartwheel into a backflip over the top of four standing volunteers he has lined up. Pretty impressive. We're very comfortable here now and our three-day stay is just right for a first impression of the city. This is another destination that we agree we could return to.


No stop at the pub tonight. We actually have to set the alarm to get moving in the morning to catch a bus for a flight to Madrid. Hasta Luego Barcelona!

Today's Picture: Gaudi's Casa Mila on Passeig de Gracia.