I saw a funny thing the other day. Anne and I were walking up Passeig de Gracia (walk round a big city block day) and there was a cripple (stick with me on this) coming down the street. When I first saw him, he was just a guy with a handicap going about his business – good on him. Then…he…saw….me - an obvious tourist with a backpack and a big camera. Well, what a transformation. No more was he just some guy going about his business. Rather than walking mostly upright, he became bent almost double, his progress slowed from a respectable pace to a snails pace, his handicapped walk became an exaggerated flailing of arms and legs and (and this is the amazing bit) he had a cup, which he was holding above his head (i.e. about my chest level) expecting me to put money in it. Cheeky sod – I should have given him a kick up the arse for his troubles.
I’m writing this on Friday morning sitting outside a small café on Placa Del Bonsucces, waiting for both my café con leche (coffee with milk) to arrive and for the 26 minutes to elapse before the washing in the Laundromat around the corner is finished and I can put it in the dryer – oh, the life of the international jetsetter. Vodafone has sorted out their Spanish texting problems, so we’re back in communication and have just received a flood of texts from people. Sorry to the people that we sent texts to, Big V transmitted the same text 10 times, so sorry about that.
Back to Thursday and our start at the café bar in the Mercat de la Boqueria having a couple of café con leches and potato and zucchini tortilla. Sitting at the bar is something of a highlight for us, as it gives an interesting perspective of Spanish life and you feel like a bit of a local sitting up on the high chairs at the bar, watching the staff make coffees, cook breakfasts, lay out the fresh fish and sea food for the days trade. As I say, you feel a bit of a local apart from not being able to speak Spanish, nor read the local papers, nor getting a couple of wines, beers or spirits under your belt before 10 in the morning – but an interesting perspective nonetheless.
After Wednesday’s extensive walk, we thought we should follow up with another big sight seeing day, so we headed off to Mont Juic (The Jewish Mountain – named after a medieval cemetery that used to be on the Mountain). The Mont is a big “green” area of the city and contains a castle (at the top), the 1992 Olympic stadium (on the side), some gardens, the national palace, several art galleries and an exhibition hall. Our first stop was the Castle, but to get there we had to walk, take a funicular (cable car) and go on a gondola – exciting eh! From the castle you could take in awesome 360 degree views of the city and the port. The castle itself now contains a cartoon and animation museum, but its recent history is much more gruesome as it was used by Franco for executing dissidents by firing squad. From the castle, we walked down the hill to the Olympic stadium and then round to the Palace, which sits at the base of the hill. In front of the palace there is a large waterfall, which flows from the Placa de la cascades, down to the Placa de Calle Buigas and a magnificent water fountain right at the bottom of the hill. This then leads down a long promenade (Avenue de la Reina Christina Maria) with water fountains on either side of it to two large turrets at the end and a large monument on Placa D’Espagne.
The Avenue de la Reina Christina Maria was closed because of an exhibition being staged there this week, so we wandered around the block to get to the Metro to Park Guell, which is our next stop for the day. The Barcelona Metro is great – very clean, good signposting and all 1.30 Euros for any trip.
Anne was very impressed by the huge motorbike park outside the exhibition. Since she got her motorbike license the week before we went away, she has decided that she wants a scooter to ride on. Europe being Scooter Central, she has been checking out the vast array of scooters that are on offer to decide which one she wants. Now don’t think small little 50cc scooter, think big, red and Italian – think expensive, but nice…..niiiiiice !!!!
Park Guell is a park that was designed by Gaudi in the early 20th century. It was built for the rich to enjoy, but didn’t make any money, so was closed until it was bought by the state. The park is on a steep hill, which fortunately has escalators to take you to the top. The temperatures today had been a lot cooler and the skies were overcast (we even got a few spots of rain at the National Palace), but by the time we got to Park Guell, the humidity was getting up again and the sun was out, so it was nice to not have to walk up the hill. In the park itself Gaudi has continued with the Lord of the Rings theme (or did Tolkein take off Gaudi), with a bit of Alice in Wonderland thrown in for good measure. If I was a writer and you had all day to read this, I’d describe it, but I’m not and you don’t, so I’ll put some pictures up on Flickr for you to have a look at – it’s pretty cool, but crowded with millions of people.
By the time we sat down for lunch, it was 4pm, so we did lunch from 4 till 5:30, then had a break until 8pm when we went for a walk down La Rambla and all around the Barri Gothic – just sort of going wherever whim took us along narrow little alleyways, though small squares, past churches, the cathedral, the town hall, stopping occasionally to observe people eating and drinking, or just sitting around talking. We sat down in a bar in the Placa Reial at about 10pm for a small (1/2 litre) jug of Sangria and some Tapas. Placa Reial is one of the main squares, just off La Rambla. It has restaurants and bars all around it. One restaurant in particular had a queue outside it that extended half way out into the square – about 50 metres – I kid you not. It was not until 11:30pm that the queue had all got into the restaurant.
High drama…..da, da, da daaaaah. Anne has just come back from the Laundromat and there has been a melt down on the central console which controls all the washers and dryers – shock, horror. We can’t get our washing dried. So, I am now writing this from a new café, as we have had to move to another Laundromat at the far end of La Rambla to find a clothes dryer that works. We are once again waiting for the laundry to finish in another square in Barcelona – oh, the excitement of being an international jetsetter.
Back to Thursday. By the time we returned to the hotel, all the shops on La Rambla had closed and been shut up for the night. The shops are a pretty cool design – when they are all shut up, they are basically about a 10ft square glass box. Each day, the front and the sides open right out, so you get a long thin shop with all the books, flowers, bird or hamster cages hanging on the walls.
That was our day….this is our new day….Mission accomplished….laundry dried, blog updated, now let’s get to that market for a tortilla.
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