Gaudi: Catalan for 'Tired Feet'

I woke early in our tiny, but cheap room at the Hotel Ingles in Barcelona, and let Jeanette sleep. I actually did a bit of laundry in the shower, attempting to be more expedient than thrifty!  I had decided that I would return the car a day early, so I went out and got the car, stopping along Las Ramblas to get ripped off on two pastries and a soda for €11.  Whoever said Spain was cheap was not paying close attention!

I drove to the airport and stopped at an old cemetery along the way to snack on my pastries and take some photos.  The mausoleums and grave markers where ornate and beautiful.  Over time they had been packed into the cemetery so that they were virtually and, in some cases, literally on top of each other.  The cemetery was also pleasantly quiet, as you might expect.

The drive to the airport easy, forcing me to make only one odd u-turn when I needed to go find gas to fill the car. The people at Hertz were not quite as pleasant as the woman in Valencia and it turned out that they charged us €95 for the damned flat tire that we had gotten two days before.  Furthermore, because of the charge, they wouldn't comp us a day on the early return.  That's Spanish Hertz policy when dealing with Americans, I guess.  That was ridiculous, especially because we had purchased insurance.  It turns out that for many car companies in Europe exempt flats and other minor items from the typical Loss Damage Waiver-type insurance.  Strangely, Thrifty later charged us only €60 for 6 nights of rental in Italy... which turned out to cover far worse than a flat tire.  (Hmm? You say...)

I checked on plane prices and itineraries to Paris and other parts of France and then on to Bologna, but the fares were ridiculous, at times exceeding €600/person.  After a quick coffee in the airport and buying some stamps, I hopped on the metro, which pretty much intersects the airport, and purchased a T-10 10-trip pass for €6.75.  That was a good deal.  I chatted a bit with a Scottish kid who was traveling alone in full dress, kilt and all.  The metro ride was interesting.  A guitar player got on for a bit and he was good enough that I tipped him.  We had to change trains once.  The scenery out the window appeared similar to scenery outside metros on the East Coast, with the exception that I believe the graffiti was more colorful than most that I had seen before.

I got off at the main station where I would have to change trains anyway to get back to the hotel.  It was easy to obtain times for the trains to Nice for the next day and the international train terminal was right near one of the metro stops (Barcelonetta). 

I returned to the hotel and found Jeanette ready to go.  We used the pass to take the metro to the Diagonal (a major road that runs through Barcelona) where we had to get out because of an interruption.  That turned out to be lucky because we walked upstairs and immediately saw Casa Mila, one of the apartment blocks designed by Gaudi.  The building is well described elsewhere, so I'll keep it brief.  There really are few straight lines or flat surfaces, other than the floors.  The attic, with it's inverted, ship-like ribs is quite interesting and unexpected.  The guerreres, the knight-like features on the roof, are pretty amazing and related to the angular side of the cathedral.  Even the fancy people who had the penthouse apartment had relatively simple bathrooms and kitchens in the early part of the last century!

After purchasing a few small items at the store in the bottom of Casa Mila, we walked toward La Sagrada Famillia, Gaudi's famous unfinished cathedral, and found a local bar about halfway down.  (It's a long walk...)  We stopped and had some bocadillos and coffee and I believe our combined lunch might have cost not much more than my two pastries of the morning.  Some construction workers who had been working with backhoes and other large equipment down the street amused us by sitting down to a long lunch and polishing off a bottle of wine and at least one beer each.  Definitely not the US!

We arrived at La Sagrada Famillia, which astounds.  The facades of the building are amazing.  One side is angular and possibly austere, the other Gothic and flowing.  Gaudi was obsessed with the New Testament.  Jeanette's take was that he must have been certifiable.  After walking around the cathedral and browsing some of the merchants outside it, we took the walk through it where you see the towering tree-like pillars and not much else.  It's amazingly unfinished.  We took the lift to the top of one of the spires and I walked out on the bridge between them while Jeanette just watched.  The views were amazing and seeing some of the mosaic features of the top of the cathedral was impressive as well.

Although we had come far, we proceeded farther.  Taking the metro farther into the city, we got off at a stop in the vicinity of the Parc Güell, another famous Gaudi modernist site.  The walk, about a mile, took us past many glass and souvenir shops, but we didn't end up buying anything, mostly because of the prices.  Who wants a faux mosaic wine glass for €20.  The prices were truly outrageous and in some of the shops the glass was stacked like wood.

The park itself is well worth the trip.  The mosaic, on just about everything, is quite beautiful and fantastic.  We walked around the main grounds, took some photos of the great view of the city (you could identify the cathedral and Casa Mila in the distance), and then proceeded up the Turo del Tres Cruzeiros (Tour of the Three Crosses), a winding path up to one of the higher points in the park with an incredible view.

Tired out after our long day of walking and metro riding, we took the train back to Las Ramblas and went into an Aussie bar for a Guinness and to celebrate a little of St. Patrick's day.   There were some drunk Irish in there who were pretty funny.  At €5 a pint, I think I heard that the 8 of them rang up a bill well over €200.

Before heading back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner, we discovered that the open air market was still open, so we stopped to try some pastries and Jeanette bought a bottle of cava.  The market was incredible photogenic at night and we got some great photos of dried fruit, fish, and many other culinary treats.  We also found a supermarket where we purchased fruit for the morning train ride.  Following our grocery shopping, Jeanette wanted to check out a hardware store with paella pans that she had found while I was out in the morning.  We selected one and brought it back to the room, then changed and went to find dinner.

We walked quite a way up Las Ramblas after that, on very tired feet.  Stopping at one small wine bar, we tried some of the cavas, including a cava rosada, which we preferred to the whites.  The proprietor, an Italian from Napoli, was very nice.  We found the Dali Museum and eventually accidentally came upon La Mananza del Discordia, the block with the house with the cool Gaudi facade that features skull-like balconies.  The best time to see it is at night when the balconies are lit from below and truly appear like skulls.  I got some good photos and then Jeanette demanded dinner.

We found an attractive, brightly lit tapas bar for dinner and tried various salads and some decent chicken wings.  Jeanette had some more sparkling wine and I believe I tried some beer.  We wandered back through Las Ramblas and decided on one more stop at another restaurant near the Dali Museum for some cava, some slightly too old tinto dulce, and some very good crema catalana.