Days 20 and 21, September 7 and 8, 2015 …
The Island Princess docked early Monday morning at a port in Barcelona, Spain,
and by 8:45 a.m. we were off the ship, transported to our hotel and in our
room! We’re staying at the Pulitzer Hotel, which is very nice. After some orientation, we embarked on a tour
of the city via the hop-on, hop-off bus.
Barcelona is the capitol of the Catalan region of Spain, the
second largest city in the country and one of the largest in Europe. You may already know that I’m not a big fan
of cities, but this one is one of the nicest.
While there are some modern buildings, most are old stone buildings,
five-to-eight stories high, all built with an artistic eye. Many have turrets or steeples, edges are
designed with stone leaves, flowers or curvatures, the balconies of the top
floors are of either ornate black iron or stone columns; and often there will
be stone carvings of some scene of people and/or statues. It is a very clean city and green, green,
green. Tall trees canopy over the roads
and walkways, and many of the roads also have a boulevard between the two
directions of traffic, sometimes with parks and play areas, always with benches
where people relax in the cool of the shade. And there are motor bikes parked everywhere,
an obviously popular mode of transportation.
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| The beautiful streets of Barcelona |
We started our tour at the city center, a very short walk
from our hotel, which has a beautiful park with a large fountain and statues
all around and from which many roads spoke out to reach other parts of the
city. One of those roads is the famous Rambla, a shady street with a very wide
pedestrian area running down the middle that leads to the sea. The pedestrian area is filled with people,
some eating areas, and vendors, and many enjoy a particularly leisurely stroll
all along the area in the evenings.
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| The Sagrada Familia Barcelona, Spaine |
The Sagrada Familia … This icon of Barcelona is the dream of
one of Spain’s beloved artistic architects, Antoni Gaudi. Work began on this
huge church in 1884; but in 1926, when Gaudi died, only one of the 18 towers
had been built. Gaudi was a devout
Catholic and wanted to construct a building that would make an impact on the
skyline and show his respect for God. It
was built to be seen from all points of the city; and the glass mosaics at the
highest points, when reflected by the sun or moonlight, act as beacons to guide
seafarers home! The construction is still in progress, and when completed,
perhaps by 2029, there will be 12 shorter towers on the facades representing
the apostles and six taller ones reaching for the sky in the center in a
pyramidal layout. The tallest will represent Jesus Christ, with the others
representing Mother Mary and the four Evangelists. Gaudi did not believe in
straight lines, using nature as his inspiration and his architectural
techniques, so it seems that every inch of this massive structure of towers,
vases or columns is covered in scrolls, leaves, fruit, scenes or statues.
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| Entrance to The Sagrada Familia Barcelona, Spain |
There are three facades representing the Nativity, the
Passion and Death (which depict many scenes of the Stations of the Cross), and
the Glory of Christ. In 2010, Pope
Benedict XVI consecrated the Sagrada Familia as a minor basilica. Because of
time and Euros, we opted not to tour the inside, though I’d love to do that
some day. The building is indeed a
wonder to behold … an intricate,
jaw-dropping sight. |
| Park Guell |
Park Guell … Our next hop-off was at Gaudi’s Park Guell, a
large area he had originally intended to develop as a residential garden
area. However, only one house was built
other than his own, which is now a museum devoted to Gaudi. It was quite a hike
up hill to the Park, and then we wandered along the paths, always seemingly up
hill, through the columned rest areas where one or two musicians were usually
playing in hopes of getting a few tips. True to Gaudi’s integration of nature
in his work, the stone columns were never smooth, but were covered with a
roughness of leaves, bark, flowers, etc. -- very unique and interesting. He also
incorporated many existing items into his facades, including mosaic tiles,
glass, sticks and leaves, etc., which also added a bit of color to his buildings.
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| Park Guell |
Also along the paths of the garden were vendors selling
their water, earrings, fans, magnets, etc.; and when we reached the
summit, there was a beautiful view of Barcelona and the sea behind it. Wandering down the hill was almost as
challenging, because one of the things we noticed wherever we explored in
Barcelona is the lack of signage explaining which direction takes you
where! So it’s very easy to take a wrong
turn. We came out of the gardens in a
spot different from where we went in, so the test was to find our way down the
hill to catch the bus again. In doing
so, we happened upon a statue-like man garbed in all black and gold (including
his face and skin) sitting perfectly still … Want pictures? Leave a couple Euros!
We saw several of these “statue men” throughout the day … amazing how they can
stay so still for so long!
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| The Tibidabo Cathedral del Sagrat Cor Barcelona, Spain |
Tibidabo and The Tibidabo Cathedral del Sagrat Cor … Our next hop-off
is Tibidabo. This is an amusement park on the top of Barcelona’s highest
mountain. Because we’re too cheap to
pay for the little trolley ride to meet the tram, we walked up hill … honestly,
up hill … for about a mile. Finally, after some time and much perspiration, we
boarded the Tramvia Blau, a tram or funicular riding up the steep side of the
mountain for about a mile that has been in service for over one hundred years. Amusement
rides weren’t what we were looking for, however. But as soon as we entered the
little plaza, there was The Tibidabo Cathedral del Sagrat Cor, which can be seen
from all
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| Jesus Christ on top of The Tibidabo Cathedral del Sagrat Cor |
The inside of the Cathedral was rather small but beautiful
with its columns, frescos, statues, picturesque stained windows and beautiful
stone work. It was a lovely place to take a break and simply pray. Outside, we
climbed more steps to yet another church above, though that was not as ornate.
Finally, we climbed even more stairs to the top of the Tibidabo Cathedral for
another unforgettable view of Barcelona and beyond. An incredible sight!
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| Barcelona, Spain |
After taking the tram back down the mountain, then retracing
our steps further down to meet the bus again, we were quite exhausted. We wanted to see the monastery, but it was
closed today; so we stayed on the bus and enjoyed the tour of the city past
government buildings, other works and museums of Gaudi, past the University’s
famed football stadium, along the port and into the 1992 Olympic Village area. It
was interesting to hear that this area along the water front was poor and run
down prior to the Olympics, but it has now become the high-class section of
town.
We hopped off and strolled off the main street, down a
couple narrow alley ways into a little plaza with cute little shops and a fun
little restaurant where we sampled some Spanish wine and tapas. It was really interesting to listen to the
waitress stress to us that tapas is Catalan, not Spanish. There is a huge push
in this area to separate from Span and become an independent nation of
Catalan. Tapas are local appetizers. Common
practice is to choose three-four-five different tapas to serve and enjoy with
your drinks, creating a varied meal.
Very delicious!
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| Inside the Santa Maria del Mar |
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| The altar of the Santa Maria del Mar |
We are in the Gothic center of the old city, and from here
we walked to the Santa Maria del Mar church … another gorgeous Gothic-style
church, especially the interior. One of
the side coves consisted of an all-gold leaf altar to Mary … it was so
beautiful! One more stop from the bus
was to the Cathedral Placa de Sant Jaume. As we walk into this church … we gasp
in awe. It was huge with many columns throughout … definitely Gothic. Because
the church was closing, we didn’t have time to take it all in.
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| The Gothic Cathedral Placa de Sant Jaume |
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| Inside the cathedral Placa de Sant Jaume |
At the end of the tour, we walked back to the hotel and
plopped into bed, exhausted and sore (my body didn’t appreciate all the up-hill
walking!), but elated at having tasted a bit of this beautiful city.
Our last stop – France … Tuesday morning we wandered through a
few more alleyways to find a restaurant for breakfast. On our way to the
airport I told the driver how beautiful I thought his city is. He replied, with
a heavy brogue, “It’s not my city,” as he is actually from Ireland. But he did
say that Barcelona is a very stress-free city to live in. And as I reflected on
that, I realized that, yes, it did indeed appear to be stress free as we
experienced very little hustle and bustle, just relaxing and strolling along,
patient waiting and courteous drivers!
Our plane to Paris was an hour and fifteen minutes late on
takeoff, and the bus around Paris to where we met our old friend and father of
the bride, Philippe, was also late because of slow traffic. But we are finally here in Plaisir, a city
whose very name translates as “pleasure,” which is south west of Paris,
enjoying the hospitality of very good, long-time friends! Drinks, appetizers and a great dinner
provided the backdrop for hours of catching up with Jeanette and Philippe! How Blessed we are!
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