The Retired Shows: Barcelona, Spain

September 4 we took off for Barcelona, Spain. Cedar Rapids to Chicago to Vienna to Barcelona! The Chicago to Vienna leg was about 9 hours and then we had an eight hour lay over in Vienna. We used it to sleep in the lounge! We arrived in Barcelona about 7:30 pm. Don's bag came but mine didn't. We hustled to the hotel - Hotel Arts Barcelona, Ritz Carlton because we had tickets for a jazz concert atop the famous La Padrera.

FRIDAY
First Night at the La Padrera - jazz concert
LA PEDRERA - Officially called Casa Mila after its owners, it was nicknamed La Pedrere (The Stone Quarry) by bemused locals who watched Gaudi build it from 1905 - 1910. Conceived as an apartment block, it bears all the trademarks of Gaudi: swirling staircases, hallucinogenic curves and not a straight line. The roof is the most extraordinary element, with its giant chimney pots looking like multicolored medieval knights. We enjoyed a glass of cava and the jazz concert on the roof top. We also got to see one floor below the roof where Gaudi used parabolic arches of brick and it now houses a museum dedicated to his work.

LATE night dinner after the concert.
Burger with fried egg!

SATURDAY
We explored our walking area from Hotel Arts Barcelona, Ritz Carlton. The hotel is wonderful! It is in Port Olimpic. which was created for the 1992 Olympics and is on a beautiful beach area and sailing marina. An eye-catcher on the approach is Frank Gehry's giant copper Peix (fish) scultpture.

Hotel Arts Barcelona (the tall building)
with the fish sculpture in front

This beautiful fountain area at the entrance of the hotel.

Flowers everywhere in the hotel.

Huge room

We have a corner room on the 17th floor.
Great views of the beach and marina.

Foyer and entrance to our room.

And the shower has 3 shower heads one of
which is an above rain shower.

The view from our room

Walking the beach

Buying cheese and meat at the Barceloneta Market

And bread at the bakery

Lunch in the square

Walking through the old town

We attended the USA Basketball game at 4:00. The game was held in the arena where the 1992 Barcelona Olympics held games.
USA beat Mexico!

Seafood platter for two!

Lobster, oysters, shrimp, crab, and scallops

SUNDAY

DAY ONE OF HOP-ON HOP-OFF BUS
We caught the bus across the street from out hotel at the Port Olimpic stop. We decided on the red line today. We rode the whole red line all the way through which took about 2 hours. The second time around we started making stops.

house designed by Gaudi

interesting street lights

Columbus statue

round about fountains

Stop at BARRI GOTIC - Barcelona's history has its origins in the Gothic Quarter which was build on the old Roman town. Parts of the city walls survived. The Barcelona Cathedral was at this stop too. This church is one of the most important examples of Catalan Gothic architecture. Work on the church started in 1298 and was completed in 1450.

Roman wall and defense tower

Barcelona Cathedral

Holy Basilica and Cathedral of Barcelona

Rooftop views

Cathedral garden which keeps 13 geese

We sat at an outside cafe at a plaza. Tapas and sangria!

Stop at NATIONAL PALACE

Statue and brick stadium that was used for bull fights.

Columns leading to road up to the National Palace

The National Palace
now a museum

Next stop was TELEFERIC DE MONTJUIC
We rode the Montjuic cable car up to the Montjuic Castle. The forbidding castle (or fort) dominates the se heights of Montjuic and enjoys commanding views over the Mediterranean. It dates, in its present forn, to the late 17th and 18th centuries. For most of its dark history, it has been used to watch over the city and as a political prison and killing ground. We enjoyed the beautiful views from the cable car ride and from the Castle.

Cable car ride

At Castle of Montjuic

Harbor view from the castle

Snack time

Fried & sugared donuts and fresh orange juice

Long day of sight seeing so we headed back to the hotel and found that MY SUITCASE ARRIVED!!
Only two days late, but at least it is here now!!

We enjoyed our evening meal at a tapas place the hotel recommended - L'ostio. We especially enjoyed the Russian salad, chicken lollipops, ribs, cava (Spanish champagne) and sangria.

MONDAY
We took off late (noon) for our second day of hop on hop off bus tour. We started on the red line again until we could connect with the blue line. We past some familiar sites before switching over.

Our hotel - Hotel Arts Barcelona

another round-about fountain

The old Roman wall and defense tower

Casa Batllo-Gaudi's work for the Batllo family

The structures at the top of La Pedrera

On the Blue Line we went past Sagrada Familia (cathedral) which is still under construction. Gaudi started the work in the late 19th century and it continues today. We ordered tickets on line to visit it tomorrow as we are told the line for tickets to get in can take 1 - 2 hours.

Sagrada Familia

The next stop for us was Park Guell. Again it is Gudi work. It was planned as a residential garden city but was unsuccessful and Guell donated the park to the city. We walked through some of the "free" parts and bought tickets for tomorrow for the cool Gaudi monuments parts.

At Park Guell
more on it tomorrow!

Next a quick stop at Palau Reial - a royal palace built in 1924 for the king. It is not a royal residence now.

Our last stop was at the Futbol Club Barcelona where some of Spain's famous soccer players have made history. The club was founded in 1899.

We switched back to the red line and headed back to the hotel.
One of the highlights today was our 9:30 pm (yes they eat very late here) at 9Reinas a Argentina steak house. I know, I know we are in Spain, but Don needs a great steak every now and then. The hotel recommended this restaurant and it was delicious.

Yummy steak and grilled potato

homemade waffle fries with fried egg!
Why not try something new?

Caramel crepe!

TUESDAY

We have reserved tickets (purchased Monday so we didn't have to wait in long lines of 1 - 2 hours) for Sagrada Familia and Park Guell.

LA SAGRADA FAMILIA - one of Barcelona's icons, this Modernista masterpiece remains a work in process more than 80 years after the death of its creator, Antoni Gaudi. This giant church became Gaudi's holy mission. It may be unfinished, but it attracts around 2.8 million visitors a year. Gaudi devised this temple to be able to seat 13,000 people. It is to have a central tower 170m high representing Christ (not done yet) and 17 towers of 100m or more. The 12 towers along the three facades represent the Apostles. With Gaudi's characteristic dislike for straight lines he gave his towers swelling outlines inspired by the peaks of the holy mountain Montserrat outside Barcelona, and encrusted them with a tangle of sculpture that seems an outgrowth of the stone. Guesses on when construction might be complete range from the 2020s to the 2040s.

The entrance with the Nativity Facade
and 4 of the 8 completed bell towers.

Entrance with the Passion Facade

A third side of the cathedral

Part of the Nativity Facade showing
Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus

The Wise Men

The shepherds

Part of the Passion Facade showing Jesus on the cross.
Other scenes show Jesus' last hour such as the Last Supper.

Front entrance of the Passion Facade
showing Jesus carrying the cross.
Note the tops of the doors behind the statue.

The central doors of the Passion Facade, made
in bronze contain the texts from Matthew
and John which recount the last days of Jesus' life.

As amazing as the outside of the church is the interior is also spectacular! Inside, the roof is held up by a forest of extraordinary angled pillars. As the pillars soar towards the ceiling, they sprout a web of supporting branches, creating the effect of a forest canopy.

The supporting pillars that look like trees.

View to the main altar.

Over the main altar

The stained-glass windows are superb!

PARK GUELL
Our next WOW of the day was Park Guell. It started in 1900 as the dream of Eusebi Guell for an English-style "garden city" for the rich (it ended up a flop!) and ended up as an enchanting public park designed by Antoni Gaudi. Dazzling mosaic-covered architectural details, curious Hansel-and-Gretel style gatehouses are but a few of the captivating features.

Porter's Lodge

Casa Del Guarda

Monumental flight of steps leading to the columns

Part way up the steps is a fountain in the form of a snake's head.

Then a dragon (or salamander) and a tripod that
appears to be formed by three snakes.

86 columns
Above them is the ceramic bench of the upper square.

The bench that goes around the whole nature square which
is made of blocks of concrete clad with mosaics and pottery.

Another view of the bench

The bench above the columns

We went back to the hotel to relax for a few hours before the USA game at 9:00
USA beat Slovenia!

Room service pizza ended the night and it was yummy! Iberian ham and mushrooms with melted camembert.

WEDNESDAY
Wine and Cava Tour 8:30 - 4:30
Catalunya is one of spain's most prominent wine production areas. Vines have been grown in Catalonia for more than 2000 years. Cava (Spanish champagne) accounts for half of the production of 380 million bottles per year. Our bus tour took us to three wineries about 45 minutes out of Barcelona.

Jean Leon was the founder of this winery by the same name. It was the smallest of the three that we visited today. It is harvest time (mid August through mid October) and we got to taste many different types of grapes in the vineyard. Then wine tasting!

Don tasting some grapes - white ones

And now some purple grapes

Wine tasting time!

Cheers!

Fields and fields of grapes ready to be harvested.

Torres This was a huge winery and we toured via a train. It is one of the biggest export companies in the world of wine.

The visitor's center had a museum

Wine tasting!
3 wines paired with 3 different cheeses.

Norah Ford (Sean was busy with USA Basketball) with
Don for today's wine tour. We enjoyed having her along!

Freixenet In 1914 the founders of Freixenet decided to leave behind the traditional form of wine and direct its strategy to producing Cava. Cava is the Catalan sparking wine. It can be brut, dry, semidry, or sweet, depending on the concentration of sugar and it is always served in a flute glass type, either colorless or rose to see the path of the bubbles. We've been served a lot of Cava this week in Barcelona so it was fun to see and hear how it is made.

We went way down into the cellar

No pictures of the wine tasting - how did I miss that. We sat around on couches and tasted a white and a rosa cave. We had plates of iberian ham, cheese, bread with tomato sauce, and small pepperoni.

Back to the hotel around 5:00 for naps. This day started way too early (up at 7 am is midnight at home!).

Off to dinner - Cafe de I'Academia in the Barri Gothic area.

The taxi dropped us at the Sant Jaume plaza and we
wondered around trying to find the restaurant
tucked back a few streets!

the plaza area

We found the restaurant!

For starters we had 1/2 portions of academia salad, then this
traditional Catalonia beef soup, and the a pasta
with shrimp and garlic. They were all delicious!

Main course - steak for two which came with these
red baked peppers and caulifower.

Walking through the neighborhood
past the old Roman wall

THURSDAY
Its our last full day in Barcelona so we decided to just take in a few things still on our list and walk the area. It is a national holiday here today most stores are closed except for the tourist places. We started the day by taking the cable car across the harbor to Montjuic. It provided a great view of the beaches, building and area around here.