Barcelona – Wed July 25th 2012

Just sitting waiting to head for dinner, so jotting down some stuff.

Got up early to head to Segrada Familia for our 9am tickets – had to pick them up first – directions were to get them at LaCaiza – however 1st try no luck with English and our attempts to self solve didn’t work.  We found another couple with an English speaking guy – but our card was still not being accepted by machine so went straight there (9:15 by now) – and got in not problem – paid extra E6 for both to go up the left also – was worth it as you could really see the work being done from above, (see photos).

The church basilica was yet again another incredible building – this time much more unique.  It was like being in a canopy – the columns branching out like tree limbs – resulting in none of the typical architectural domes as the weight became dispersed.  And the top layer mad to resemble palm fronds over everything.

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More Barcelona & Some Dali!

Down to just two full days remaining.  🙁 but have seen lots, drank lots and eaten lots, so no complaints.  yesterday morn we all met and after a bit of fiasco getting started (Derek left his bags in our room for some reason that caused some confusion.)

But before 10 Mike and I went down to break the E500 – paid GL back the E200 from La Riaja – now just owe him for the car.  Well use MC a great deal for last few days so we don’t need to take out any more Euros.

Also found Moviestar to add to our phone time, but didn’t know our phone number (fixed that on Tuesday).  Very funny on bank, a short nun with her shopping cart in line adead of us.  Pulled out her massive zip lock bag full of coins (pre-rolled at least) and got bit bills (couple of E100 at least were in a pile of other cash).  Expect she was cashing in the collection plate from Sunday.

Derek’s last day so we let him make the calls – so we walked down to Los Ramblas all way to the ocean.  The monument to columbus.  He sort of looked for ideas for Brit on the way.

Then took subway back up and went for a nice lunch.  Had a lobster pailla as a salad.   By the end of the meal I was not feeling well and headed back to the hotel.  Mike and Derek went to do shopping.  Derek finally got something for Brit, but hot himself.  then came up to say farewell and pick up bags.  Sort but sweet visit, was nice he made it here.

After Derek left M&GL went for open top bus four of Barcelona.  Mike and I went shopping – got four shirts and I got a dress and skirt.  Found a great pair of shoes too, but haven’t bought them.  got some yummy cookies too (wheat free).

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When all back, M&GL came in for wine/cheese/bread/olives/cookies and ham (bought @ market with Derek & Marucia found gluten free bread at a backery).  We had the white from Bia Gorui and we still like it a lot.

M&GL also went to Casa Batllo and insist we should go.  This afternoon we were going to Figueres to see the Dali museum so Mike played (streamed) some Dali stuff, interviews by Mike Wallace, Dali/Disney film and Dali on what’s My Line – great prelude!

I booked the tickets online – could only get 5:30pm!

GL also found a Guitar concert @ Palais de Musica on Thursday night for 33E so we’ll go to that too, (I still owe him for the tickets less the 12E for Dali).

Mike and I got to the CASA Batllo for opening @ 9:00am – at least less crowded.  Amazing space – every detail artistic and functional at the same time.  His use of light thru the central “Courtyard” space – From 7 stories @top with darker tiles to the base with lighter.  Top floors smaller windows, bottom largest to balance the light – each room had multiple light sources – external or skylight or windows over doors.  Ventilation on throughout via louvres on the doors/below windows.  Use of wood, iron, glass, ceramic all show great skill.

Overall effect of being in the sea – which ceilings with swirling vortexes and ripples on walls.  Many walls detailed with “scale” effect painted everywhere.  Even the rear facade from the back patios was ornate with great balconies.

The attic space was elegant – clean which arches throughout with laundry room and storage space.  The roof also was well thought with “groups” of chimneys to create turret type sits to match the dragon topping the façade.

From the roof you could see the design aspects of the drainage and plumbing and lighting.  Bought a book on Gaudi – so can get more info there!

Then a quick bite and meet GL & M to head out just past 1 pm to find the train – bit redundant walking between stops as the train platform entry was under construction.  Nice guy pointed us in the right direction and we managed.  Had a 1/2 hour prior to train so we went for a beer and I left 1/2 of mine, may be a first.  We got to Fig. with just enough time to have a bite before our 5:30 entry.  (Good Lunch – 2E Rioja wine cup @ a four cheese sauce ravioli – enjoyed despite my condition).

Then to Dali – another day of being amazed.  He was quite the “genius” – his mind was definitely unique – as his perspective – he was big on logarithmic patterns, cell biology and felt himself as much a math/science/philosopher as a artist – and he certainly was not restricted to paper/paint/pen.  His “structures” and his jewels collections show that he really needed to express in many ways.  As per his interview, it is the Dali genius of his personality – painting or art are just one way to express it.  Hoping the photos do justice as I’ll be hopeless at trying to describe his work.

Then back at 8:30 for the 2 hour train ride back – for another cheese/bread/ham/cookie snack and here I am just wrapping up @ midnight.  Mike still photoing.

We want to head early to Segrada Familia – so bed soon.

Barcelona Day One Continue & Day Two

From the wine stop we headed straight to Barcelona, with just one stop to eat and swap me in for Mike.  Mike had a very good pig knuckle meal and Marucia found more Santiago cake (no gluten!).  GL and her both love it.  We got to the airport around 6 – lots of time to return car (one week early), what a fiasco.  In the end Hertz agreed to take it early for no extra fee!  GL and Marucia argued for quite some time to little avail, (other then extra fee voided).  GL will need to take it up when back at home.  Also tried to do seat check-in and flight confirmation with Air Canada/Lufthansa but no luck; we will have to try on-line in Hotel.

We met Derek with no problems and we shared 2 taxis to the hotel.  Had a welcome champagne on the 8th floor.  Our rooms are on the 2nd with a view of a wall!  but roomy and big bathroom and easy to walk up to.  Se we unpacked then headed for dinner to place recommended by friend of Derek’s   Was quite good.  You got a drink and a plate, then took the tapas you wanted and paid per toothpick when done.  Had chorizo/bread, herb cheese with jam, tuna tart with artichoke, pate with chutney, slice goat cheese/cherry tomatoes.

Again lots of street activity especially on a Saturday night.  But the restaurants all closed by 12:30.  Guess the bar scene starts then.  We decided to meet and 9am to hike up to Parc Guelle.  Marucia had asked to move for a better view and so at 9am we had to fully pack up and leave our luggage in Dereks room for the day.

By 10 we started off for the day stopping for coffee and croissant.  After headed to the Gaudi church Familia.  There were huge crowed with the line up going around half the church.  We decided to check the outside and return a week day to see the inside.  We then headed up to the park; a good walk up; but there was an escalator 🙂  Walked through the upper park first then to the main section.  It was so crowed that you could not even see it!  I got frustrated with the volume of people and we decided we had enough and so back down with eyes open for lunch en route.  We found an ok spot.  M&I shared shrimp and a waldorf type salad and frites.  Decent meal and funny waiter.  Then back for a map.  We got our new rooms on the 7th floor with a nice view but smaller bathroom.

After a quick nap we reconvened for wine in our room.  Marucia went to mass during our nap.  Had a very good Rioja from the winery.  Mike/GL/M went to in Abalos and the Granache was great.

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Got Jasmine on Skype too.  Gave her lots of confusing chatter.  Lent Derek a cable to charge his phone – which he immediately misplaced so spent time searching everywhere for that – did eventually find it.  Made him use it here!

After much trip adviser/googling found a place open on Sunday with good reviews.  It was around the corner so that made GL happy too.  Cerrezeria Catalanya – was a great find(had to leave our name – 1 1/4hr wait so left for a beer elsewhere and returned in 1 hour).  Well worth the wait for E100 all five of us ate with bottle wine, coffees and deserts too.  Favourites were the shrimp skewers, the veg with goat cheese, crispy Camembert, (also prosciutto on toast, potato, veal/gorg on bun)…probably more … then back for bed.  Derek took his phone/computer.  and will meet up @ 10 this morning.

Some Fine Wine and Food before heading to Barcelona

We struggled along in the morning still suffering from food poisoning, but still managed to drink a lot of electrolytes and some bulk to absorb stuff.  Marucia is still not very well, although Michael, I are starting to feel a little better.  After another lovely breakfast spread, GL, Michael and I headed out to check out Bodega Bia Gorri.  It is a local winery with lovely views all around.  They have a tour at 1pm followed by a 6 course meal with 4 wines for E40.  So Mike and I signed up (we were going to share 1 meal, but ended up getting two – glad we did)  We took GL back to Abalos and off we went.  There was another group of seven also, but they had their won guide.  We ended up as the only tour members – so a personal tour.  Our guide was only there 1 month but spoke very good English

The building was by a Basque architect.  The Bia Gorri family ran the winery for years and the latest son in charge wanted to do something distinctive.  They did a lot of research and had tanks custom designed.  The system uses gravity to fed the various tank instead of pumps.  The whole building is heat controlled much by special black rocks on slanted slope roofs.  The structure goes down 7 stories along the hillside.  You enter at the top where the deliveries are made.  Grapes weighed, La Rioja monitors all shipments, hoppers and hands on separate stems, leaves etc.  Some wines made with pure grapes 40% and 60% of grapes with stems gives a woody “green” flavour.  they make a rose, a white(I really liked bought 1 bottle), several typical tempronallio reds – varying barrel treatments and grape (top of bunches only) selections.

They employ around 14 usually but it balloons at harvest time (which is Sept/Oct) to 80 or so working 6/7am to 8/9pm.  The current owner (purchased around 2006) is from Murcia – he is a pharmacist specialist at a hospital.  Hot a wine expert historically, but he is passion it and comes 6 times a month and helps in lab work.  He likes to control carefully product development.

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A well done tour and it was just what we wanted to experience here; so glad we did it!  The meal started with a rose and a couple of appetizers, then moved to white and 3rd appetizer.  Mike liked the rose more then I did.  The white was quite unique with a nose of toast and very velvety.

Not sure what that was? Not a lot of photos the next couple of days. Three of us suffered from a little food poisoning. It was not from the basque region, more likely something we has in Madrid.

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One Spectacular Building!

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The Northern Spanish Coast

Fine Wine, good food and cooler temperatures.

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Just a quick stop back here before heading back out.  Today we purchased hop on hop off Madrid tickets (E40 for M&I) and got a tour of the city; saw the original archways which marked the edge of town; was walled at one point.  Passed so much amazing architecture that you lose the awe.  Even the “worst” corner would be impressive in Toronto.  We disembarked at Palaciois Royal/Cathedral.  First we took a walk to find breakfast….it was afternoon!  Fount a great cafe in the Italian school, had coffee/croissants and more fresh OJ > every chair in the place was different and very chic (all in white or pale wood > see photos below).

Then to Cathedral for a quick E1 tour.  this one was more modern in parts, not all Gothic this time!  The prayer room allowed no photos but was spectacular.  Mosaic and golden sunbursts.  Very peaceful.  then to the palace.

Just Plain WOW!

(The photos of inside the Palace were not taken by me.  Photos were not allowed inside the palace.  These were obtained from the Internet.  The collection here are rooms that I personally viewed. Unfortunately, this website can not give you the true sense of the beauty of these rooms.  They really were over the top!)

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they say there are 2800 rooms and we only saw a handful of them.  Every room was a show case.  From multi-coloured marble inlaid floors to the silk embroidered walls to the porcelain ceilings.  the endless number of specially commissioned clocks, the fining room fro 140 seated guests, the custom Chinese porcelain walls int he smoking room.  It was endless the decadence and opulence on display.  The every day silver ware alone could likely go a long way to recouping Spain’s current debt crisis.  Very aware that they were willing to spend fortunes on wars over the centuries, but not on dealing with the current crisis in the country.  The Chapel, the custom furniture, the tapestries….The armouries topped it off with the many decorative pieces along with the matching child armour of the 5, 7 and 9 year old sons – more that 1 matched set per child of course.  the horses the lances for jousting, the guns; all ornate and many blessed by the church. Interesting were the scaled up rifles that were the size of a very large canon.

Then back on the bus to Plaza del Sol.  The center of spain; all streets emanate from here.  It is the meeting place.  Eventually we found a little treasure for lunch E10 pp for the whole meal with drinks and we even had salads.  Got a recommendation to see Carmen ballet for flamenco which started at 8:30 so off home for quick freshen up.

Out for Carmen – M&GL treated M&I for our birthdays.  We thought it was fantastic although GL found it “OK”.  I think due to the stretching of the story for dance purposes.  At any rate the flamenco was great and the stage production well done.  Then home for a night cap of cheese/cold cuts/bread and what we thought was barbedillo wine, (which turned out to be sherry).  Then a bit of blogging some stretches and sleep.  We head off to the north tomorrow.

Then back

Prada Art Gallery

Musece to Prado dominated today.  So many fantastic paintings.  Mike and I walked over a bet before M&GL (one entry & one with book for a total of 12+22=E34 & E3.5 guide headset)  My back is really sore trying to do yoga to help but limited success and Mike had a sore throat so was popping Vitamin Cs.  Saw some fantastic Goya’s first – the dog, the reader, the witch all favorites.  Marucia liked the famous Goya painting of the reclining nude/clothed pair.  I noticed that many painted themselves into the family portraits.  My favorite was the veiled marble carving of Isabella (pictured below).  Also of interest the studies of reproductions.  They were done by laying original over a blank canvas and pin pricking through with coloured chalk.  Also of interest was painters who copied other painters works.  Mostly focused on Spanish painters, but also Bottecelli, Flemish and other renaissance painters.  X-rays of Rapail’s showed that he painted the whole painting with nudes then put clothes on them.  This made for extremely accurate bodies.

We left for lunch having our bigger meal, I finally had oxtail with potato and Gazpacho – again with a very good Rioja.  Then back for more Prada.  I (Audrey) walked into a glass divider when leaving – still hurts my ear.  After Prada back for a short siesta and shower.  The streets seem clear today although there was some confusion as we left at about 6:30pm, but seemed to amount to nothing.

After siesta George did some reference checking to plan our evening, so off to a favorite place of Hemingway for Tortilla Espanol and beer and some great white wine.  Also had a great croquette and a bunch of other less impressive tapas, (denounced to us we may have been getting some food poisoning at this meal:  more to come).

We then headed to a sherry only bar Jerez El Menencly (?) where Mike was not allowed to take photos inside the bar.  We had a variety of Sherries (pictures) . The fino from the “top” barrel and others of progressive darkness as they move through other barrels.  Then a late night walk home through the still busy streets @ 1:30am and to bed by 2:30am.  We will need a earlier start tomorrow for the drive to Bilboau (Mundaka) on Saturday.

the photos inside the Prada where obtained from the Internet.  One is not allowed to take any photographs inside of the art gallary.  The collection here are paintings that I (Michael) personally loved. Unfortunately, this website can not give you the true sense of the paintings scale.)

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Madrid via Bus.

So here we are after midnight after planning on an early evening.  Long drive today – Mikey did most of it.  Packed up and ate at Seville.  It was a lovely spot.  Ate our pastries (eclair for breakfast!)  with tea (using sugar this time instead of the salt I used by mistake yesterday 🙂 )  Also Manchego and cured ham with toast and apricots.  Got out of Seville very smoothly then just kept driving on the A41.  Stopped for lunch en route.  Veal cutlet for GL, M&M had chicken cutlet.  I had more calamari with a very nice salad of tomato, potato, olives, lettuce, pineapple and oil dressing.  Also filled up with diesel for E52.  GL and I had garlic soup (quite mild but yummy which came with a poached egg in it).  Mike had the samarallejo.

Then on the road to Madrid.  All went well til A4 disappeared and we mistakenly exited.  But found our bearings and then discovered the protests!  Our street was blocked fully by masses of police with riot gear.  So after much small street maneuvering we dropped Mike and Marucia (with out any money! and a dead phone) one block over while GL and I tried to drive there.  M & M knocked (pounded) on the door but no luck.  A little old lady tried to help them but they just had to wait.  Eventually a woman showed up to let them in.  She tried to charge a late fee which we refused due to the road confusion.  Had to pay E40 cleaning fee cash which we new about.

Meanwhile, GL and I were in stopped traffic with many policia.  We even saw water trucks.  Eventually GL & I just parked at the Prado parking area for E30/day.  Finally re-met with M&M and headed back to the parking lot to get more luggage.  We just brought essentials which of course included camera and laptop.

Once the internet was established and Marucia called for Ana to check the house in Burlington we are finally headed out.  Had a fantastic caiparinha at a little bar that Michael had spotted.  The drinks were made with a homemade crusher – Put chucked limes (2) and 1 lemon, scoop of sugar then crush.  Lots of ice then filled cashasa.  GL had another Rum Meil, then for Paella – quite yummy for Mike & I.  We had a funny waiter which made it more enjoyable.  Then back to email Paul & Lucy, Derek.

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