Barcelona

The boys and I were excited to head out on our Antoni Gaudi exploration day. I didn’t know a lot about his work before arriving in Barcelona but we are now all fans.  I will not include too much of his history here but take a look online at some images if you are interested. He was one of the godfathers of Modernisme (a variant of Art Noveau) a style born in Barcelona. The city is full of highly original buildings that he and his contemporaries created. They included many aspects of nature in their designs and I suspect some ‘aspects’ of nature contributed to their inspiration, imagination and courage to challenge the conventional ways.  There is a mushroom from northern Spain that is said to be his favourite piece of nature.  As a result, there are not a lot of straight lines in any of his designs and many styles and colors are incorporated both inside and outside of his works of art. 

We decided to start our Gaudi tour at the Sagrada Familia temple – his final work.  It is one of the most unusual and unconventional churches in Europe and his greatest work.  In 1883, Gaudi inherited the task of designing the church and there could have not been a greater choice as he was in his prime.  He revised the initial plans that looked nothing like the nearly finished final product.  He died before he finished it and it still is not complete but bears his mark. The estimated completion date is still 10 – 12 years away.  

I can’t think of any project anywhere that began more than three generations ago and is still under construction ….OK, maybe our deck.  It helped the boys put some of these huge cathedrals and castles in to perspective.  Seeing a work of art in progress and the enormity of the effort required to complete the task helped them appreciate those that were able to complete buildings hundreds of years ago, without today’s tools or electricity to ease the worker’s load.  There were a lot of tour buses full of cathedral seekers so we decided to walk around and admire the facade from the outside where some believe the most beauty is visible. You can really spend several minutes on each small section as there is so much detail. We took lots of pictures.  You can’t help but be impressed with Gaudi’s vision but equal praise is due to those that were able to execute on his vision so well.  Some of the world’s greatest craftsmen have contributed to the Sagrada Familia.

Our next stop was the Casa Mila. It was built in 1910. It is a corner apartment block and was a big departure from conventional building construction and as a result was highly criticized. There are no straight walls in the building. Kind of like our house !!  Did Gaudi spend any time in North Vancouver? The building also lacks any colour, which is unusual for his work.  The kids were pretty impressed by the uniqueness of this building - sort of Dr. Seuss like. The chimneys and sculpted air ducts look so threatening that the locals refer to them as the witch- scarers .

We continued on to Casa Batllo down the street from Mila.  A complete contrast to Mila, Batllo is so colourful. The tiles on the roof are multi coloured and curved. The balconies look like skulls and Aidan picked that up right away. We sat outside on a bench and took it all in with the rest of the tourists and I decided it was one of my favourite buildings. We walked around a bit more and stopped for dinner. I was craving some red meat and ordered a steak but they just couldn’t get it cooked in the middle enough for my taste ,even after sending it back a couple of times so I didn’t eat it and was pretty disappointed. Calvin ordered fish and enjoyed it and the boys enjoyed theirs as well. Devin had a bit of a problem with the bathroom lock and thought that he would have to spend his holiday in there.  He was a bit freaked for the remainder of the evening.  We continued to walk after our dinner and didn’t arrive home until midnight, thoroughly exhausted. These boys are troopers and ice cream is a great motivator.

What better way to follow the Gaudi 10km walking tour of the previous day than a hike up the mountain in Barcelona.  European tourist maps can be deceiving and legends are rarely accurate.  Using the legend, we calculated that the trail to the mountain top was no more than 1 km from the house – after several attempts and 2.5km later, we reached the dirt trail leading up the hill.  The hike lasted close to 3 ½ hours and was well worth it. The views were panoramic and the sea beyond the city is a beautiful expansive blue – it reminded us of the view from Grouse. We sat and ate our picnic lunch and felt pretty proud of ourselves. It was very hot so we didn’t stay up for too long and found a shorter route down.  Noah grabbed the map and navigated us home where Chef Calvin prepared a great stir fry and I enjoyed a wonderful bottle of red wine for all of 4 euros. The only thing missing was a masseuse to work on my calf muscles.

We are in Barcelona for only 4 more days and we want to see everything – we are falling in love with this city.  We discussed our options over breakfast and the vote to go out yet again was won by a slight margin of 4 to 3 – Calvin and I have two votes each.  There were a few grumbles from the kids. After we leave Barcelona we will be staying by the beach and there will be plenty of time for chilling out so off we went.  

Today was the Picasso Museum.   Calvin somehow attached the computer to the TV to play our tourist videos of Spain a few days earlier and the boys were fascinated with Picasso and his work.  The thing that captured Noah’s interest the most was Picasso’s changing styles and the significant difference between his work as a young boy and his abstract paintings as he grew old.  They seemed to contradict logic to the boys – it appeared, to them, as if he became a progressively worse painter as he aged.  His work as a young boy focused primarily on portraits and landscapes where his precision and attention to detail was astonishing.  There is a painting of his, in the museum, where the wind is rustling the veil on a young girl’s head.  It is so perfectly painted that you would swear you should be able to reach out and touch the veil.  The boys were asking to see Pisaso / Pichatico / Pistachio / Piclaso’s work and after butchering his name for a few days, Calvin came up with a great way to help the boys remember his name…..phonetically….pickasshole.  I doubt they will ever forget his name and it felt as if they said it every 30 seconds while we waited in the long line to enter the museum. Mom stepped away and pretended not to know any of them.  

There were plenty of street vendors to keep the boys occupied while we waited in the line-up.  Aidan negotiated the vendor down to 1,5 euros for a fan to keep us cool and Noah snagged a new pair of “REY BEND” sunglasses for only 5 euro (1/2 of the original asking price). Ray Ban’s brother I guess, and truly authentic just like the Rolex for 15 euro. The line-up took about 45 minutes which wasn’t as bad as I thought and the kids were admitted for free!  That’s always a nice surprise and makes for a pleasant visit when we don’t feel we have to stay long enough to get our monies worth even though the kids may be complaining. That wasn’t the case this day.  The museum holds Picasso sketches, his ceramics and some graphic works. We were all really impressed with his talent at such a young age and his self- portraits.  At age 15 he was already painting major works. We came across a pastel portrait of his mother that he did when he was about 16 and since my birthday was the next day, I told the boys that for my birthday, I wanted them to each draw, pastel or crayon a portrait of me. They were keen to do it. Should be fun to see what they come up with. The boys took their time in the museum and were rewarded with a couple of pretty explicit nude sketches. Giggles echoed through the museum and they of course had to race over to grab us.  We were about to take a pic or two when the security guard tapped us on the shoulder and we were told “eXCuse mE, but it is abSOLutely foRBIDden” so no pics of Pickasshole but we regularly use the new phrase so money well spent at the museum.   We passed through his blue period (sad and lonely) and finished up with his modern, abstract stuff full of colour.   A quick visit to the gift shop (fridge magnet) and we were off again.

Our last stop before heading home was a visit to the Palau de la Musica Catalana.  This is a real palace of music in the Modernista style. We decided to splurge on the tour of the music hall as it was a recommendation on trip advisor. We found that the kids were free again and at the end of the tour we would enjoy a glass of cava (sparkling wine) ...sweet !  The tour lasted 55 minutes and was brief but well worth it. The hall is decorated with mosaic, stained glass and sculptures. The auditorium is lit by a huge inverted dome of stained glass that is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. At the end of the tour we got to go on stage and see what it is like from that perspective and to enjoy our glass of cava. We tried to talk Devin into playing something on the piano so he could really appreciate the feeling of performing on a stage of that size but he didn’t want to show off or he was too shy.

Back on the metro we headed home for dinner and relaxation. Tomorrow – Deanna turns 25, according to Devin….and Deanna.