We left Ireland early on Saturday and flew to Barcelona, a noneventful flight until we passed close to the Pyrennes, huge piles of snowpacked mountains towering above the clouds. Barcelona lay against the shore at the foothills of the mountains, a sprawling maze of a city filled with glorious old architecture at every turn. Let me just say, I love Barcelona. This city is incredibly alive, vibrant, ecstatic and crazy. We arrived on Saturday afternoon, and Las Ramblas, the central thoroughfare near the university and the heart of the city´s financial district, was packed with thousands of people, all of them enjoying themselves. It was like we had walked with our huge packs into a massive celebration. In fact, it was just the weekend. We got checked in to a hostel and joined the throng, desperately seeking by this time some food to warm our gullets, looking for a good place to settle down with some celebrated tapas, the everpresent Spanish fare.
And let me say, there is much to celebrate. Tapas are a series of small dishes that you choose like a buffet; squid in clam sauce, spicy potatoes, fried calamari, shrimp in melted butter and garlic.. The tapas differ from place to place, but they are all good, and reasonably priced too. We ordered way too much and sent our bill higher than we anticipated, but to have a chance to suck on such delicious food, enjoy cups of sangria and watch the madness outside, was worth every silver euro.
The next day we spent basically kneeling at the temple of Antonio Gaudi, the Spanish artist responsible for the incredible edifice here known at La Sagrada Familia. Words simply fail in describing how magnificant, complex, beautiful and arresting this building will be when it is finished. It is already Spain´s greatest testament to the glory of its architectural tradition. Awed, we wandered among the forest of columns inside this massive church, watching the construction artists building the temple on beatiful brick by another. A climb up one of the towers took us a hundred meters above the city in a small spiral staircase which left us dizzy and exhilerated. Gaudi was in every sense of the word one of the masters, the crazy geniuses, a seriously BIG CHEESE. After experiencing the Familia, we abandoned our other plans and went to see Park Guell, designed by Gaudi in the 30s for one of Barceona´s swankiest entrepreneurs at the time. Architects will forever be striving for what this man did.
We are now in Granada, after taking an 11-hour train ride last night stuffed into a hot, smelly 2nd-class coach, during which we slept very little. However, Grenada is a charming city situated among the hills surrounding the Alhambra, a ninth-century Moorish palace that is imposing, at tleast from the outside. We go to see it in the morning. Today we dragged ourselves around the beautiful Plaza Nuevo and among the intricate nearby streets, enjoying the more relaxed atmosphere of semi-rural Spain. Tomorrow night we´re off to Cuenca, a city built on a plateau carved out by a river just west of Madrid. Wish us luck!
Till next post, adios amigos.
