When I arrived at the Barcelona airport, Anja and Markus were there to meet me. After two days without sleep, I saw them as angels which, of course, they are. Anja spent a year with our family in 1997-98 and I think of her as my German daughter. We jumped into Markus's deluxe VW and went to find our AirB&B. The area of town, Gracia, was easy to find but we quickly learned that just about every street in Barcelona is one-way.
Jordi checked us into our very modern apartment where we made ourselves at home before taking the subway downtown. Our first accidental stop was the impressive Barcelona Cathedral. With hundreds of other tourist we were amazed at its size and ornateness. There was much gold, many altars and a thousand sculpted angels. By the time we left it was dark and the narrow, cobbled streets, dim lights and high stone walls took us back to medieval times. Eventually we found our way to the Rambla, a major tourist shopping street. We wandered and wandered until we found an affordable restaurant where Markus had a sandwich, I had vegetable crepes and Anja had water. Markus also has his first very heavy, very sweet, 100% hot chocolate drink. The way they make it here requires a spoon because it is so thick. Carla and I had tried one in Burgos on the Camino. Gracias a Dios that we didn't realize one could buy them at any time, anywhere in Spain. Otherwise I would have walked the Camino twice as fast from the stimulation of the marvelous, irresistible chocolate!
We wisely had early reservations at Park Guell which was a short walk up the hill. Gaudi's creations are if he were channeling Walt Disney crossed with a Spanish tile maker and a Sierra Club landscape architect. It was built over a hundred years ago yet seemed quite modern in some ways.
Next we walked to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral which is already over a hundred years old with at least ten to twenty more before completion. We mistakenly didn't get reservations but the wait in line was fun with good company, an herb garden, butterflies and the beautiful NW facade which was a modern interpretation of Calgary....modern meaning medieval knights done in Picassoesque forms. After getting our tickets we went to the other side of the cathedral which was somewhat more traditional only with lots and lots of plants and animals thrown into the facade stone.
Inside the cathedral what struck me most was the light from the stained glass windows and the bright, white pillars that grew into coconut palms. The visitors here, unlike in the regular cathedrals, were quite noisy. Every time we turned around we found something new, such as the museum in the basement and the school with the wavy walls next door.
In the evening, Anja and I had a vegan supper at Pepa Tomate's: delicious raw zucchini salad and spinach fritter. Una surpresa!
Fantastic! (Almost makes stay-at-home me want to go see it for myself!)
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