Tag it:

spain and such

Friday, January 04, 2002 8:52 PM
barcelona, spain, after a long train ride from venice, was a welcome sight.

we took the metro to the cheapest hostel we could find but it was closed. so we walked to the next one but it was closed too. after that we met a newfoundlander who told us where a couple of other hostels where but we only found one of them and it was too expensive so we kept walking, and walking and walking. nearing 2am we decided not to look anymore. we went to easyInternetCafe instead and stayed up all night catching up on alot of e-mails and the like since the hourly rate is so cheap through the early morning.

after finding a hostel in the early morning we hit the town. gaudi (an architect) was a big name in town and the little we had seen of his work looked intriguing so we went straight to the sagrada familia church (church of the sacred family) which is a unique church in the strictest sense of the word. the front entrance has angled stone pillars that looked stretched out and fluid in a way you wouldn't expect stone to be able to look and provide structural support, busy, rocco engravings and four large towers, punctured with holes and carved out areas and topped with colourful circles that are bordered with little balls and whose face looks like a simple design from an ancient coin.

we didn't see the insides as the church is being finished according to the rough plans gaudi had in mind before he died but there will be twelve towers as high as the eight finished ones at the main entrance and the rear (one for each apostle) and one even larger, central tower (180m) surrounded by four smaller towers (the four evangelists). we also went to a park designed by gaudi, first wandering up a dirt path through the trees and falling asleep on a large rock overlooking the city and then coming down on the other side to a large open, dirt area where little spanish boys were playing football (soccer) and bordered with benches rippling, like the motion of a wave whipping along a rope, around a portion of the perimeter. the benches were finished with bright, colourful tiles, old plates and other ceramic material. there was also a house we visited that gaudi designed and it was quite remarkable inside for its blending of metal, stone, wood and other materials.

there were alot of recessed alcoves, false lighting, woodwork, wrought ironwork, marble, etc.. the roof was quite remarkable as well since it was patterned after the waves of the sea and rose and fell in smooth, gentle waves. being an older house there were also a large number of chimneys and each of them save the heavily used kitchen chimneys was mushroom shaped and covered in colourful tiles. in the centre of the roof a large cone, shaped tower rose dotted with small circular windows and larger skylight. from the interior of the house, in the banquet and personal chapel room, the cone was immediately overhead and the windows looked like small lights or stars and the larger skylight like the moon.

we visited a bunch of the other sites, olympic buildings and the like an barcelona and walked around a fair amount. once while waiting to cross the street we saw a car hit a motorcycle slowly (more like a dirtbike actually) which was really weird because the car looked like it road up the back wheel of the bike and then the guy on the motorcycle kind of turned around, like what was that? they did a quick check of the damage, then the light changed and the guy on the bike took off, while the car pulled over to the side with a steaming radiator. chalk one up for the bike. after barcelona we were planning to hit granada so we went to the train station to buy the tickets. there were no tickets left so we tried to buy one to madrid. no luck either. we tried a few more options, waited awhile and tried again. finally, laryn asked "can we go anywhere?" and the lady said "no."

so we were thinking, hmm...this isn't good and sitting around waiting for one last try as people may have cancelled tickets shortly before the train left, when the ticket lady caught my eye and waved us over to announce we could go to madrid but we had to take beds in seperate cars of the train. so away we went. we did alot of walking the first while in madrid down the streets, through the plazass, past the small shops, street vendors and monuments. we toured the palacio real (royal palace) with a guide and saw some more laboriously decorated rooms and the setting of various historical events. a few of the special exhibits were interesting - the armoury, for example, was the most impressive display of weapons and the armour we had seen so far. there are alot of interesting looking buildings throughout all of the countries we've seen that look impressive but would take too much time to explain.

but, the post office in madrid was noteworthy enough to say just this: "wow, and that's only a post office?" amoung some of the other buildings we toured was the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia which houses Picasso's 'Guernica' amoung others. It was alot clearer and less confusing of an image when seen in person in its full size than I remember from pictures of it that I saw at dordt. at some point along the way we had checked our bank accounts on-line and thought "that's a little lower than I thought" and combined with a few other factors we had recently learned caused us to modify our plans slightly.

we moved out of madrid, and took a train to granada. first class. it wasn't a far walk into town so we began walking. unfortunately, we started following the road signs that pointed to 'alhambra' near where our hotel was and they turned out to be signs for cars so we walked in a really circuitous route before we realize we could cut through the centre much quicker. also it was rainy hard so we were quite soaked. we hung up our stuff to dry and decided to do laundry as well (in the sink). the next day we toured the alhambra, a fortified hill in the centre of town where the Moors had built a fortress and palace long ago. the palace had amazingly intricate carved plaster with geometric patterns and arabic script. alot of the windows had latticed wooden slats and the light and shadows made a soft play on the walls and floor. outside, surrounding the palace, paths led through the trees, grass and running water in little paths and fountains so that everywhere around had the sound of running water and hues of green. the day was a little overcast and dark but I'm sure in the summer it would be even more spectacular.

Christmas day we went down to the cathedral hoping to find a Christmas service but I think we sat through a private family baptism instead. It was raining again and as most everything was closed we mostly sat around in the hotel room during the day. But we kept in mind our modified plan and it wasn't so bad. We took the train back to Madrid again. First class. It was our last train ride in Europe after all. Flew from Madrid to London. Staid up all night by our old haunt at Victoria Station where we had spent a night or two near the beginning of the trip, and then flew to Minneapolis.

Rachel picked us up and we met our very cute neice Hannah for the first time. The rest of the family in Winnipeg came in later that night and we waited in the basement while they arrived. Then we came up the stairs and stole Mom's purse when her back was turned to see what she would do. She didn't notice though, so we put it backed and then came up further into the kitchen while everyone gathered around Hannah in the living room. Dad and Mom's back was turned so we just walked in. Then Mom turned around, saw us and screamed very loudly and long. Long enough that I was beginning to wonder if she would be able to stop.

Surprise. We spent the New Year's weekend with the family in Minneapolis and then drove back with them to Winnipeg. And that is where we are now. And that was Europe as we saw it.

Patrick and Laryn