Day 23_Barcelona to Granada

When I woke up this morning, the plan was to get to the airport early, read and prepare my research for Granada.  At 11:30am I said goodbye to my slumlord and caught a bus to Girona--"Barcelona" according to Ryan Air--which is about an hour and half north of the city.  Pulling up to the airport, it was eerily quiet as the airport was closed due to the volcano in Iceland (this despite Ryan Air's website stating that Spain planes were unaffected).  We have had an unusually large number of travel mishaps the past three weeks:  from British Air on strike; the French train operators on strike; to an ash cloud in Iceland closing the airports.  All things you can't anticipate or prepare for.   My students were at the Barcelona airport and we couldn't reach each other.  However, we resorted to the same travel decision--renting cars.  I had briefly googled the distance of Barcelona from Granada on the airport internet computer and it said 8 hours of driving.  After completing my Avis rental agreement, the young man informed me that my drive would be around 13 hours.  I left with dread thinking I was driving the distance of San Luis Obispo to Eugene that day.  And I don't like to drive long distances.  Avis did not have a map, so the nice man wrote me highway directions; but I had no idea regarding the distance between cities to know if I was making much headway as I headed toward Granada.

Despite the expensive mishap, I am thankful for:

1.  Knowing how to drive a stickshift (as the car was manual)
2.  That Spain drives on the same side of the road as the U.S.
3.  That my trip was going to be mostly in daylight as I didn't know where I was going

I was kept company by the large number of radio stations in Spain which play American music for most of the trip.  But after so much Spanish talk radio at a machine gun pace I couldn't understand, a station with Italian opera seemed more understandable than I would normally tolerate.  What I saw?  Valencia really does have a gazillion orange trees--at least 75 miles of orchards along the highway.  The AP-7 or Mediterranean toll road from Barcelona to Granada looks like the 101 south as it follows the Mediterranean Sea, weaving by small and large cities.  The trip did not take 13 hours, but nine.  Driving in metric 140 kmh seems less fast than 85 mph.  I got to Granada at midnight and hope my team arrived safely, too.

Day 22_Barcelona Miro Museum and gardens

Last night a man pick pocketed me, but I caught him.  We had a potluck at one of the group of students' apartments, with everyone bringing their leftovers since we all fly out on Sunday.  A student presentation followed as they were to do a week long urban design study of Barcelona at a regional, district and site level.  I returned home by a late night Metro and within 50' of exiting the station, a man unzipped both my backpack zippers to rob me.  The street light showed a shadow of someone too close to me for being midnight with the few people on the street.  I turned around, put out my arm, and yelled at the man  (who was nearly by my shoulder at that point),  "Stop!  You are scaring me!"  Not until I arrived at the door of my apartment did I realize he had unzipped me while I fast-paced walked.  Fortunately, my potluck dinner remains were in a grocery bag over my wallet and camera, so nothing was stolen.  The experience, however, confirmed my belief that I don't like traveling alone.  I prefer sharing the experience.  I also don't like feeling vulnerable.  Tonight, one of the guys in the group walked me home--ironically he was pick pocketed today, and caught the guy, too.  He felt violated as I did, but never vulnerable.  Sometimes I wish I was male.

Despite the difficult evening, the day was a good one.  I went to the Miro Museum which has the best collection of Joan Miro art in the world--Miro is a Barcelona native.  The work was inclusive of his entire career and I spent hours looking at his paintings and sculptures.  Exiting the museum, which is high on the hills by the Olympic site, gardens terrace down the slopes.  This is the first city we've visited where the parks do not have turf grass.  Finally.  Mediterranean design should not have turf grass as it is an incompatible plant with only 15" of rain a year.  What makes these parks/gardens so beautiful is the lush use of evergreen shrubs.  I am reading Washington Irvings' Tales of the Alhambra (1820) and this British author describes the southern Spanish landscape as "desert."  San Luis Obispo shares the same ecology as eastern and southern Spain--low water--so these models are providing great inspiration to me.

I met most of the students in front of the Cathedral as a traditional Catalan dance is performed on Saturday nights--a dance which the rest of Spain  laughs at.  However, this dance is supposed to bring a patriot tear to the Catalan eye as its performance is a reminder of Catalonia cultural separation from Spain.  I joined the students afterwards for a paella and sangria dinner on the waterfront.  Delicious.

Day 21_Barcelona waterfront

We covered the length of the city today trying to squeeze in all the last things everyone wanted to see as a group.  Tomorrow is a free day so each of us is going to places which  a) were missed due to lack of time, or b) we want to see again.  Our days have begun really chilly and our visit to the highest location in the city at Tibidabo was a bit of a boondoogle as it was hard to get there and was too hazy to really photograph.  A quick visit in light rain had us heading south again.  The northern section of town by Tibidabo is a high end residential neighborhood with beautiful old trees and houses and secluded parks that wind up the mountain.  To expedite our mileage coverage we caught the Metro to Placa de les Glories Catalanes, the epicenter on the map in the redevelopment of the city in the 1860s.  I wanted to see a weird commercial building that is shaped like, well, a pickle?  You tell me....

Our journey ended at the sea and finally we got some sun.  There were a few takers at the sandy beach.  I wanted to see the Olympic Village and 1992 redevelopment of the industrial waterfront.  This much loved strand had lots of walkers, bikers and restaurants lining the harbor.  A cool lifeguard tower looked like art.

Day 20_Barcelona_Olympic Site

Today was a beautiful day and finally warmed up.  We have been a bit bundled the past week with scarves and coats against wind and gentle rain.  As our evening was so late, we started late and met at the furnicular which is like a trolley attached to train tracks to take us uphill.  It took us to the top of Montjuic ("Mount of the Jews") which is the highest point in Barcelona.  This same place is the site of the 1992 Olympics.  A typical quarter-long advanced assignment at Cal Poly would be to site and design the Olympic games:  the arrangement of buildings, roads, parking, parks, plants, lighting, etc. into a logical, ecological and meaningful resolution.  The area that seemed to wrap up the essence of Barcelona was on the main plaza from the Olympic Ring by the flame to the view of Barcelona below.  Symbolic elements like the controlled use of water (since it is limited in the Mediterranean), olive trees in boxed planters laid out in groves, "Gaudi-mosaiced" base to the Calvatrava communications tower, vernacular use of stone (beige in color), and an architectural allusion to the Museum of Catalan Art were incredible.

We also visited the best designed botanical garden I have visited.  Most are informative with plant names and typical information, but this was contemporary in design.  Clearly a step forward as most are pretty boring to me unless they are historical.

We also walked down to the Catalan Art Museum which I originally thought was the Cathedral as it is so grand.  A series of water features structure and focus on the museum.  At the time of my photographs they were not on, but we saw them on the weekend and they were beautiful.  One of my favorite beautiful buildings lies along this plaza:  Mies van der Rohe's building for the 1929 Barcelona Exposition.  I took copious pictures of this forward thinking, simple and elegant building.  The marble walls connected at the veins in an incredibly difficult artisan way.  How do you find marble from different sites in the quarry which match in veining?

Day 19_Barcelona_Antonio Gaudi

Antonio Gaudi (1852 - 1926) is one of Spain's most renown architects.  Two of his most important projects include Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell.  Sagrada Familia was completely worth the EUR 20 to get into the cathedral, have an English audio tour, and an elevator ride to the top of the Nativity Facade.  Arriving at 10am, we barely beat the crowds.  Instead of following the prescribed order on the audio guide, I knew to book over to the elevator which takes you to the highest point in the cathedral as sometimes the wait can be two hours!  My stomach was doing somersaults the location was so high and tight.  We saw Barcelona in total as well as up close viewings of the spires.  Peek holes in the 2' wide staircase going down provided views to the construction work all along the route.  For someone interested in construction (as I am) it was fascinating.  There was a person behind me who started to lose it (either from the heights or claustrophobia) and she had to slime by us to get down faster.  I held the handrail, as disgusting as public handrails can be, as I, too, am afraid of heights and each step felt like you were going to fall.

The cathedral, which has been under construction since 1893, is beautiful even now.  The value of the interior tour was seeing models, drawings and what will be a wonder--prior to completion (imagine seeing the pyramids under construction?).  Unlike the other cathedrals we've seen with their barrel and groin vaulting, Gaudi decided to rely on the form of the parabola to structure his buildings.  Columns lean to gain further structural strength as there are no buttresses to hold up the spires.  The stained glass is also atypical and does not have religious imagery but flows in color from yellow to orange to blues as the windows rise in height.  Because construction workers in the 19th century doubted Gaudi's theories of un-buttressed spires, he did these fascinating string models, hanging small sand bags to test the weights of each area of the cathedral.  There is also an important interpretive display which describes the influence of nature on all of Gaudi's forms.  For example, he looked to leaves which did not follow a straight line, but gently curved.  Snails, flowers and other natural materials that use the Fibanaci math ideal can be seen in their spiral form on the interior.  Deeply religious, Gaudi filled this building with symbolism and meaning.

Parc Guell is named after Gaudi's patron, Mr. Guell.  The original intent of the site was to develop it into a garden city community of 60 high end homes.  However, the only two homes ever built were for Mr. Guell and Mr. Gaudi.  When the development flopped (because it was too far out of town at the time), the site was turned into park.  Gaudi's famous mosaic fountains, walls and benches add color and charm.  Other locations on the site are vistas made out of mosaic stone, supports again in parabola, blending into the colors of the landscape.

Tonight we went to the Barcelona vs. Deportivo futbol game.  Barca (as the team is called) is currently in first place in the league.  Lionel Messi, the world's best soccer player who plays for Barca, I personally thought was taking it kind of easy.  Score 3 - 0, Barca.  Game started at 10pm! which those who know me, know this is close to my bedtime.  Who plays soccer at 10pm?  By the time we got home, it was almost 2am.  And it's a school night....and the game was nearly sold out....

Day 18_Barcelona_Barri Gotic

Barri Gotic is the Gothic Quarter and contains buildings and walls from the Roman era to mainly 16th Century development.  This is the oldest part of Barcelona and it was appropriate to begin at the Cathedral.  Originally constructed in the 14th Century, its Neo-Gothic style overlay was constructed in the 19th Century, when Barcelona was at a peak in wealth due to industrial endeavors.  Following the ambulatory around the interior edges of the cathedral we stopped at the gilded guild-built chapels from the 1300s - 1800s.  Christopher Columbus brought back Native Americans from his sail to America and they were supposedly baptized here.  The Deacon's House next door is a wonderful example of a Renaissance nobleman's palace with a small open-air  interior courtyard.  Some of his exterior walls are the remains of the original Roman walls--no need to build twice around here.  Spatially on the map, the old portion of the city is easy to see.  The streets which are called "Ronda" this and that follow the original city walls from the Roman era.

We walked along along the road out of the old city called Avignuda Portal de l'Angel to Placa de Cataluyna which is a 19th Century plaza just outside the original city walls.  Spoked off of this huge plaza, we headed back down the road called La Rambla, "stream" in Arabic as this used to be the drainage channel along the outside Medieval wall of Barri Gothic.  Today this wide promenade has tiles which resemble waves and feel like they are actually moving through the funny perspective. 

Tucked inside this road is an interesting anomaly.  While doing some digging in this area, construction workers came across a Roman necropolis or a tomb lined road.  The tombs can be seen from a plaza above.  A contemporary interpretive take in landscape architecture, corten steel gates and walls contrast with the simple beauty of the Roman site.

Starved, as we had been on the road for an hour, we stopped at La Boqueria, a marketplace since the Middle Ages.  This was my personal cultural experience for the day as I gazed in wonder and awe at a butcher's stall of meat that is usually thrown away.  This cornucopia contained cow heart, brains, kidneys, tripe, baby goat's heads with their eyeballs still on the skull, and bull testicles.  Two male students with me thought the vein design on the testicles was pretty and I would have to agree with its 1960s groovy doodles...honestly.  (I didn't take a picture as I didn't want to be rude since I wasn't buying).  You can see how beautiful the stalls are in color and form, from fruit and vegetables to fish and meat, to chocolate and breads, the scene is fabulous.

To end the way, I went to the City History Museum, Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat, and it made the day complete with my theme.  Taking an elevator down 65 feet, you see the real Roman remains of the city under the existing Medieval plaza above by the museum entry.  Homes with their mosaic tile floors; a cold water dipping pool; a laundry which supposedly bought urine to use to whiten clothes (think ammonia); and a wine producing factory were among some of the remnant buildings in the city.  Small re-creations on interpretive signs help visualize this old city from the 4th - 6th Century.  Walking up a flight of stairs, you are at the Medieval part of the city again which was built on top of the Roman part.  The cathedral, with its stained glass and vaulted ceilings, is a strong contrast from the floor below.  Workman from the Medieval days used old Roman blocks to fit into the walls which still have their Roman words on them.  A wooden model at the end of the museum shows the evolution of the city with its original Roman walls, then a succession of additional walls, providing a clear understanding of the way we had walked in the morning and how it looked eons ago.  Unfortunately, no photography was allowed.

Day 17_Barcelona bike tour

To better orient us in the layout of the city, I booked a four hour guided bike tour of Barcelona.  The students are in groups doing an urban studies assignment this week.  Landscape architecture education is from the micro to macro scale which is both fun and challenging because of this range.  Students are taught the details of design like a step tread profile (the sideways view of the flat part of a stair),  to community design, to urban infill, to the macro level of watershed management that is typically done with GIS and satellite imagery.  Many of the students are interested in working for an urban design firm or going into city and regional planning.

Riding through the streets of Barcelona, I felt like Fraulein Maria and the von Trapp family (I was only missing Gretyl on the back of my bike).  And riding a bike through this large city is much faster and easier (probably even more than the Metro) than any walk might have been.  We saw how during the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona retrofitted many of the streets to create a very bicycle friendly city.  We rode through the major parks, saw lots of Antonio Gaudi's buildings, through the Gothic section of the city to the "new area" from the 1850s.  Gaudi's pinnacle design in Barcelona, the cathedral called Sagrada Famillia, has been under construction since 1896 and is due to be completed in 2026....The tight Medieval section of the city was challenging to get through on a bike because of the tight corners.  The Cathedral square in the heart of the old section of the city has Roman walls still standing and was the end of our journey.  Great day for an overview, though a bit chilly.  We finished our ride literally as the rain drops began to fall.