Barcelona
Having only just completed
the pages on Brittany I am feeling a little guilty about flagging
another foray to foreign climes. Barcelona, however, made such
an impression on us that I can't resist making this offering in
homage to such a remarkable city.
The unmistakable outline
of Antoni Gaudi's many-spired Church of Sagrada Familia must surely
represent Barcelona more than any other image, even including
the blue and red stripes of FC Barcelona. It was certainly the
major attraction for this my first sample of mainland Spain, leaving
aside how typically 'Spanish' is Barcelona. While the Sagrada
Familia became the major part of his life, it and he are far from
all that Barcelona has to offer.
His genius and vision made
such an impression on me that I could easily allow my interest
to overwhelm this more general essay.
Outside the west front of
the church an example of the many 'tableaux vivants', and other
street-theatre, that we encountered wherever tourists were wont
to gather.
Arriving at our hotel, here
reflected in the office building opposite, around lunchtime, after
an unexpected delay of about an hour while the luggage and passengers
attempted to get reunited, we had a snack outside at a pavement
cafe ...
... and set off on a leisurely
amble into the streets to savour the city ...
... and observe the locals
...
... the T'ai Chi class in
the park ...
... where the full scale
Mastodon entertained the kids.
We hadn't ambled far when
we saw this young lady having trouble with her clothing. There
seems to be a lot of art, plastic or otherwise, about this city
...
... and a similar concentration
of baker's shops as in Brittany.
There are not only narrow
Mediterranean alleyways, there are tree-lined boulevards a-plenty,
here the most famous one - The Ramblas, leading down to the waterfront.
As well as street performers another noticeably visible feature,
in the tourist areas and elsewhere, were the quantity and frequency
of police patrols on foot and in vehicles. Very reassuring given
what I had been reading recently about street-crime.
In a neo-classical colonnade,
halfway down the Ramblas, lovers meet in the afternoon sunshine.
The colonnade runs around
the St Joseph Market ...
....
... selling fish fresh from
sea and lake, fruit and veg, spices ...
....
... sweets and candies,
and even Ostrich and Emu eggs!
At the foot of La Rambla
an overabundant expression of civic and national pride. Here the
confection of the Port Authority building sits ...
... across the road from
the more austere neo-classical Palace of the Military Governor,
and, with a prime site on its roundabout ...
... the 200ft Columbus column.
A strong and confident assertion of the values of discovery and
subjugation. It is, however, something of a puzzle to me why Barcelona
should laud him so when the resultant development of trans-atlantic
trade sent her into relative decline. The successful struggle
Barcelona was making towards her modern status as an internationally
renowned city was given a massive boost by the 1888 Exhibition
which saw the city transformed with the Columbus column being
but one part.
A more recent updating of
the city has focussed on the docks area with the development of
the marina in the inner-harbour ...
... and here the Maremagnum
leisure complex on the Moll d'Espanya, with intriguing mirror
effects over the entrance.
Opposite the suitably ornate
19th century Custom House a reference to another of the city's
claims to fame ...
... sits outside this simpler,
almost austere, older building now housing the Museu Maritim but
built in the 14th century for shipbuilding.
Among many interesting exhibits
was this reproduction of an early attempt at a submarine by Catalan
inventor Narcis Monturiol...
... but the undoubted highlight
was this amazing full-size reproduction of the flagship galley
of Don John of Austria, built in this yard and in which he defeated
the Turks in 1571 at the Battle
of Lepanto in the last major sea battle fought between galleys.
An evening view from our
hotel roof back towards the waterfront.
Continued
in Part II
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VISTAS
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