Barcelona

On Friday night we spent 7 hours going nowhere. We boarded the plane on time and learnt that the plane had hit a bird on its incoming flight. The wing was damaged enough to need repairing (I imagine the bird however got off second best) and so after an hour sitting on the plane we were taken back to the airport to wait another few hours before we were told to come back for a 10.30 flight the next morning. We did have a bed to go to, but others either camped out in the airport or took the offer of an Easyjet £70 subsidy on a hotel (it was the balloon festival on so not sure if it was easy to find accommodation at that time of night). So, our trip to Barcelona was somewhat shortened, but still we had a great time. After dropping our bags off at a somewhat posh hotel (for us) we caught the underground into the centre.

While on the underground it occurred to me that people are the same everywhere it doesn't matter that we might speak a different language or be a different colour we're all the same. There is the old man who tries to find a seat for his wife, although he looks as though he needs the seat more; there is the older teenager going on 20 plus that could be coming home from a late night or pulled out of bed early to go to some place they really don't want to go to; there's the slightly arrogant person who puts their feet on the seat, or sits with their bag on the next seat even though there are people standing; there's the young couple who have trouble keeping their hands and lips to themselves; there's those going to work that don't look particularly enthusiastic about anything; the shopper who is tired from all that retail therapy; the parent who talks and cuddles their little children or rocks them gently asleep and there's the talkers who chat throughout the journey to their friends sitting beside them or on the end of a cell phone. Barcelona was no different to London!! So, with that thought (and a Spanish book in our pocket) we caught the Hop On Hop Off bus for a quick tour of the city so we could work out what Barcelona was all about. The next day we went on a Fat Tire Bike ride and so here is what we saw on both these trips ( conclusion have to go back cos all we saw was the outside of things, rather than the inside). The architect Gaudi had a huge influence on the architecture in Barcelona and this style reminded me of Hundertwasser, the Austrian who also designed the famous loo in Kawakawa, Kiwi land (photo courtesy of the web cos we haven't seen it - but it is on our must do list when we return).

Oops sorry got distracted, back to Gaudi and Barcelona. Like Hundertwasser, Gaudi wasn't particularly keen on straight lines - and I agree where in nature do you find a straight line? Gaudi's influence is seen through out the city, as other architects (shame on me I can't remember their names) have copied his style (colourful, ornamental, curved, at times intricate and often quite droopy which leaves the impression of sadness), or introduced a new style of their own. Being quite keen on architecture I was fascinated and we have to return to go inside (we've decided we might try and avoid the queues by going in winter- being inside in winter is o.k.). Antoni Gaudi was born in 1852 to a poor family and qualified as an architect some 25 years later. The style has been described as a 'sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style' and I think the description is quite apt. On the bus or on the bikes we drove or rode past:

• Casa Calvet designed for a textile manufacturer with the bottom storeys used for business and top as the family home. It is quite conventional, compared to other of Gaudi's designs, by looks as it is between two older buildings - a bit like a terraced house in Bristol. But it does have character though a bit difficult to get on photo.

• Casa Batlló - restored by Gaudi in 1877 and remodelled in the early 1900's. A middle class family originally commissioned the design and it is right in the centre of Barcelona. I really really really want to go inside cos apparently it is spectacular. They say, the aim was to avoid straight lines completely and the outside is a mosaic of broken tiles, it has an arched roof and ...
  

• Casa Milà, was built around 1910 and was built for a wealthy widow (old money from America) and her second husband (who probably didn't have the money but enjoyed the flamboyant lifestyle of the rich). It's been restored now since it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and really looks great (from the outside).
  

• The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (often simply called the Sagrada Família). It is huge that has been under construction in Barcelona since 1882 (started while Gaudi was alive but the plans have gone missing since his death) and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026 (or later if progress continues to be slow). Somehow, I think it is more of a tourist attraction unfinished...it looks sad, incomplete and too big (according to me)...

All this is mixed in with the narrow streets and older terraced buildings of the 'old Barcelona', the 'new' spacious Barcelona and modern buildings. So, quite an eclectic mix.

Besides buildings, we saw lots of other things like:

• The wonderful person-made beaches built specially for the 1992 Olympics where New Zealand one 1 gold, 4 silvers and 5 bronze medals - our third highest tally ever - perhaps they were inspired by the lovely golden beaches, warm waters and brand new hotel accommodation built for them. We sat in the sun and ate baguettes and fruit and then paddled in the lovely warm water (with lots of topless sun bathers), wishing we had time for a swim.
  
• Some great views from the Montjuic castle (we climbed to it using the underground, funicular railway, gondolas) and from other parts of the botanical gardens. The castle was built in 1640 and was later used as a place to house political prisoners over time. It had none of that atmosphere about it but I guess we were admiring the views from the top of the walls. It is the only place in Barcelona where a statue of Franco stands.
• The Barcelona Cathedral which had a really interesting garden where 13 white geese are meant to live because some special person was martyred when she was 13 some 600 years ago (I think I counted 7 geese - but I guess some could have flown somewhere else for lunch).
• Part of Olympic village where competitors stayed, the athletics stadium, the bit where the flame was lit and the telecommunications tower that looks like a big needle and thread.
  
• Poble Espanyol which I would be keen to go inside next time (built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition) it is a model village. Its got 117 buildings, streets and squares reproduced to, I think, life size scale.
• The port with lots of cranes, container ships and cruise liners.
• The Glories - Toree Abgar which we likened to the Gherkin in London. It is a skyscraper designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel and is lit up at night. According to Jean Nouvel, the shape of the Torre Agbar was inspired by Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona, and by the shape of a geyser rising into the air (I'll leave the rest to your imagination). However it does have a few nicknames such as "el supositori" (the suppository), "l'obús" (the shell) as well as the gherkin and others which I won't repeat.
• the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau - which was founded in 1401 but is still a hospital.
• the steps where Christopher Columbus climbed to visit King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella after he returned from his famous trip to the America's - I didn't know that Christopher was actually Italian.
• the Arc de Triumph in Citadel Park (which had a huge colony of Australian Green Lorikeets -we saw them in Hampstead Heath as well) - they made a terrific noise but mostly hid in the trees.
  
• bull fighting rings - yes it is still legal - and I wasn't impressed.
• the markets of La Ramba - a tree lined street - close to the older part of Barcelona. When we arrived at 10 am for our bike ride, it was very quiet but on our return 5 hours later we were 'shoulder' to 'shoulder' with lots of others and although fun to watch the street performers we were out of there pretty fast up to the hills above the crowds to enjoy the sunshine with only a few people.

And that was our whirlwind trip to Barcelona (except I forgot to mention the Tapas - yum). And some interesting articles from the paper we read in the airport on Friday night....

• Young people are deserting the internet especially things like facebook as parents work out its a way to keep track of what their kids are doing. 'Yesterday, I discovered that my mother was stalking me on Facebook and Twitter'... the number of 35-54 year olds wasting their time going on line to sights such as Facebook and Twitter has gone up 25% while the number of young folk (15-24%) logging on has dropped around 10%. Could it be because they have worked out that if they invite their parents to be 'friends' on Facebook, parents can actually see what they are doing? ' Interestingly enough over the last week 4 of my friends have invited me to join facebook as friends, so a sample of one, that's me, supports the stats.
• This is your guard speaking again...'passengers have said there were 31 announcements in 32 minutes on a train from Portsmouth to Petersfield' the other day. Certainly, on my trips to Swansea which seem to be weekly at the moment there is often a 'mind the gap between the train and the platform', 'remember to keep your bags with you', 'report unattended bags', 'this train will stop at ....', 'the next station is ...' (often wrong). The useful things are 'we're a few minutes late because waiting for a signal...' etc and the only other advantage I can see is that they keep me awake so I don't miss the station where I have to change trains.
  

And some jokes pertinent to the news worthy English political system at the moment:

• Did you hear the one about the MP who didn't put anything on expenses? No, me neither.
• How many MPs does it take to change a light bulb? None, but a family member will do it for £10,000.

And to finish the week off: Is there any point posting our vote on the referendum on 'smacking' when Harry doesn't vote the same as me!! Should I have saved the NZ tax payer from paying the cost of postage, or voted to show how important it is that we can have a say? And one I found just for Harry...

An elderly lady took her car to the garage for a service and requested that the wheels be moved around. the mechanic asked if she wanted the front wheels swapped to the rear and vice versa. "No" replied the lady. "Ah, so you want them swapped diagonally?" "No, not that either", was the response. "What exactly do you want me to move around then?" asked the exasperated mechanic. "The wheels! Every time I go to check the air in my tyres, the valves are in the wrong place - I want you to move the wheels so that when I park all the valves are at the bottom!"