‘So in the end, a line and colour are all that’s needed to create a painting’. Joan Miro
Barcelona; it’s a long time since we were last here; 1992 in fact. Back then the city was readying itself for the Summer Olympics and the Sagrada Familia was still growing. Twenty-three years later, there we were, sitting at a bus stop near Gavà and wondering how much the city might have changed. Apart from London, Bangkok and Singapore, there are not many cities around the world that we get to visit more than once. I guess there are so many cities in the world to see and we do often find that a repeat visit to somewhere can sometimes be disappointing.
The bus shot down the freeway and had us in the centre of the city at the Plaça Catalunya in forty minutes. We picked up a map and started our wanderings. The ‘Wand of Narcism’ (selfie stick) was everywhere, being sold and being used by the thousands and thousands of tourists. We heard languages from all over the world and thankfully there were restaurants selling food from all over the world. At 3pm we stumbled across a Japanese restaurant, just as we were thinking about lunch; perfect timing and perfect food. After eating everything that took our fancy, we continued on down the Carrer de la Marina. Gradually Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia came in to view and my heart sank. Twenty-three years ago, I fell in love with the building and I said at that time “Let’s come back in twenty years’ time and see if it’s finished”. It is not. It is now covered in scaffolding, there are cranes everywhere and lots of the pointy bits are covered in plastic. Kevin McCloud would not be impressed with the schedule, or the budget and the project would never make it to air on ‘Grand Designs’. It’s a building site, like so much of Spain. I was so disappointed. We considered going inside again, but tickets to the two accessible towers were sold out for the day, so we passed on by. Maybe we will return in another twenty years!
The Metro got us back down to the Plaça Catalunya and from there we rambled down La Rambla, a very busy lively place on a Sunday afternoon. On the waterfront, we sat for a while and gazed at all the yachts before following our noses through endless narrow lanes to the Cathedral. There was a service in progress and just as we entered a male chorister began to sing. His voice was wonderful and as I gazed up to the ceiling of the nave, his song seemed to travel around the arches. I think I’ve said it before, but I do wish churches would have music playing within their walls; it always seems to make them more inspiring and brings them alive.
At 8pm we caught the bus back to the campsite and reflected on what we had seen today and what to see next.
Monday turned out to be a genuine ‘Rodney Tour’. We were at the campsite reception at 8am to buy tickets for the big red Bus Turistic, on the local bus at 8:20am, arrive Barcelona at 9am and start the walk up Passeig de Gràcia. We stopped to gaze at Gaudi’s amazing Casa Batilό and then continued at fast pace to Casa Milà, La Pedrera. At 9:20am we purchased our tickets and started to tour this remarkable building.
And so our ‘Rodney Tours’ day continued. First the red bus, north, then west, then south and east. We travelled up and around Montjuïc, past art galleries, the Olympic site, the botanic gardens, down to the port and the World Trade Centre. We pointed up at the monument to Christopher Columbus who was pointing out to sea with his 0.6metre index finger; impressive! There were old warehouses now converted to restaurants and a museum and there was the new Port Olímpic full of shiny yachts. Then we switched to the green bus which took us past the beaches, lots of new impressive buildings and parks and back in to the old town.
We got off our bottoms for a while and walked through the Barri Gòtic area, before boarding the blue bus which took us through Eixample, round the Sagrada Familia and on through the Gràcia district up to Parc Güell. We enjoyed a good long stroll around Mr Gaudi’s gardens and took in the enormous view over Barcelona. The blue bus then took us further north and west, past palaces and monasteries, finally turning back east at Camp Nou, the Barcelona Football Club. A stroll through the Raval district completed our day in Barcelona, we did the lot; we covered so much. Just over twelve hours later, we caught the local 94 bus back to the campsite and planned what to see on Tuesday. So for such a full on day, I’ll let the pictures tell more of the story…….
Monday had been filled with a lot of Gaudi, so for Tuesday we intended to pull in a few different artists connected with Barcelona. At Plaça d’Espanya we hopped on the red bus, up through Montjuïc and got off at the gleaming modern building that houses the Fundació Joan Miró. He’s a fascinating artist who seems to have worked his way through many different styles and mediums in his lifetime, but in my eyes, he always seems to invoke happiness and a smile.
The red bus took us down to the waterfront where we ambled through the Barceloneta district with its old buildings and newly created beaches, to search out a bit of Frank Gehry. El Peix (The Fish) is 52metres long and was commissioned for the Olympic Village. It’s a pretty impressive shiny sculpture, but close up I felt it needed a bit more work to tidy it up……… in my opinion….!
After lunch, eaten in a café right under El Peix, we travelled a couple more stops on the red bus and then strode through the Barri Gòtic area to the Museu Picasso. It was 3:45pm and we queued for fifteen minutes; not too bad we thought. It turned out that if we bought the next tickets available, we would still have to wait forty-five minutes to enter. So we opted for 5:30pm tickets instead and wandered off to Desigual, a popular Spanish store that sells clothes that look like art.
The Picasso Museum is spread out through four small Baroque and mediaeval palaces and a few of the rooms still have beautiful, decorative ceilings. Picasso’s early work as a fourteen-year-old was very impressive, but the work he did in his twenties, left me thinking he had left his talent behind. I’m fond of a lot of his Cubist works, but sadly there weren’t really any of those in this museum. I guess those high priced and well know works are now spread all over the world. Art, it’s a bit like wine; I’m no expert, but I know what I like. Today left me cheering for Mr Miró. Oh, and we did spend a bit of cash at the Desigual store.
And on the fourth day we rested. A chat and drinks with neighbours, some time spent horizontal and asleep on the beach, some reading and eating time. All is good with the world.
