HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM BARCELONA!

November 28, 2013 / 8:30 p.m. Europe—2:30 p.m. EST
Sunny, high 40s

 

While our family will just begin Thanksgiving dinner, we are in our hotel for the evening. Our dinner was paella at La Rambla on Las Ramblas. No turkey, no pumpkin pie on the menu. We settled for chicken paella (Spanish rice) and chicken/beef paella for TK. This probably was not a 3 star restaurant, but what a day we have had otherwise.

At 9:30 a.m. we took a taxi (6 €) to La Sagrada Familia, one of the most breathtaking, inspiring, spiritual churches I have ever entered.  Construction was begun in 1892, but the church will not be completed until about 2026.

Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said, "It is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art” and Paul Goldberger called it, "the most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages.”

 I was so intrigued by this church last year that when Tim said we could return and tour inside I was very happy. We bought the tickets online which meant we had no wait to enter. We spent about 3 hours at least trying to capture every aspect, from the unique stained glass windows, the Nativity façade, the Passion façade, the incorporation of nature, the unbelievable use of mathematics, and a special tour of the Passion bell tower. The Passion tower is about 300 feet high. We took the elevator up and I walked down. The spiral staircase, reminiscent of the nautilus shell, was a little scary as I descended, narrow and no railing on one side. My knees were shaking the whole way down, but the view of Barcelona and the close-up view of the spires’ tops were worth the effort!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I truly hated to leave the church, but we took a taxi to Museu Picasso. The Metro is available, but the learning curve would slow us down (French or English no problem). Plus the cost of a taxi was extremely reasonable.  Pablo Picasso lived and painted in Barcelona. His friend decided to create this museum during Picasso’s lifetime, so Picasso donated many of his originals. The first room was filled with his work from age 13-18. His skill is certainly evident. I did not know that Picasso’s father was an art teacher.  Anyway, the museum shows examples of the evolution of his style. The Picasso Museum itself occupies five large town houses or palaces on the street Carrer de Montcada. The original palaces date from the 13th-15th centuries.  http://www.museupicasso.bcn.cat/en/

 After visiting the museum, we walked and walked the rest of the afternoon, toward Las Ramblas.  The streets were early 13^th – 15^th century, filled with small boutiques, art galleries, tabacs, and so on.  Our rule is, never pass up a chance for gelato (there is absolutely nowhere in Erie for true gelato, so we tried strawberry, pina colada, tutti frutti, raspberry, and coffee flavored. I loved strawberry, tutti frutti, and pina colada.

Finally, we had dinner as mentioned first. We continued walking until after 8 p.m. The streets are lighted for Christmas, and we saw Santa Claus! We also saw what we think was a rehearsal for an outdoor ballet---varied orchestra music, e.g. Macbeth, the opera. So beautiful, the delicate dancers on an open air stage, the director suggesting graceful steps.

Finally we entered El Corte Angles (department store, 4th largest in the world, largest in Europe)which turned out to be a city block footprint and 9 stories high. I believe it is bigger than Macy’s in NYC! There were 3 sets of escalators!!! Women’s, Men’s, Children’s departments, electronics department that could compete with our Best Buy, housewares, a full floor of toys and Santa’s workshop, even paint and things found in a hardware store, and much more, and a full scale grocery store in the lowest level.  The store reminded me of the Boston Store in its glory days, only a much larger scale.

Now we are in for the night, and we enjoyed Face Time with B1, Denise, and Brian. Just like we were with them. I tried Coleen’s iPad, but they must still be dining with family.

We had a nice Thanksgiving and wish our family could be with us!

 

TK's Takes:  Barcelona's nightlife is thriving. Reminds him of NYC. (Note: Barcelona's population is 1.6 million people)