Trip to France, Spain and Portugal

Mike and Judy Henderson
September 1 to September 25, 2017

We depart Madrid today for Barcelona - our trip will soon be over:-(  But I'm sure we'll be glad to get home. I've put up a map to show our travel in Spain.

9/22/2017  We travel to Barcelona today via the high speed train.  It's a three hour ride.  Hotel check-in time is usually about 3pm so we left Madrid about 12:30pm and will arrive about 3:30pm.

Here's a panoramic view I took from the top of our hotel this morning. 

As we were leaving the hotel, I took a picture of this sign in front of the entrance.  Judy had been told that Google is taking over the whole hotel on September 25 and 26.  They'll check out on the 27th.  I assume this will be for certain employees from European countries.  But still?  A whole hotel?

We only had to cross the street to get to the train station, and didn't have any problems.  When I made the train reservations, they had a special deal for an upgraded car for the same price as the economy car, so that's what I got.  It's three seats across instead of four and we had power outlets at our seat.  But no WiFi.

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The land, in the early part of the trip, appeared to be dry with little or no apparent farming.

As we got closer to Barcelona, the landscape was noticeably wetter and all the land was farmed.

And, just as an aside, the train traveled at about 300 k/h, or a bit over 185 m/h.

Our arrival in the Barcelona Sants train station was smooth.  The train station is very large and modern - easy to get through.  We took a taxi into the afternoon traffic (jam).  As we were driving to the hotel, we passed by a demonstration for Catalan independence  - the vote is October 1.

Eventually, we made it to our hotel, Casa Camper.  It's a small (30 rooms, 10 suites), boutique hotel on Carrer d'Elisabeths, only a block or so off Las Ramblas (it is called "Las Ramblas" because it's made up of several streets that have La Rambla in their names).  Here, we're on Rambla de Saint Josep.  There are four other "Ramblas".

Our room is very nice, modern, and large.

We're on the second floor and have a balcony.  Here's Judy playing Juliet to my Romeo.

Here's Romeo, calling out to Juliet.  "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?  It is the east and Juliet the sun."

We signed up for a tour on Saturday and plan to meet the guide at the Mercado de La Boqueria, which is only a few blocks from the hotel, so we walked there to check out the meeting place.  It's an amazing place - enormous and crowded but with every kind of food and drink you can imagine.  Why don't we have places like this in the US?

We found the meeting place and walked back along Las Ramblas.  The terrorist attack on Las Ramblas apparently has not dissuaded people from going there - the street was packed with people - it was hard to walk.

When we got back to the hotel, we went up to the terrace bar - an honor bar - on the top floor of the hotel.

Here's a panoramic view from the terrace.

There was a dramatic sunset.

However, the drama wasn't over.  We went to bed early and were awakened by banging on pots, downspouts, and cow bells, as a demonstration for the upcoming October 1st referendum on independence.  We were told that they would stop about 11pm but the hotel offered us an interior room to sleep in, so we took their offer.  But we'll keep the room we have and just stay up late on Saturday and Sunday.

9/23/2017  There was so much that happened today that I doubt I will be able to convey all of it.

We awoke to a quiet dark city.

After breakfast at the hotel, we walked an almost empty Las Ramblas to the Mercado de La Boqueria, our meeting place for the private guide.  We were early and the Boqueria was not as crowded, so we walked through it.

 It's impossible to show all the types of food and drink that are sold in the Boqueria but here are a couple.  The first is a fruit stand.  The fruit was displayed very nicely.

This stand sold nuts - all kind of nuts.  There were also fish stands, meat stands, and some stands that sold prepared food, such as burritos (Spanish burritos, which are different than Mexican burritos).  It's a visual feast to walk through the Boqueria .

Our guide, Javier, was right on time.

We were very close to where the terrorists who ran over people on Las Ramblas was stopped (he ran into the Boqueria after jumping from his car).  Javier said that this area of Las Ramblas was covered with flowers.  Several trees had messages on them.

Here's a picture, taken from the web, of the flowers, candles and toys that were left on Las Ramblas after the attack.  By the time we were there, the items had been removed.  I think this picture was taken when the Spanish king visited the memorial site.

I might mention that English is used quite a bit in this area.  The shops have English signs in the windows, for example, and many shops have English names.  The hotel we're staying in uses mostly English.

We passed some Roman era crypts.

Catalonia has an independence vote coming up on October 1 and all over the city you'll see banners relating to the vote.  The central government in Madrid has done many things to attempt to stop the vote.  Catalonia is a wealthy province and the Spanish government wants to hold the country together.  Based on what we saw, the desire for independence is very strong in Barcelona, which is the largest city in Catalonia.

We passed the Teatre del Licue, which is the Barcelona Opera House (two different links).

We passed by Santa Maria del Pi church.  I was impressed that they understood π back then and had a church to it:-)

We walked the narrow streets of the old town.  We were early and there were not too many people. A few hours later these streets were packed.

We walked to the Plaça Sant Jaume which is the center of the old city and holds the city hall on one side and the government of Catalonia on the other side.  Here's the city hall.

And the government of Catalonia building.

We passed the College of Architects building which has this frieze by Picasso.  He said that it took him all his life to learn how to draw like a child.

On our way to Sagrada Familia, we passed a Gaudi house, Casa Batlló.

We walked a bit further until we came to another Gaudi building, La Milà.

Then we took a taxi to Sagrada Familia.  On approach, the cathedral looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie.  From the distance, it looks like a wax building that was heated until the wax dripped down the faces.  It's still being built and is not projected to be completed until 2026.

Here we are in front of the cathedral.

A closer view of the entrance.

And a shot of the sculpture on the entrance.

Our guide, Javier, told us that many of the sculptures were made in Japan and therefore have Asian eyes.

Upon entry, I was struck by the height of the cathedral.

Here's a picture of the ceiling.  The columns branch out like a tree and the ceiling looks like it's covered in flowers (to me).

Some of the stonework looks like delicately cut paper.  It is stunning.

The stained glass windows provide a multi-colored light.

Here we are in the cathedral.  Note the halo over my head.  Most of the time you can't see it, although it's always there.

I've always said that Judy is an angel and here's proof.

Our tour ended about here and we thanked Javier for his fine efforts.  We saw a lot in a short time.

 A few more views of the cathedral.  We took many, many pictures, only a few of which we can show here.

The covering over the alter.  It is decorated with wheat and grapes symbolizing the bread and wine used in the Catholic mass.

We caught a taxi back to the area of the hotel and had a tapas lunch at a small café nearby.  By then, a glass of beer tasted really good.

After a short rest in the hotel room, we headed back to the old town.

We went back to the main square in old town and there were people in costume there.

We were told that they are Castellers, the guys who build the human tower.  The Barcelona Castellers (second link here) perform on a regular basis and build a human tower at noon on the closest Sunday to Dia de la Mercé (September 24) in Plaça Saint Jaume.  It happened that tomorrow is Sunday, September 24 (but we didn't go because it is extremely crowded and we'd never have been able to get a view).

They regularly build human towers of eight levels and occasionally, nine levels.  The world record is ten levels.  (Picture taken from the web).

Here are some kids in costume.  The whole event is very family oriented. Aren't they cute kids?

Suddenly, right in front of us appeared this devilish apparition.  Note the little devil hanging on his elbow.

I ran ahead and got this picture of him from the front.  I left the people in the picture to show how tall he is.  We were to learn more about these figures later.

We walked a bit further and came upon a drum band of young people marching.

We encountered two more of those demon figures.

Then we walked to the square in front of the Barcelona Cathedral where there was a concert going on.  A choral group was singing.

This fellow came along and wanted to pose for a picture with us.

Then he wanted a contribution - which we gave him.

All over Barcelona you see these posters.  Each is different and each expresses something that can be related to the upcoming independence vote.

We walked back to Las Ramblas where it was as crowded as usual.

We went to the restaurant Julivert Meu which was on the same street as our hotel - and it turned out to be quite a good restaurant.

Before we were served, however, we heard music and drums outside.  Going to the front door, we saw a parade passing in front of the restaurant.  It's a celebration of Dia de la Mercé, which technically is tomorrow. There were many of these figures in the parade.  A person, often a man because of the weight of the figure, is under the figure and carries it on his shoulders, dancing.  Other individuals are outside helping to make sure the figure does not fall over, and the carrier changes often. I suppose it's tiring and hot carrying that figure.

Here's Judy watching the parade.

Here's one of the groups in the parade.  There were many of these small bands.

Even little kids marched in the parade and carried masks or figures.

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Then it was back to dinner.  We were introduced to "tomato bread".  Toasted bread is used.  You rub the bread with a clove of garlic first.  Then a little salt, then rub the bread with a piece of tomato.  Finish with some olive oil.  It's very tasty.

That ended a very busy day for us in Barcelona, and we hit the sack.  At 10pm the clanging started again, not a bad as the first night, but we were ready for it and were able to sleep through it.

Our adventure continues here