Barcelona
Our first night in Barcelona was Eventful.
Minutes after arriving, we were wandering a large, though quiet street in the Barri Gotic. A low rumbling filled the air, and within two minutes the entire street was FILLED with a 150,000 - 200,000 person gay pride parade which had come from the Las Ramblas into our area, replete with an astonishing number of girls sans tops (no pics, sorry), a series of stereos mounted on trucks which I can only describe in terms of ´chest collaspingly´ loud and a hilarious contingent of flirty transgendered people.
Before:___________After:
______ 
We wandered away and discovered another seemingly spontaneous parade of an entirely different kind. Those people in the yellow shirts take turns carrying the large paper mache people from bar to bar. At each bar, everyone gets to drink for free for the one or two minutes they are stopped. (this tradition is a long one, and has been happening for hundred´s of years). A new person will swap out and dance on with the sculpture - often with hilarious results as most everyone was three sheets to the wind, and the sculptures are very heavy.
Walking around Las Ramblas, this guy gave me an awesome idea for a halloween costume (He´s standing still btw). The colourful market nearby beckoned us to have some pineapple.
The next two days we spent largely exploring Barcelona´s incredible Gaudi architecture. Antoni Gaudi was a brilliant turn of the century modernist artist/architect and is responsible for some of the most brilliant buildings I´ve ever seen. He solved extremely difficult engineering problems by referencing nature (seashells, trees, crystals), and modern day architects continue to puzzle over how some of his feats were accomplished.
The main buildings we visited were the Sagrada Familia now 110 years on in the building (half done - but accelerated construction means a 2030 finish). He supervised this project (living on site) for 20 years until his death. The city has continued on using his plans and models (reconstructed after anarchist burned his workspace down). We climbed up and down the 8 spires you see in the picture, with breathtaking views of the city, and the temple at each one.
The other building was the Casa Batlla, which was built in the same era as Jules Verns ´20,000 leagues under the sea´ novel. It evokes feelings of a cavelike aquarium ´to nurture the ego´expounds the pamphlet. There are no straight lines in this bizzare mansion, but it remains highly functional, which was a trademark of his.
This is me doing my best impression of a person in a Picasso Museum keeping an eye on a distracted guard and taking a picture of him self in the ´Foto Prohibido´zone. Pretty good eh!
I almost forgot to mention that we had nothing stolen, due to the inordinate amount of locks on our day pack, and the fact that I don´t carry a wallet, just a passport belt and a fifty in my sock. I also put on my ¨I´m gonna pickpocket YOU sucka!¨face.
Venice is up next...get ready for plenty of Indy references...
Minutes after arriving, we were wandering a large, though quiet street in the Barri Gotic. A low rumbling filled the air, and within two minutes the entire street was FILLED with a 150,000 - 200,000 person gay pride parade which had come from the Las Ramblas into our area, replete with an astonishing number of girls sans tops (no pics, sorry), a series of stereos mounted on trucks which I can only describe in terms of ´chest collaspingly´ loud and a hilarious contingent of flirty transgendered people.
Before:___________After:
______ We wandered away and discovered another seemingly spontaneous parade of an entirely different kind. Those people in the yellow shirts take turns carrying the large paper mache people from bar to bar. At each bar, everyone gets to drink for free for the one or two minutes they are stopped. (this tradition is a long one, and has been happening for hundred´s of years). A new person will swap out and dance on with the sculpture - often with hilarious results as most everyone was three sheets to the wind, and the sculptures are very heavy.
Walking around Las Ramblas, this guy gave me an awesome idea for a halloween costume (He´s standing still btw). The colourful market nearby beckoned us to have some pineapple.
The next two days we spent largely exploring Barcelona´s incredible Gaudi architecture. Antoni Gaudi was a brilliant turn of the century modernist artist/architect and is responsible for some of the most brilliant buildings I´ve ever seen. He solved extremely difficult engineering problems by referencing nature (seashells, trees, crystals), and modern day architects continue to puzzle over how some of his feats were accomplished.
The main buildings we visited were the Sagrada Familia now 110 years on in the building (half done - but accelerated construction means a 2030 finish). He supervised this project (living on site) for 20 years until his death. The city has continued on using his plans and models (reconstructed after anarchist burned his workspace down). We climbed up and down the 8 spires you see in the picture, with breathtaking views of the city, and the temple at each one.
The other building was the Casa Batlla, which was built in the same era as Jules Verns ´20,000 leagues under the sea´ novel. It evokes feelings of a cavelike aquarium ´to nurture the ego´expounds the pamphlet. There are no straight lines in this bizzare mansion, but it remains highly functional, which was a trademark of his.
This is me doing my best impression of a person in a Picasso Museum keeping an eye on a distracted guard and taking a picture of him self in the ´Foto Prohibido´zone. Pretty good eh!
I almost forgot to mention that we had nothing stolen, due to the inordinate amount of locks on our day pack, and the fact that I don´t carry a wallet, just a passport belt and a fifty in my sock. I also put on my ¨I´m gonna pickpocket YOU sucka!¨face.
Venice is up next...get ready for plenty of Indy references...
posted by Brad and Anette at 6:06 AM
3 Comments:
Cooper wants to know what "sans tops" means. He also wants to know why happy, proud people have such big parades in Spain?? Told him you'd explain everything when you visit.
The Sagrada Familia looks positively amazing - although not what I envision as "Modernist." I bet the views from the top were spectacular. It looks like its intended use is as a Church?? (Yes - that was a question - do you know who owns it?)
The Casa Batlla certainly has a personality of its own - it appears very abstract. It would probably drive someone as linear as me to the funny farm!!
Onward to Venice - one of the most amazing places on the planet. We're really excited for you both and are looking forward to your blogs from Italy. Make them as long as you like; we're enjoying this. (Yeah, I know, you really want to spend your entire vacation attached to a keyboard in an internet cafe, just to keep us poor slobs at home happy...)
luv klk
Hei Anette
Tenk at du er i Barche---lona HIKK
Det var skikkelig artig. Dere har sikkert en fantastisk tur. Her har vi hatt full sommmer den siste uka, og i går og i dag har vi hatt 27 grader og sol døgnet rundt. Dessverre kommer dere for seint til å oppleve midnattsola, men vi får håpe været holder seg bra. Vi gleder oss til dere kommer. Du kan tro lille Fredrik er veldig søt! Stor klem fra tante Torill. Skal hilse fra de andre.
Hi guys,
Wow - Barcelona doesn't look that much different 30 years later - except I sure didn't run into a Gay Pride Parade (we didn't talk about such things in the 70's!!)
Returned from a great weekend at RTS - this year's varmints are crows which woke us up at 5:30 a.m. playing what sounded like soccer on the roof. Turns out they were - with 6 bright white stones! I bought an owl with a bobbing head - it has scared them off so all is quiet! Looking forward to having you both there at the end of August.
Had dinner with Sandy and Jo --- Jo just returned from her trip to Greece. Whatever you do, don't go on an 18 km hike downhill on Mount Somalia or something like that --- she had to be carried out by mule and to hear her talk about it; she is lucky to have gotten out! It's all on shale which is really hard to walk on, and there have been many accidents..... O.K., O.K., once a mother, always a mother...... :)
Take care and enjoy Venice!
Lots of love, Mom
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