Week 1: 21/3/2022 - 27/3/2022¶
This is the first week of the program but it has been a little lighter in terms of classes and activities as the program seeks to help the students and faculty ‘phase in’ to life in Barcelona. When I write these entries I am slightly overwhelmed by the shear volume of experiences that feel worth mentioning along with tracking down as many of the little leads to other potentially lovely experiences here in Barca.
21-22/3/2022¶
Part of the value of journaling for me is just to review what happened along with thoughts and experiences. Because they are accumulating so fast (no surprise) it feels a little overwhelming when I don’t take the time every day to write. On the other hand being out there having experiences is also the point. Mental dissonance is good right?
Monday: - the first day of the program - Alba went out to the airport to get the incoming students off to their homestays. In the meantime Dawn and I did a little more exploring of our neighborhood. Some more bread from the little store outside our door. Found an actual supermarket down a sidestreet that we had not visited yet – yay! Just two blocks away. Started getting food in the apartment. Not surprisingly the store is organized a bit differently than our US stores but still very much a clean modern feel. Two amusing differences. Where we tend to have small carry baskets when you’re not shopping for much the carry baskets here have two handles. One short one for carrying as we usually do and one longer one for dragging the basket along the floor in it’s tiny wheels. Actually saw one local get tangled up in her basket on the floor and take a header.
The other difference that stuck me/us was the selection of fish available in the supermarket (Mercadona). Except at Fisherman’s Pier in Seattle I’ve never seen so much fish of so many different kinds on ice. Lots to learn about fish for sure.
After shopping we got out the door to walk over to the kettlebell studio to see a class. Modest walk of 30 min or so. Watched the class and talked to the owner (mostly in English). Very different style of kettlebell work than Dawn does in Redmond with a very crossfit feel to it. Clearly a great workout which may be just what Dawn needs/wants. Later in the evening Dawn emailed the gym and set up a class for Tuesday (2:15) after we finish our Orientation and walk with SAE.
From the kettlebell gym (around 12:30) we continued on to Placa Catalunya - the main central square - where we were eventually going to meet up with Jordi for the first day walk with SAE. The students, most of whom had arrived this morning after 20 hrs of traveling, were supposed to find their way to Cafe Zurich on the edge of the placa at 3:00. We obviously got there a little early. We took advantage of the time to wander down La Rambla and off to Carrer del Pintor Fortuny where Casa Pierra (the vendor for Pan Pastels) is located. We tried to connect with Bernies representatives through the store staff but they had never heard of them. Also got to observe an English woman being very demanding of the staff (in English). The whole La Rambla and Placa Catalunya area seems very upscale for sure. We exited and found a cafe and had wine and tapas for a snack before heading back to Cafe Zurich to meet the students and Jordi.
We wandered about the placa for a bit observing the fountains and the various stores. Apparently el Cort Inglés is a department store for everything but I can’t really imagine shopping there. It was a bit blustery so we sat inside Cafe Zurich for cafe con leche and waited for our crew. Found a very chilled out Roy out front reading a book in shirtsleeves and a class hat. All the locals are bundled in puffies and scarves since they find it miserably cold mostly. We chatted with Roy for a bit and then found Jordi out front with most of the students who had arrived that morning (looking a little sleepy). Jordi passed out our metro passes (different ones for the under 24s and the ‘over 24s’) along with an admonition not to lose them since replacing them is practically impossible. This is a bigger issue for the under 24s since theirs are 3 month passes and the ‘adult’ passes are only for a month at a time. They are apparently rarely checked by metro conductors but your passport number is required to be written on the pass. There are a lot more metro lines than I thought (11 if I look closely at the map) but Jordi says most folks only use the main 5 and refer to them by their colors. L1 - rojo (red), L2 - morado (purple), L3 - verde (green), L4 - amarillo (yellow?), and L5 - azul (blue). These criss cross town through the main parts. Rojo y morado (L1, L2) pass through our local station and get us many places. What Jordi noted is that when you enter the metro the platforms are labeled by the end point of the line. To go home we want the red line headed east which ends at Fondo. The signs are label Fondo and Hospital de Bellvitge (the western end). This is how you know which platform to get on.
Azul (L5) will get us to Spanish class after a change at the Sagrada Familia station. The spanish language courses are contracted out to Expanish which is a global spanish language school. The one in Barcelona is at Carrer de Pau Claris 186 2nd piso. More about that tomorrow after the placement test.
Jordi (jordi.junca@barcelonasae.com) took us on a short walk down to the cathedral and took a picture of those who were there. I would imagine the goal was to get the folks who had just arrived to stretch their legs and try to stay awake until the end of the day to facilitate their internal clocks. Elizabeth did not make it due to missed connection in Amsterdam. She arrived safely later in the evening and found her apartment.
After the walk we hopped on the metro with our new metro cards and made our way home. When we arrived at home I looked for a Yoigo store to get the SIMs for our phones and found one 1 km away. Left Dawn at the apartment to rest and walked down Carrer Valencia to the Yoigo store. Got everything sorted but needed an actual passport to setup the account. Who knew you needed a passport to get a phone? Interestingly my passport card was NOT accept in place of the passport. Walked home to get passports and my metro card and went back to get the SIM’s and plans implemented. Along the way I had an interesting collision with my expectations. For whatever reason I was expecting the metro trains to have some color indication that aligned with the particular route. Red for L1, green for L3 etc etc. I was on the correct platform L2 Parallel to head west on L2 but the train that came was red with no indication that it was a morado (L2) train. I let a couple pass before deciding that I couldn’t get that far off track just going one stop. Turns out that it was the correct train and there are no indications on the outside of the train indicating the line. As usual, when I got out at my stop, I got totally turned around and headed off in the wrong direction 3 times before finally heading the block to the Yoigo store. Now we have 20 GB data plans and phones but, interestingly, no SMS text. We’ll see if that turns out to be sufficient. 15€/month seems pretty reasonable compared to the 100/month to use our phones from home.
Headed home with our phones (I brought open phones from the US) to a tasty meal with Dawn and collapsed into bed.
Tuesday: Tuesday we met for orientation (Safety etc) at SAE at Carrer del Casp 130 at 9:00. After days of very light intermittent rain this morning it poured pretty hard. Made the commute to class a little different. About half of the locals had umbrellas some of which appeared to have been rarely used since they were broken. Many stood in doorways while waiting for buses or other transportation. Didn’t feel like dealing with rain was a common thing for them. Still raining hard when we got to the Arc de Triomf but managed to arrive without drowning. Signed in at the front desk (we will apparently get a QR code or card so we don’t have to do this every time we go to class) and headed up to class. SAE has a small suite on the 5th floor. 3-4 classrooms and an office. Jordi took us through the presentation. We got a bit of a late start as a couple of folks got off in the wrong direction. Got the safety information and a quiz on culture. Who knew that Spainiards were among the longest lived folks in the world? They are projected to pass Japan in another decade in spite of how many smoke. Also surprised to hear that only 15% of locals attend church on Sunday. Jordi did a great job at fielding questions and keeping us on track. The room had already been scheduled for another class at 11:00 (note to self – no hanging around after class) so we exited, had some coffee and came back to join Laura who walked us over to the Cathedral again where we met Oliver - a guide. Oliver clearly loves his work and gave us a thoughtful and extensive tour of the historical center of Barcelona that was loads of fun. Dawn has his contact info so we can possibly take a private tour in the future. Here are some images….
Oliver…
The obligatory image of tourist in front of an old wall…..
Roman era blocks (cerca 2000 years) with holes visible for crane tongs used to set the blocks.
A lovely hidden Placa (Plaça de Sant Felip Neri) showing shrapnel damage on walls from time between World Wars when children hiding in church were killed by bombing (reminiscent of Ukraine (Ucrania in es) as Oliver noted). Sant Felip Neri was apparently a man with such a big heart that it was difficult to hold in which is why his hands are over his chest holding his heart in. The heart is also the symbol over the doorway. Lovely bit of lore.
The tour finished at Placa de Sant Jaume where City Hall is located as well as house of the governor of Catalunya. Some very upset local was in front of town hall loudly expressing his displeasure with something. Oliver said he was there the day before as well. Came and went a couple of times while we were there. Relatively civilized in a way to just stand in front of town hall and shout your displeasure. I feel like there might have been weapons involved in the US. The sandwich shop that Tegan suggested we try sometime is in the corner of this square. Oliver advised against paella anywhere near La Rambla and encouraged us to head for the port area and plan for 4-5 people for a meal. Also expect to pay.
We found our way back to La Rambla with Elizabeth. The rest mostly headed off to lunch somewhere while we headed up to the metro to catch the train over the Marina for Dawn’s kettlebell class. Got turned around again but eventually figured it out and arrived in plenty of time. Dawn got some serious training in for an hour while I watched:b.
After class we stopped at Restaurant Rosmarin across the street from the kettlebell place for main meal. Tried their Menudedia – 11.50€ with two courses, wine, bread, and dessert. Tasty and filling. Dawn had a Ensalada de Huerta which was a green salad with tuna and eggs for primero, I had a pasta dish - tasty, Dawn had Hambugesa for main course - not at all what you would expect, and I have a Carne ??? al plancha con patata - sort of a thin grilled steak. Dessert Dawn had Helada de Limon - Lemon Italian Ice and I had a flan. Both were excellent. All in all very tasty and filling.
Walked home with Dawn leading the way. She did a great job working out her landmarks and which way to go. Still not entirely confident but getting there. Stopped into the local ferreteria for batteries and a pocket knife. Good on the batteries but no on the pocket knife. Perhaps the folding or pocket knife is called a navaja? This was part of the problem. End of long but interesting day.
23/3/2022¶
Spent most of the morning updating the journal for the last couple of days – I know it’s not critical but I feel like it helps me review the day and things that I may have learned. After spending the morning doing digital chores including finishing up grading for winter term we headed over to find the Expanish school near La Pedrada (Casa Mila) - another UNESCO Heritage building. La Pedrada was amaizing from the outside and we will certainly figure out a way to do a tour since we had such a fascinating time at Casa Batlló the other day.
Expanish has a number of small classrooms and a large lounge area. We stopped in to use the bathrooms and then took a little walk around. At one point we passed a place called Robot Shop which I wondered if it was one of the makerspaces I was looking into but glancing inside as we went by it was under construction so hard to tell if it ‘was’ the Robot Shop or was ‘about to be’ the Robot Shop.
The construction world here in Barca has so many special issues to deal with compared to construction in a place like Bend/Redmond. There is lots of remodeling going on but the only place to park or store materials is on the sidewalk or in the road and that is clearly precious real estate. Construction trash is taken out in shopping carts and large poly sacks that are lifted buy cranes. We saw a cool material escalator that lifted small materials from the curb up serveral floors on the outside of a building to get to the apartment being remodeled. Small walk behind forklifts are everywhere and I know I’ve seen them in the US but not so commonly.
Everyone made it to the ‘prueba’ at Expanish at 2:00. We gathered in a room and each student was taken separately into a room with a ‘professor’ and engaged in conversation. I’d love to know how it went for different students but I’m sure we all felt hopeless in our own way. Dawn basically said ‘I speak some French’ and was asked if it was OK to be placed into the basic class. She was totally cool with that. My professor scribbled a bunch of stuff but I didn’t ask what his assessment was. I assume I’ll hear next week.
Side NOTE: A bunch of us have been finding ourselves remarkably dehydrated since we have arrived. At one level it seems surprising since is has been relatively humid (rainy) but perhaps we’re moving around a lot and not having such easy access to fluids. We had some tubes of pedialyte (rehydration minerals/salts) that we have shared with some students and used ourselves. Just a thing to think about.
As we headed down towards the Gothic district to get to the Museo Picasso we passed a couple of points of interest. We were walking along Carrer de Roger de Llurià and in the block just NW of Plaça d’Urquinoana there are what appear to be a series of fabric stores all in a row. Perhaps it’s just one store spread across several entrances but it felt like they were different names so maybe not? Dawn remembered this might be of interest to E. In the previous block we felt like we walked past a number of gamer shops but they don’t show on Google maps. Worth a check out.
Eventually we got down to the gothic district and felt like we were headed in the right direction to get to the museum but got a bit turned around. Dawn was using google maps on our local phone with data and after a bit it seemed like it was sending us in circles. After looking at the map and watching what it was telling us it became apparent that in the narrow streets of the Gothic district the location it pegged for us wasn’t good enough for the directions to stay on track. Good old fashioned map reading wa required and we finally got straightened around. Just as we got to the museo who should we run into but Oliver from our SAE tour on Tuesday - amazing to meet someone we actually knew in Barca besides our group. Oliver noted that the Museo Picasso had recently removed the section of paintings from the Blue period without any apparent notice. He was headed in to make sure his tour plan wasn’t all messed up. We went ahead and went in (very inexpensive - 7€ for us oldsters) and spent a fascinating hour or so wandering around. Crowded but not ridiculously so. Even I was intrigued by the many repetitions of scenes or settings that Picasso did to explore the possibilities of the design and structure of the composition. A particularly cool version of this were the many paintings in the Las Meninas collection. These are paintings Picasso did modeled on a painting (Las Meninas) by an earlier Spanish painter named Diego Velasquez (1600’s). Below is the original by Velasquez and one of many versions painted by Picaso.
Las Meninas: Velasquez
Las Meninas: Picasso
Cool visit.
We walked back towards the nearest metro stop but it was only served by L4 and it wasn’t clear to me where that connected with the lines we needed. Not too much further to just walk up to Plaça Catalunya and ride home from there which we did.
Big steps for Dawn as we got home as she negotiated her own purchase of our baguettes (boy do we go through bread!) at our local shop. I went down to the Mercadona to get wine and trash bags. After dinner we relaxed with some The Good Doctor on Netflix (how have we not run into this before?).
Tomorrow is the day hike at Tibidabo with Jordi and Laura. Food and fun and maybe rain. Vamanos!
24/3/2022 Thursday¶
Crikey, are the days ever going to slow down? Each day has been a blast and has so much to integrate that it’s no wonder I’m so tired at the end of the day. A number of the participants are still having some sleep disruption but mostly folks are settling their circadian rhythms (messed that spelling up initially!). Once again we gathered at the Cafe Zurich since it is adjacent to the Plaça Catalunya metro station which links a large number of lines. In this case we needed L7 (brown - linea marrón) which runs end to end from Plaça Catalunya to Ave. Tibidabo. Get on at the begining get off at the end. The only mild bit of excitement was that we lost Max for a few minutes and then we lost Jordi while Max found us. Eventually we all ended up at the platform and road the line to its end. At that point we hopped a bus (bus 196 according to one guide). We picked up the bus on the uphill side (on Ave. Tibidabo) of the metro station across from what Jordi thought might be one of the more exclusive restaurants in Spain. The image is from the interior side of the building. On the street side we saw the same wood slatted facing extends all the way down.
Restaurant ABaC (Michelin 3 stars!!) Check out the video for a sense of the place. Three Michelin stars is a big deal. Good to know what I will always be missing. This review is fun to read as well.
The bus dropped us at the base of the Funicular de Tibidabo - Cuca de Llum. We could take this teleferico up to the ring road (Carretera de les Aigues in Catalan) that runs around Tibidabo that we reached by walking up a narrower trail. Possibly this teleferico would be included in our metro pass (the other one and the end of the hike was). Instead we walked up a road called Carrer de Guarda Anton which dead ended in a foot path that led us up to the ring road. Jordi said that the ring road runs for 10 km around the mountain and we saw many many runners and bikers on the roadway (dirt surface). It was clear that Brian N (a friend who will be visiting) would love the ride up Tibidabo but would be bored with the ring road. It was a lovely walk with constant views of the city and various landmarks. From this distance the communication tower on top is a remarkable piece of tech and we could see the Fabra Observatory as well as the inglesia (church which was very cathedral-esque) on top next to the amusement park. By chance Jordi’s father was also out for a walk and we got to meet him briefly. We also saw a couple of wild boar (los jabalies) which are becoming a major problem in and around cities across Europe. Cute but dangerous.
The forest in this Mediterranean zone is a fascinating thing (Ella was very engaged in sorting it out). Pine forests with cacti, succulents, and agave in the lower story. We saw Iris’ and other familiar species as well as what seemed like wild geraniums. Given that it is still late winter there weren’t many clues about the varieties of the decidous trees. Familiar seeming seeming forest at one level and quite different when you looked at the details.
After walking the ring road for a ways (3-4 km?) we came to the funicular on the next part of Tibidabo. After some discussion we opted to continue walking and climbing stairs (escaladas) up into the next neighborhood above the ring road. The area is a little bit like Forest Park in Portland in that it is a large green space with fingers and zones of population extending into the green space at differnt points. At this point we moved off the dirt road and onto stairs and city streets. Just before this point Dawn had a fun discussion with a woman walking her wire haired daschund (Avril). A lovely conversation about how they are ruled by their noses (in this case prone to chase after the jabalies if not restrained. It was a fun connection and I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture. Shortly thereafter we crosse the Vallvidrera teleferico line and walked up a seemingly endless series of steps to eventually arrive at the top of the funicular. Still a very overcast day but we could see the shoulder of Montserrat off in the distance to the NW and Jordi noted that the choir sings at the monestary there on Friday’s if we decided to go. I don’t think Montserrat is on this years cultural plan so we get to do it ourselves - yay!.
This is the plaça where we looked out at the mountains. Hard to see in this image but the view in the distance is Montserrrat.
Not that we’ll forget but Dawn discovered her metro pass had fallen out of her pocket somehow at this point. Had to quick buy a pass to keep things on track. Frustrating for Dawn but the little beggars are just paper and easy to not notice.
It’s always fun to see how the funicular is set up. I hadn’t really thought about it but it this case we could see enough on the trip down to observe some cool stuff. There is a single cable with a ‘car’ at each end. The cable is NOT continuous but acts much like a string over a pulley. With the weights at the two ends relatively similar the motor doesn’t have to do much work to turn the pulley and move the cars. At the midpoint of the pathway the cars are guided to the side so they can pass each other and then returned to the center of the track. What you see is that for part of the journey there are two cables under the car and for part of the journey only one. Very cool.
From the end of the funicular we were about to head out into the street and noticed that a woman with a baby carriage had gotten trapped between two gates of the exit stall from the funicular. We tried to see if we could ‘encourage’ the doors to open but they wouldn’t. She waved us off and called the transit folks and was free before we got out of the building. I wouldn’t have known who to call though perhaps it’s listed in the exit device somewhere. Anyway…we headed out down the hill into Villvidrera. We eventually turned west and paralleled the highway leading to Montserrat and eventually ended up at the Tapia restaurant for a traditional Catalan ‘barbeque’ dinner for our welcome dinner to the program. If was magnificent and we couldn’t really eat everything. It started with a traditional Catalan winter dish of grilled calçots. There is a learned technique for eating these which Laura and Iria demonstrated for us. The proper technique is demonstrated by Sandra.
The actual grilled calçots….
Excellent technique Sandra!!
After the calçots as a starter we then were served the ‘barbeque’ which was basically a mountain of meat of various types. There was chicken, rabbit, sausages (pork), lamb, and maybe something else. Lovely to watch everyone dive into the choices with gusto. Only small problem was that most of us have never eaten rabbit so there was some good discussion about which pieces were consistent with our knowledge of rabbits.
Lots and lots of meat (yes Sandra moved to a different seat that that is Iria at the end of the table)
Finally we got to finish with dessert and café. We now know that Nellie is an ice cream fan, the brownie was wonderful, and most everyone had tarta de queso (cheesecake) pictured below.
As we eased back from the table Iria and Luara said their goodbyes and headed off to various meetings. We had been at Tapia from about 1:30 to 4:00-ish. It is an interesting technique to push students to find their way walk away from them in a part of the city that they have never been too. Tapia is off the beaten track for most of what we will do with no obvious metro stations nearby. We walked downhill (as Jordi said - ‘Downhill is towards the ocean’ along Via Augusta until we crossed paths with the train lines headed for Plaça Catalunya. When we arrive at Plaça Catalunya we had to use our pass to exit the train platform (not sure if it charged us) and then we ended up exiting the train platforms and coming back into the metro at Cafe Zurich and riding home.
Spent the evening catching up on emails, Dawn’s Google slides, and this journal. Off to bed around 11:00.
Iria sent around the QR code we all need to access the building each day.
25/3/2022 Friday¶
Slept in a little before getting up to hearty breakfast. Then headed off to replace Dawn’s T-Usual. Then stopped at Banco Santander to see if I could start a Cuenta Mundo. They told me to go online. When I went online and called the bank (English line for money stuff) they said I had to go back to the branch office. Huh? I think the confusion is that, unlike the US, you can’t just walk into a bank and talk to someone. I needed to go online to set up an appointment (cita previa) for a particular day and time. I set one up and we’ll see if I got the correct branch when I show up.
More about today later…..oh lordy, I let it go for 36 hours and now I can hardly remember what happened a day and a half ago. Yikes! Here’s (maybe) how it went.
After chores and doing some school stuff we headed out around noon. I wanted to get a sense for the Arc d’Triompf area because I’m imagining going there to do some labish stuff for physics and astronomy. A much nicer day today with almost clear skies. Actually needed my dark glasses. We took la Linea Roja to the Arc d’Triomf station and headed over to the park. From there we walked along Carrer de Trafalger because it spans the entire el Born district. Because of the way we got turned around in el Born on Wednesday I wanted to have a clear sense of which streets will take me completely across the district and not ‘T’ into some other unknown alley. Carrer de Trafalger takes off from the ‘top’ corner of the Arc de Triompf. Part of the plan was to locate routes to the Palua de la Musica Catalana where we had an entry time booked at 3:30 and to explore some streets to get our bearings so that we could find Dawn’s life drawing class (at Life Drawing Barcelona) which is tucked down an alley called Carrer Bou de Sant Pere which is near the Palau. Carrer de Trafalger took us across to Visa Laietana which runs parallel (roughly) to La Rambla from Plaça d’Urquinoana. Turning towards the sea (downhill) we went a couple of blocks until Dawn noticed a beautiful newish tower which turned out to be part of the Palua de la Musica Catalana. Later at the end of the day when we walked by we discovered it is lit with vertical chains of lights and is very lovely.
We realized that it was part of the modern section of the Palau as we looked around the corner so we continued that way and found ourselves in Plaça de Lluis Millet. The other day when we had happened by this space I was intrigued by the pancake shaped sculpture of iron in that location. Seemed quite abstract but I shrugged it off. This time we approached it from a different direction and I was intrigued to see that there was a clear head/bust of a person as I looked at the same sculpture. The sculptor is Jaume Plensa and the sculpture (titled Carmela) was part of an exhibit in 2016 but the neighbors were so taken with the sculpture that they petitioned the city and the artist to have it remain permanently. Here is a description. You could see a number of visitors taking video as they walked around the sculpture watching the face appear and disappear. Very cool!
This is roughly the angle I saw it from originally. Notice the very flattened shape
This is the angle I saw it from today and the perspective is wonderfully different.
In this part of el Born the street which passes in front of the Palau is Carrer de Sant Perep Més Alt. Towards the ocean there are two parallel streets named Carrer de Sant Pere Mitjà and Carrer de Sant Pere Baix. Roughly speaking they are C de Sant Pere ‘upper’, ‘middle’, and ‘lower’. The Més Alt and Mitjà eventuall join and then join with Baix to become Carrer del Rec Comtal. Carrer del Rec Comtal continues all the way to the Arc de Triompf entering just below the corner where Carrer de Trafalger takes off. We located the Life Drawing Studio which had a doorbell button labeled ART so we pushed it and Benet Ferret (the owner) came to the door and showed us around. We had found the place for later in the eventing!! Benet noted that it was a full house for the evening session and suggested we arrive a hit early to get a good seat - we had no idea how important this would be. All this exploration took a while including a short walk down towards the Parc de la Ciutadella that we will visit in a future exploration through the school. We headed back towards the Palau for our 3:30 entry and stopped at a place called Les Dues Sicilies which was crowded with high school students 45 minutes earier. Seemed like good recommendation for hearty food at reasonable prices. And so it turned out to be. We had rolladas (verdadura and another one) which were a little like calzones (which the also had). Very tasty and filling for 3.90€.
After ‘lunch’ we popped into the Farmacia across the street just to see what it was like. Iria had noted at the meal on Thursday that pharmacies worked a little differently in Europe with a more hands on interaction with the shopkeeper to determine what was recommended. Not quite a pharmicist in the US medical sense but more than a clerk. Lovely experience. We continued on back towards the Palau and poked our heads in a few places including a perfume shop that politely told us to come back at 4:30 when they reopened:)
At this point we were almost our entry time for the Palau so we found our way back. After a little back and forth about the audio guide (scanned from a QR code to get the link) we entered up the stairs to explore. There wasn’t much to do other than admire the ornate construction but we could hear a group singing in the theater so Dawn pulled open a door to see what it was all about while I explored to see if there was an entrance to the theater that seemed more welcoming. Eventually I found an entrance to the upper gallery where there were multiple people listening to the rehearsal (it seemed to be a rehearsal for a kids event). We pulled up a seat and admired the amazing glasswork which must be to admit natural light in a time when other forms of light were less available. It is quite spectacular though, as some reviewers have said, it seems like the only view of interest for an 11-14€ entry fee. We had the added pleasure of watching 100 or so young children, from various school choirs it seemed, being herded around the stage to have a rehearsal of a song and story presentation. Rarely have I had such a strong sense of herding cats. The sound was lovely in that school choir sort of way.
The ambiance at the Palau de la Musica Catalana. Lots of natural light from a time when operas were performed here before electric lights.
The famous glass ceiling at the Palau de la Musica Catalana
School choirs practicing for a performance at the Palau de la Musica Catalana
We entered the Palau at nearly the last time so we were chased out as closing time approached. Still, a nice visit and we helped contribute to a Catalan cultural icon. For me that makes fees feel better regardless to the particular value I get.
Dawn’s Life Drawing class was still 4 hours away so we decided to head over to La Rambla (the official tourist one, we are finding that many walking zones are La Rambla as you might expect) and head for the statue of Christofer Colon (Columbus) that Oliver had mentioned as an ode to iron as a building material that allowed architects and designers new freedoms 150 years ago. As we started out from Via Laietana we passed a store that Dawn was drawn into a paper store at the street level because of some of the displays. Turns out to be Raima which was a stunning store for papers and high end desk supplies. 4 floors of Pens, desk pad, organizers, and wall after wall of papers in inconceivable variation. There is even a bar on the top level. If the Oliver boys need origami paper I’ll bet it can be found here. Somehow I didn’t even notice the Tintin theme until we were on our way out. Captain Haddock, lots of role playing models from all the books, and that was even Nestor the butler out front. Crikey! Lee would have loved this.
Once we finally extricated ourselves from Raima we headed over to La Rambla wondering if we would stay warm as the breeze off the ocean picked up at various times. We had not brought our outer coats since it seemed warmer and there was no rain in the forcast. We were just on the hairy edge of warm enough. We wandered down La Ramble until we got to the iron statue which I forgot to take a picture. Large column with pointing man on top - check!. More interesting was the harbor just on the other side of the statue. We negotiated the many crossings to get there and found that there was a Rambla de Mar that led out onto the harbor. There is a market out there but we were just delighted to get out near the water and see the harbor.
As we walked across the rambla I was very conscious that many of the boards were loose or uneven at the ends. You definitely had to pay attention or there were plenty of opportunities to trip. More evidence of a different approach to responsibility for your personal well being. An announcement came on as we walked that said they were going to open part of the structure to permit passage of a regular boat from the marina. We found a place to stand where we could watch the process unfold. For whatever reason (Portland bridges perhaps) I was imagining they would lift a section of the walkway up to allow passage but in fact they just rotated two sections of the bridge 90 degrees to create open space above the channel the boarts could travel in. It took less than a minute to ‘open’ and was closed and ready for pedestrians in just a few minutes total. Very effient and smart. How do I get students to notice this sort of thing?
Initial position of ‘bridge’.
‘Bridge’ in ‘open’ position - not the best picture but it will do.
We then walked around the other side of the Mercat which is well situated to serve tourists. From the far side we had a good view of a number of fairly large yachts on the other side of the harbor. Some truely enormous ones off in the distance that I didn’t get a picture of but even these are sort of alarmingly big. We were imagining we might see such a thing from news stories about Russian oligarchs moving their yachts from the repair docks in Barcelona due to the sanctions associated with the war on Ukraine (Ucrania in español).
Which one do you want?
This is much more Bruce’s style – a DIY project for sure!
As we were walking along the far side of the mercat on the Rambla de Mar I noticed an unusual planter for trees along the open plaza in the middle.
Given the clear focus of local architects on design elements everywhere it seemed possible that was the reason. As Dawn walked over to look at them she realized the the stainless steel bars are functioning as gutter to direct water off the top of the plaza. A little more examination and it became apparent that this a water park for kids and others to play in on hot days in the summer. A lot like Centennial Park in the middle of Redmond. The bumped up planters keep the trees from drowning as well protecting them from damage by the crowds that are probably there on hot days.
Just around the corner from the water park is the aquarium. It is said to be a well designed one and perhaps we’ll go some day.
Via Laietana terminates more or less at the aquarium so we made our way back up Via Laietana to Dawn’s drawing class but we still had a little time to kill so we visited a number of stores. We went into a hardware store which mostly had door and drawer fittings (handles and hinges) and materials for making shelves. Dawn asked in they might have a small brass wire brush like she uses in Terrebonne for nefarious artistic purposes. I had no idea how to ask for a wire brush so this was my solution. I asked for ‘Una cosa pequeña para limpiar ferro que tiene muchos pelos de cubre’. Lots of that probably doesn’t match tenses or genders but my intention as ‘a small thing for cleaning iron that has many hairs of copper’. Amazingly it worked. The shopkeeper reached into a drawer behind the counter and brought a package of two of eactly what we were looking for. Whoda thunk!. We all had a great laugh and the shopkeeper said she knew exactly what i was looking for and didn’t ever both to tell me it’s real name in Spanish.
After that successful experience we headed up to the perfume shop where we had interupted their lunch and were invited in. A remarkable shop and a lovely human. Thomas gave us a long explanation in perfect English of how the store was set up. We later found out he grew up in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and came to Barcelona during his junior year abroad - a Spanish major no surprise. He loved it so much he went home to finish school and then moved permanently to Barcelona. There must have been 150 or more individual perfumes created as olfactory works of art from around the world. A subset were created in Barcelona by Thomas. Each perfume has a glass funnel in front of it with a lining of filter paper to hold a tiny bit of the perfume. This allowed for many people to sample the smell without ever touching or opening the actual bottle of perfume. Thomas graciously took Dawn through a long process to see if we could figure out what she might like as a personal perfume to take home. We agreed that this would probably take weeks which was fine with Thomas. If we end up spending €€€ for a bottle I think it will be worth it for the memory alone. Dawn was sent off with a little spritz of the 4 shown below to see how they evolve on her skin and over time. We were introduced to the idea of three layers of the perfume – the top layer which hits you immediatedly the middle layer which adds depth to the aroma, and the base layer which evolves slowly and lasts longest. Lots to watch for and enjoy over the next day.
On the strength of this experience we booked a 4 hour introduction to perfumes with Thomas. Should be a fun and memorable experience.
As we rambled for a final few minutes we spend some time in a feminist bookstore (even in Spanish and Catalan I figured this out!) The book below is one that will need to see if I can find in English since it’s thesis is fascinating.
At last we arrived at the Life Drawing class. For the next hour people streamed in to join the class. Many on time. Many spoke Spanish and English and a few had almost no Spanish. 10€ for the session with wine and snacks if you could beat the college students to the tiny side table. At home the room size would have limited the attendance to 15 max but they must have fit somewhere north of 30 people into the room. Crazy! Everyone raved about the model who was visiting from Italy and was lean and beautifully defined. Dawn met a Swedish woman who was sitting next to her and they had some good conversation. This group is very active and there is even an online component. You’ll note on the website for Life Drawing Barcelona that start times for different workshops are listed for the UK, New York, and Los Angeles. Another 30 or so folks joined in via the web. Benet has 4 controllable cameras so the remote students can pick a perspective to pin and work from in their own studios. Amazing! I cooled my heels and rested in the office watching this stream of artists (mostly 20-40 yrs old) come in a chat with Benet and proceed into the studio. Dawn feels like she might go a couple of times a week though perhaps not on Friday which is the busiest night. We’ll see what today’s (I’m writing this on Sunday) earlier session goes. Today is two long poses and finishes by 20:00 as opposed to the regular sessions which finish at 22:00.
An interesting note: when we went down into the Plaça D’Urquinoana metro stop there was no way to pass through the turnstyles – they were blocked with chains. The person ahead of us went backward through the outbound turnstyle which we did as well. We were a little concerned to be literally the only people on the platform at 10:30. We wondered if we had missed the memo about the metro at might but I was sure Jordi had said they run quite late on Friday and Saturday. Eventually other people joined us on the platform and we were reassured. Short hop home and off to bed. Whew! What a day.
Just as aside I was cruising the interwebs I was looking at this Colossal Art article about Ememem(‘mmm’). I love these sort of randomly findable bits of creativity. Sort of like Roy H working to build an awareness of the local street art folks by taking pictures as we walk around. In the article it makes mention that Ememem has done a number of installations in Barcelona. After some research it appears that there is one of these in Plaça d’Urquinoana. Something to watch for.
26/3/2022 Saturday¶
Saturday we took a bit of a slow start since it seemed like it might be a long day. We began with a kettlebell class for Dawn. This was test for her recovery from the arm strain from the first practice. She is now comfortable enough for me to leave while she is in class. Near the kettlebell studio is a rambla which I went to explore. As it turns out it runs along a diagonal path that terminates at the Arc de Triomf. As I walked from the kettlebell studio to the Arc de Triomf I first passed the Mercat Fort Pienc where it appeared they were setting up for a drum circle or some other performance (later it turned out to be a dance group). \
Market/Plaça at Fort Pienc
After passing the Plaça de Fort Pienc I noticed the Estació del Nord on the ‘mar’ side of the area. This rang a bell from somewhere but I only recently looked for more information about it. While it is still a bus station that serves medium and longer regional buses it is no longer a rail station. It was at one point the primary railway station for Barcelona. It now serves as a bus station, police station, and sports complex. This lovely building was used a a venue for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. It was apparently the ping pong venue. Some day while Dawn is in class I’ll have to see what it looks like inside. Outside it is quite beautiful. Not clear to me whether the beautiful facade is part of the original station or an upgrade from the Olympics. Worth a look for sure.
l’Estació del Nord
As I wandered a little futher along the rambla (actually Carrer de Ribles) I found a small farmers market with everything from verdaduras to vermuth and honey. A bit rainy today so not a lot of fun to just hang around. As I looked up I could see the Arc de Triomf and realized that I was standing next to the metro access that I had explored from Google street view a month ago in Oregon. Lovely to feel like I knew where I was.
From there I wandered back toward l’Estació and the park on the ocean side. This large park, Parc de l’Estació del Nord is clearly very dog friendly but also has a number of lovely features. The image below shows one of the large ceramic earthworks in the park. The other is at the entrance. Both are beautiful.
Earthwork in Parc de l’Estació del Nord
It is also worth noting that the tree in the image above is very beautiful up close. I knew that Dawn would love the tree as potential drawing subject and she did when we came back later. Here is a closer view of a different tree.
Magic Tree
This type of tree is found in various places around Barcelona and we are still trying to sort out exactly what kind of tree it is. Adjacent to these wonderful trees is a spiral labyrinth with trees planted within it like columns in a cathedral.
Labyrinth in Parc de l’Estació del Nord
I eventually tore myself away from the park and walked out other end and found myself at a community football field where the various young people’s league games were being played. I watched from that bridge on Carrer de Sardenya (the other cross streets in this part of town are Napoli (the school is at the intersection of Napoli and Casp) and Sicilia). It is amazing to watch the football intelligence in 12 year olds be so much better than most high school teams in the US. Even in the rain it was fun to watch. Eventually I headed back to pick Dawn up from her class. Along the way I passed the Mercat de Fort Pienc but this time I heard music to a dropped in to find there was dance group performing in the square in a lapse between raindrops.
Dawn had a good class and was exhausted which is always a surprise for me. She is amazing! We walked back to where the dancers were but, perhaps due to the rain beginning there were no signs of an imminent performance - rats. Because of the rain starting we stopped into a nearby ‘bar’ for a coffee and croussants with jam (mermelada - important word for us to know). After some food and coffee we went back around l’Estacion del Nord to show her the front of the building (image above). As we rounded the corner into the park we found ourselves in the midst of a open air dancercize class. Impressive to see 40 folks out in a light rain rockin’ it as best they can.
Dancercize class at Parc de l’Estació del Nord
After admiring the dancers for a while we went around the park to see the cool trees mentioned earlier. Along the way there was a tiny daschund that was playing fetch with its owner. It got distracted and lost track of the ball so Dawn helped it find the ball. Her good deed for the day. When we got to the trees Dawn was captivated by their appearance. Very Chinese brush painting sort of trees. The structure of the labyrinth was also fascinating and a potential drawing site.
Because it was only raining lightly we opted to try and walk home via a new route to see what we would find. I partly wanted to connect the Torre Agbar (the bullet) in Dawn’s mind to how she might get home if lost. As it turns out (hadn’t put it together yet) the street that we had walked along a couple of times that has the ‘tram’ (surface train) running down the middle is actually Meridiana on the other side of Plaça de Glories. As we walked up Meridiana on the ocean side of the plaça we passed a couple of buildings labeled l’Auditori which turns out to be Symphony hall and some smaller performance spaces. It’s a imposing building every time we walk by it but we haven’t been around when there is a performance so have no sense of how it might change when people of around. We also noticed the the Museo de la Musica is in this complex along with a music school.
Across the street from symphony hall on the way home is the Mercat Enchats which is a thrift shop market at least partly. There are a host of small shops selling a range of household goods and collectibles. On the main floor it was mayhem with thrift sellers of all kinds trying to get your attention and make a sale. Clearly a place where the price of an object is what you will pay for it if you can get the owner to agree. The smaller rented store spaces around the edge seemed less like bargaining operations but possibly some flexibility there as well. Interesting to wander through and Dawn got a comb she needed. We exited the scrum and continued on home.
Walking around the Plaça de Glories we passed in front of the Museo de Disseny which we will also have to get back to. They have programs as well as installations. The building is a fascinating modernist cantilevered design with lots of public space around it. Many nooks that we will explore later I suppose. When we got to the Agbar tower (the bullet) it was interesting to see that the exterior skin appears to be glass louvers. Some are open, some are closed, and the inner surface of the building has some pattern of color on it we couldn’t quite sort out. This architectural wiki site seems like it has all the answers if I ever have time to look through it. We’ll have to go look at it at night during Easter to see if the lighting responds to the holiday weekend.
From the Agbar tower we crossed the plaça which is very messed up with construction and came across the Centre Cultural la Farinera del Clot which is built in the old flour mill from some time ago. We looked inside (good public restrooms - a find) and took a quick look around the gallery. On the bulletin board was a flyer for an acoustic concert today. Reservations seemed to be required. Carrer del Clot (‘our’ street) intersects Meridiana just around the corner from La Farinera. Dawn’s landmark is the Audi store on the corner with window display with cars up several stories. Coming around the corner on Carrer del Clot is a low 2 story building that is becoming one of Dawn’s favorites. After all the tall apartments everywhere seeing a human scale building (seems like individual family homes) is comforting. As we walked up C de Clot we stopped into our local Mercat de Clot to get a sense of what was available. Lots of fresh meats, fish, veggies, and cheese. A bit overwhelming and not so much what we needed to shop for today so we checked the hours (M - am until 14:30, T-F all day until 20:00 with break 14:00-16:00, S all day until 21:00, Sun - closes at 15:00) to be filed away for future reference.
After we got home we grabbed the shopping bags and did a quick trip to the Mercadona. After that I sat down and tried to navigate the reservation site at La Farinera - in Catalan since its a Catalan cultural center. Given that I received a confirmation back it would appear that it worked! Later on that confirmation was presented at the desk to get the ticket so we could go back to the admission line and wait there. The theater is a lovely space on the 4th floor. Like many renovations of old buildings here the stairs and elevators are their own architectural object integrated onto the outside of the old building. Fascinating to see 200 people of all ages walk up 4 floors to get to the theater. The elevator was only used by those with mobility challenges.
The concert was amazing. Valeria Castro was wonderful to hear with her talented sideman. The earings she was wearing for the concert were just as large as the ones she is wearing in the image on the landing page. A quick youtube search will give you a sense of her music. She is from the Canary Islands and sang songs mostly of love and family. Very beautiful. It was intriguing that she start by essentially apologizing for only singing in Castellano given that she was in a Catalan cultural center. The audience clearly loved her and sang along with gusto when invited to participate. All in all a great evening. The only challenge was for me. I’m discovering that most places where people sit or stand are designed for a noticeably shorter person than me. Whether it’s door jambs getting into the metro or, in this case, the space between the seats and the height of the seat. 90 min sitting is a smaller space than my airline space was occasionally challenging. Next time I need to really try to have an aisle seat so I can occasionally extend my legs. Whew.
As we walked home at 22:00 on a Saturday night the bars were full of people even with the cool and potentially damp weather. Not a noisy as it would be for US bars and very little sense of drunkeness. Just people out to be with others primarily and to enjoy a little food and drink. All very civilized:) We lost another hour overnight as Spain went to daylight savings time. Lost an hour of sleep twice this year.
27/3/2022 Sunday¶
I now (almost a week later) have no fuctional memory of this day. It is lost. I spent a good part of the day updating this journal and I’m still very far behind. Did a little thinking about classes this week since we’re starting Monday. ….lost
Reference for Sanchéz Oliver Casado (Oliver for the Anglophone community)¶
Since it will probably disappear into my email dungeon and be lost to memory here is the response I got from Oliver about possibly setting up a smaller guided experience with him.
Dear Bruce & Dawn,
Nice to hear from you 😄. It´s been hectic last week so I apologize if my answer took a little too long. About your e-mail, let me tell you that normally Official guides work with previous reservation, which means that I,m already booked for some days in April, May and June…and the first thing we need to know it´s the exact day of your possible visit. When it comes to prices, that depends on time, let´s say a Half Day (4 hours) or Full Day (8 hours). I,m an Official Free lance Guide of Catalonia, and work for several agencies…if you book a guide for you, we should also consider the amount of people to make up a suitable price that suits us both…if that would be the case, I would adapt to your interests (history, art, society, past and present…)
Thanks again for contact me and….have a great day
Oliver: +34 675 11 25 44 correoguiaocs@gmail.com
I’ll have to figure out what agencies he works with and try to take it from there.