Bonne Anniversaire de Marriage!

Thursday May 19, 2011                Day 323

Happy Anniversary to Alicia and Peter, and to Roger and me! Four years for them, 38 for us. 

We spent the day wandering around Montpellier introducing our guests to the city. In one area, there was a gate open which is not usually open, so we entered and found some lovely mosaic pictures. We also met the owners of the house, who were kind enough not to chase us out.

They should know better than to leave the gate open
if they do not want me to enter!

Mosaics among the garden plants.

Upon Anne’s recommendation, the five of us went to a restaurant called Le Cinq for an anniversary celebration dinner. Delicious food, excellent wine, a great time.

Peter's charcuterie plate, complete with fresh mozzarella and served on a slate.

Heading home from Barcelona

Wednesday May 18, 2011                   Day 322
On the way to the train station this morning, we made several stops. Roger returned to the souvenir shop and bought a second pin. This time he took the hat and allowed the clerk to attach it to the hat. In this manner, he avoided a second broken pin stem.

This is the door pull of a local shop. It is a whale vertabra.

Here is the door in which this whale vertabra sits.

We bought lunch at a bakery – quiches and sandwiches, to eat on the train. Peter also went to a grocery store and bought wine, chorizo and cheese, and we ate these later for a mid-afternoon snack on the train along with a baguette which we bought when we got lunch. Delicious! We were mostly through eating when a drunk-looking guy a few seats away hinted that we should offer him some wine. We did not, and eventually drank it all up – Peter picked up plastic cups when he got the wine. Later, the same scruffy-looking drunk guy approached us and asked if he could have some wine. Our bottle was empty by that time, however, and he turned away muttering under his breath.

Our guests went out for an evening in the historic section of town, which is where we live. Alicia apparently got seriously dissed for wearing a skirt and tennis shoes. One place even refused them entry.

More Gaudi

Tuesday May 17, 2011                                       Day 321
Roger and I awoke at our usual 8:00. He went out for juice and croissants. Since the others were still asleep, Roger and I walked down to the dock to see if we could spot We Are Water, the final boat in the Barcelona World Race, which came in only last week. The dock area we accessed in December to see the boats was now off-limits. We were unable to locate We Are Water, but we did see Gaes Centros Auditivos, another boat which participated in the race. It was closed up, but we were able to get a couple of photos of it through some fencing. Fourteen boats set out on the around-the-world race on December 31. Only eight of them completed the race.

 We took the metro to the center of town and toured the Gaudi house known as Casa Batlló. It was a magical experience – Gaudi was a genius.

A vase in the Casa Batlló

This is a newell post in the stairwell. Amazing!!

A fireplace, with benches in the recess on each side.

A beautiful transition from one room to the next.

An inner door. It is said there are no straight lines in this house!

Windows overlooking the street at the front of the house.

Look at the ceiling above the light fixture! Everything about Gaudi is astonishing.

A vented interior doorway

Beautiful detail above an interior door.

Another beautiful door

A mirror in one of the rooms.

A view of the back of the house.

Looking down from the roof - note the lovely mosaic pattern.

Detail of the vent stacks below

These are vent stacks - how wimsical!

More beautiful mosaics.

Alicia and Jamie on the roof

Note the wimiscal dragon-back shape of the front facade.

We came upon this fantastical bit of artwork in the street on our way to lunch. 

Alicia wanted to see The Palau de la Música Catalana – the Palace of Catalan Music, and it turns out there was a concert there in the evening, so we bought tickets for the concert.

Ceiling detail inside the concert hall.

View of the stage area.

Detail of the wall of the stage

Detail of the wall in the seating area
with a glimpse of a pipe organ beyond.

The concert was a benefit for the victims of the earthquake in Japan. The printed program booklet was astonishing – it had a double-sized centerfold, which we had to fold into a fan shape. When one looked at the fan one direction, a heart was visible; from the other direction, a circle, presumably representing the sun which is Japan’s symbol.

Program, fan-folded with both the heart and circle visible

Viewed from one side, there is a heart . . .

. . . and from the other side, the sun.

We ended our evening with dinner in a little dive which turned out to serve excellent Mojitos. For some reason I don’t recall what we actually ate. Afterward, Alicia, Peter and Jamie went out on the town and again, Roger and I collapsed in our room with our computers.

Gaudi

Monday May 16, 2011                                     Day 320

We got up early and picked up breakfast at a bakery on our way, then took the subway to the top of Las Ramblas to pick up a Gaudi tour. The tour took us by two Gaudi houses on the way to Park Güell, which was conceived by a rich textile merchant to be a development for other wealthy people, but it was a failure because the commute from the development area to the center of the city was too long. Gaudi did a good deal of public space development of the area, but only two houses were built, one of which belonged to the merchant’s lawyer. Later the city of Barcelona bought the land and turned it into a park which celebrates Gaudi’s work. 

This is a curved bench in Park Guell - note the mosaic back

A tilted wall in Park Guell

A support post - Park Guell

Mosaic lizard in Park Guell

More mosaics in Park Guell. Gaudi bought broken ceramic pieces from local potteries
and used them as the basis for his mosaics.

Here he used broken tea cups on the domed roof - Park Guell

From Park Güell the bus took us to Gaudi’s greatest work, Sagrada Familia. This is a fantastical church conceived by Gaudi and still under construction more than 100 years after its commencement. Some hope it will be finished by 2027, the centennial of Gaudi’s death. Others suggest it will never be finished. Its construction is financed by private donations and ticket sales. It gained status as a church only last fall, when the Pope arrived and consecrated it. 

The ceiling of Sagrada Familia

One of three entry facades to Sagrada Familia.
This one tells the crucifixion story

St. Thomas on the Crucifixion facade of Sagrada Familia

After the tour we returned to the apartment for a 30-minute siesta, then set out to meet the neice of Jamie’s boss for lunch. We arrived about 15 minutes late, but she was waiting for us and we had a lovely lunch of tapas and wine. 

While wandering around the area near our apartment, we came upon a church. As we entered, a choir was singing, so we prepared to leave again, not wanting to intrude on a church service. But the song ended, and a VERY American voice said “Okay, let’s go back to that part where …” It turned out that this was a choir from a Miami university doing a dress rehearsal for a performance later in the evening. The conductor wore a tux and the choir was in suits and black dresses. Their voices echoed magnificently from the high vaulted ceilings of the church. We entered and sat for a while just to listen, leaving only when they finished the rehearsal.

In the tourist area near the church, Roger bought a hat pin. Later, when he took it back to the apartment and tried to attach it to his hat, the stem broke off. 

In the evening, Alicia, Peter and Jamie went out bar-hopping while Roger and I spent time on our computers, then went to bed.