Barcelona->Toronto->Chicago

Slept until eight and had my final breakfast buffet.  Got into a minor snit with the checkout clerk who surprised me with a $100 bill to account for the Catalonia tax which was not quoted in the pre-paid package I bought.  This was tempered by a nice chat with the cab driver to the airport.  The flight to Toronto was uneventful.  Brother JBPowers gave me another surprise when his email on landing noted that he had vacated Chicago for Wisconsin and that a hotel might be a more advisable option than rooting out the spare key to his house.  So I scrambled for about an hour on a very dodgy internet connection at the airport to secure lodging near O'Hare for late this evening.  Waiting now in the Toronto Airport's iPad farm with the same marble table tops and snail-like service (both internet and for restaurant food).

Finished Hughes book on Barcelona on the flight.  It really was outstanding, and I think I got a good look at most of the sights he highlighted.  Barcelona is quite a unique place, and still looks to itself as much as anywhere.  Its history is complicated, and Gaudi seems to be its king.

Modernista architecture, geometry, and food in Barcelona

Today was devoted to seeking architecture, geometry, and good food.  All were found.  Following my now routine breakfast feast, I sojourned on foot the 2.2 miles to Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia, this time with ticket in hand to view the main chapel.  During the walk I realized I'm getting to know the pedestrian mores of Barcelona pretty well, which are a little different than most places because of the street layout.  This day was devoted to regions where tourists are in the minority for the most part, and so I saw Barcelona at work, which was nice.  

The internet ticket was great, as I got to jump the line and walk right in at my scheduled time.  Well, I must say the interior of this Basilica was simply stunning.  Yes, it respects many of the standard Gothic forms.  But then it just creates new ones, mainly based on geometry.  Gaudi certainly studied his classical geometry, and fully utilized the notion of conic sections.  For those interested, the hyperbolic paraboloid surface is put to very good use here.  Non-mathematicians can see the beauty of the nave below nonetheless.  And the naturalist side of Gaudi was inspired by the similarly shaped rock formations at Montserrat, I am told.

Here is a shot of the ceiling.

Here is a shot of the crucifix above the main alter.

Here's another shot of the nave, as well as the modern phenomena of EVERYONE, your correspondent included, taking endless cell phone photos.

The museum below the main chapel is just outstanding.  It features among other things, a hyperbolic parabaloid.

And while it's hard to explain, the columns have an unusual construction.  They certainly taper, and as they do so, they lose some "ribs," gently.  This is achieved by an extrusion process with cams, for the mechanically inclined.

Outside of the Basilica sits the school for the children of the workers.  It turns out to be a foundation of modernist architecture itself.  Gaudi did not like straight lines.  He did like structured geometry.  So his school featured many curved surfaces.

His school also taught geometry.

From there, I took a twenty minute walk to the Fundacio Antoni Tapeis, which featured a retrospective of Birmingham, AL's Kerry James Marshall.  It was not interesting.  Jim Stewart's Barcelona card got me free admission though!

Then too lunch.  I spotted a restaurant which proudly advertised "Nebraska".  Intrigued, I went back to it.  It was a fine choice.  For far less then I've paid at other touristy places, I got a first class meal.  Here is the sculptured hot spinach, laced with pine nuts and raisins.  To the side is Barcelona's endemic bread with garlic, oil, and tomato.

This was followed by cold, vegetarian lasagna.  The lasagna is striped!  It was very good.

I then toured Gaudi's Casa Batilo.  It is privately held, and the bottom three floors are open.  Wow!  It's done up as a giant sea monster/dragon.  Everything is nautical.  There are no straight lines or planes anywhere.  Here is a room near the entry.

Here is a nautilus-like ceiling.

Here is your correspondent.

From there I walked a few blocks north on Passage de Gracia (pretty much the Michigan Ave. of Barcelona) to Gaudi's La Pedrera.  It's an apartment building and office block.  The roof and one apartment are open for viewing.  Here is the entry way.

Here is some of the roof.

Here is the "attic" just under the roof.  There are lots of parabolas.

Here is the bano in a model apartment.

Here is a landing in the model apartment.

Here is a haughty bust in the model apartment.

From there, I took a short metro ride north to Park Guell.  This too was designed by Gaudi.  Here are some columns (of a sort) he built into the earthworks.

Here is a view of stormy Barcelona from the top of the hill in the park.

Here is the house where Gaudi lived for his last twenty years.  He was something else.  He was totally devoted to his work.  And he got hit by a tram and killed.  His funeral was attended by thousands, and there were marches in the street.

Here are some more of Gaudi's columns in the park.

The storm got me a little wet before I found shelter.  Following the storm, I walked down the Passage de Gracia to the L'Eixample neighborhood (where I'd been all morning) and focused on the crazy architecture that popped up in the late 19th century here.  Here's one.

Here's a flower store.

And a music store.

Here's some more architecture.

And some more....

And some more....

And some more...

I then took the metro back to my hotel.  I decided to take a chance on a sure thing for my last supper in Barcelona and was not disappointed.  The meal below was cheaper than last evening's and far better.  It started with do-it-yourself Barcelona bread (note the garlic and tomato--oil is out of the field of view).

Next up was a magnificent pasta, asparagus, squid, and mushroom.  Almost a meal.

The main course was a ribeye, potato, and tomato. OK, I ordered the pork, but this was first class.

Passion fruit sorbet for desert, not featured.  

to Montserrat and back

I planned to take a nature day today, but rainy weather put me indoors a little more than I intended; in any event the day was only moderately altered.  I grabbed a nice big breakfast at the hotel this morning, then made my way to the Metro and transferred to the suburban train line (kind of like Chicago's Metra) at the Espana station.  From there I took the hour long train ride to mountainous Montserrat. in the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range.  It houses the Benedictine Abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat.  The Abbey houses la Moreneta ("the little dark-skinned one"), a black infant Jesus held by a black Madonna.  The Madonna of Montserrat is the patron saint of Catalonia, and has been the catalogued object of the official behests of various Catalonian freedom fighters, Saint Ignatius Loyola, and the Barcelona FC football club.

The train deposits its riders at the base of a mountain, where I exercised the fastest option up:  a 1930 Leipzig-designed cable car, billed as the safest way.  It looks precarious, as seen in two shots below.

But the ride was smooth, quick, and safe.  

And so to the top, where one finds the Monastery, commenced in 1025 AD.  It's neat and tidy at the top, and filled with lots of stonemasonry.  For some reason, there are a LOT of Russians wandering around.  It's likely not the first time, as many of the signs are in Russian as well.

My plan was to hike many of the trails, as I have seen plenty of buildings in Barcelona, but it began to rain, so I adjusted.  I thus toured the very nice art museum.  I've taken a shine to these Romanesque primitives, such as shown below.

Here's a nice shot of a cafe in Paris.

There was a room full of Russian Orthodox iconography.  And Russians.

This I believe was an accurate depiction of an unhappy Russian baby.

I then had a modest cafeteria lunch of two small pork chops (one undercooked, and thus uneaten), and grilled tomato, eggplant, and potato.  Good enough.  

The rain continued so I decided to tour the monastery.  Curious.  There were really no personnel to guide the few hundred tourists.  And there were no written instructions.  Everyone formed a line, so I joined it.  That was probably a mistake.  The line snaked on for a few hundred yards, and everyone seemed very happy to be in it, except me.  Or me and the shrieking Russian baby, who squealed for about the entire 1 1/2 hours I was in line.  Once the line entered the building, there really was no turning around.  There were signs everywhere insisting on silence in many languages.  That was widely ignored by nearly everyone.  There was a very talented organist practicing throughout, whom essentially no one paid any heed.  Line aside, the architecture of this monastery is dazzling.  It is in marvelous shape and has been very well updated over the centuries.  Here is an interior courtyard at the early stages of the line.

Here are some mosaics at the later stages of the line.

After 1 1/2 hours, here is  la Moreneta!  The line is so slow not because everyone is praying to la Morenta; instead, EVERYONE is taking three cell phone pictures from all angles.  I took one.

Here is the nave.  Wow.

Here is a better shot of the floor of the nave.

It was still raining!  So, I sat down in the pews of this stunning church, listened to the organist, and read more from Robert Hughes' wonderful history of Barcelona.  He's my kind of writer--he really knows the history and weaves it in well with architecture, art, and urban planning.

Here is a view of outside the monastery after the rain stopped.

It was about 4:00 PM by this time, and with the halting of the rain, I decided to foray into the upper reaches of the mountain.  Good bye to long lines and Russians!  Hello nature!

Hello little abandoned chapels scattered along the monk's nature walk.

Here's a view of the monastery.

And here are the distinctive rocks.

I then returned to the Cable car.  It's still scary, but safe--see below.

I had to stand for an hour on the train back to Barcelona.  I ventured out for a modest seafood dinner (fresh turbot and grilled vegetables--needed more spice).  Some say the service in European is not bad, it's just different.  Tonight I thought it was bad!

The rain began again after dinner, so I took a cab for the mile ride to my hotel.