Day 5 – Montserrat and Flamenco Show

Montserrat

(Brian)

For 21 euros per person, we got tickets that covered travel to and entrance fees for Montserrat. Montserrat, or “Serrated Mountains” are located east-north-east from Barcelona. It is Catalunya’s most important pilgrimage site for hundreds of years and contains a monastery with amazing views at 4,000 feet. You can read more about the history of the place online.

The tickets we bought included the metro ride to the train station, the train to the base of the cable car, the cable car up to Montserrat, and all funiculars (steep-track rail trains), which trucked people up and down the most difficult routes to the most significant parts of Montserrat.

Brian in the funicular

There were more expensive tickets, which included a museum and a meal (would have cost us about $15 more) but the museum was nothing to write home about and I thought we could get cheaper food en route. Turns out I was wrong about the food; I ended up paying about US$3 for one of Kirsten’s 16 oz. Coke Zeros. If you’re planning a trip here, bring your own food or pay dearly.

We did about a 2.5-hour, round trip hike to the highest point as soon as we got there. Since we caught one of the first trains in, we got to experience a less crowded trail. The views were great and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Brian and Kirsten doing Superman at a rest stop on the way to the peak. Wineries in the background.

We reached the peak; it took us a little over an hour.

(Kirsten)

Oh, hiking. Did you ever think you could do such great hiking in Barcelona, Spain? I sure didn’t. I remember reading about Montserrat (one of Rick Steve’s recommended ‘day trips’) in bed in our apartment in New York and being REALLY excited about it. I was NOT excited, however, when I found myself in the cable car climbing up the sides of successive rocky cliffs. The car held about 20 people, had open windows, and climbed probably about 3,000 feet in 5 minutes.

Yep, that small speck of a building down there was the starting point of the cable car climb. Yikes!

It was terrifying, and apparently I am afraid of heights.

The hiking was spectacular, really breathtaking, as you can see by the photos. It was fun just to be so ‘far up’ – everywhere you turned you had an incredible view of something. And the mountains – I’ve never seen anything like them! Plus, the monastery was really beautiful - tucked snugly into the mountains, as you can see.

The monastery complete with small, singing children (for 10 min. each day) which tourists go crazy about.

In front of the old monks' cloister. Note the 4 trees the monks plant, hoping to harvest only their symbolism:

(from left to right): palm = martydom, cypress = eternal life, olive = peace, laurel = victory

Brian is enjoying taking pictures of windows for some reason

Kirsten in the courtyard of the Basilica

These mosaics lined the walls for our viewing pleasure as we waited to get our hand on La Moreneta (in the next picture)

La Moreneta is the patroness of Catalunya; pilgrims touch her orb with one hand and make wishes or seek her blessings.

After we touched this we washed our hands.

Lunch was expensive. And we were hungry, so we didn’t use too much discretion – not a good combination.

After lunch we traveled to the ‘sacred cave’, listed as such in every publication we had read till that point BUT – don’t be fooled – it’s really not a cave at all. It probably used to be, and there was maybe one wall in there that looked cave-like, but it’s basically a house built into the side of a cliff.

(Brian): Although I am writing home about this, I shouldn't have. This is more of an indent in the mountain than a cave.

Now they have made it 5 percent natural, 95 percent man-made.

Oh, well, the walk to the cave was beautiful. Constructed by Gaudi and co., it featured a handful of striking statues and sculptures on the way to the cave, and it literally was built into the side of the cliff. With a low wall protecting you from falling (mom, try not to think about it too much!).

Holy lawsuit! Look at how low this wall is which lines the path to the sacred cave.

On the other side is vertical drop of about 50 meters. One could easily trip over this.

After dealing with the terror of the cable car one last time, we caught the 4:38 train and headed back to town. I totally slept on that train!!

Flamenco at Los Tarantos

(Brian)

Kirsten’s persistence to see Flamenco brought us to the Placa Reial to a club offering 30-minute Flamenco performances for 12 euros (for two people). 

Brian enjoying cava in Plaza Reial before the performance

It featured an amazing Flamenco band of 6 men playing for 20 minutes before an amazing flamenco-dancer graced the stage. She wasn’t dressed up too stunning but the colors that she lacked in her dress were made up by the skill of her dancing; she was part metronome. She clacked her heels with nearly perfect timing and played the part of an instrument as well as a dancer.

Kirsten at the Flamenco venue - a great mosaic lined one of the walls!

(Kirsten)

She really was something. So beautiful, with her hair back in a bun at the nape of her neck and her hair combs perfectly placed….she was clacking all over the place but was the epitome of gracefulness. I also loved the venue – it was small and intimate, which meant that everyone who paid for entry got a good seat. Also, the band was amazing. They started with just the guitars playing, then a violinist and two vocalists entered the scene. The two vocalists were incredible, like nothing I’ve ever heard (live, anyway) – the way they sang sounded Arabic. Everything about the performance was great and I didn’t want it to end. One of the best parts of the performance was seeing how much Brian enjoyed it. I had seen flamenco before when I studied abroad in Madrid, but this was his first time. He was really impressed, which made me really happy.

Another great day in the city!

Day 3: Museu Picasso, Barri Gotic, Barri Ribera, Catedral de Barcelona

[Kirsten]

I realized today that I have become something of a Rick Steve’s fanatic, which kind of means that I am turning into my mother and father. For those of you who are not familiar with Mr. Steves, he is a travel writer based in Edmonds, WA, who has brilliantly made a career out of traveling ‘through the back door’ in Europe and, consequently, has produced a series of amazing guide books. Seriously – the way he writes, I feel like someone is telling me secret after secret about this city, and it has become addicting.

Anyway, poor Brian, he’s such a good sport - almost every step we took today was orchestrated by Rick Steves. Each time either of us would propose any inkling a of plan (or we walked into a new room at the Picasso museum), I felt myself reaching for the book, until finally, over café con leche and a discussion during which I literally opened the book 7 times, I verbally instructed myself to stop. I’d like to try to lighten up on the book tomorrow, but I don’t know if I’m ready yet – he’s just so good!

[Brian]

While waiting to get into the Picasso Museum, we listened to one of the many, high quality musicians on the street; he was Brazilian.

I notice there are a lot of Portguese and Brazilian singers performing here. I always make a point to support them with a few cents because they add so much to the auditory experience of being in BCN. If they are exceptional, we'll buy a CD.

Today, at the Picasso museum I ran into a great guide. His name was José Cabello García all the security guards at the museum seemed to know him. He was giving pretty explicit details about some of the art to an Italian group and kept the discussion lively. I think I would like to try and get him working for our program next year.

The Picasso Museum included some new, erotic pieces of art which were amongst the pieces I found the most interesting in the collection – very graphic stuff which is the kind of thing he may have painted on bathroom stalls as a young art student. I wasn't allowed to bring my camera in so I can't grace this blog with his sketches.

The museum did a great job at showing the different stages of his life and how the art reflected those stages (example: during a two year period of depression most of his works were painted in blue tones)

One of our favorite plazas of the day - Plaza de Sant Felip Neri - which doubles as a playground for an elementry school.

[Kirsten]

One of the greatest things that happened to us today occurred unexpectedly. We were on our way home (we like to come home to ‘recover’, as Brian says, before tapas) and had just arrived at the South End of the Ramblas to catch our train when we heard some wonderful guitar music. Not too amazing at that point, as we had been hearing wonderful guitar music all day in front of various tourist hot spots. However, there was obviously some accompaniment, and a small crowd was gathering to see what was going on. So why wouldn’t we? We joined the crowds just as a regular-looking young man (not more than twenty) dressed in comfy khakis and a brown t-shirt began to wave at people to come closer. As we stepped a few feet towards him, he lifted his arms and suddenly we realized – a ha! Flamenco! He proceeded to do a solo flamenco dance as the music played. He did a fantastic job, and Brian and I both really enjoyed the music as well. We’d really like to see more flamenco, so we’re going to try to find a show for either tomorrow or Monday evening, before heading down to Sitges.

June 19, 2009:Montjuic, Pedrera, Sagrada Familia, and Palau de Pedrables

[Kirsten]

Bus Tourístic

Surprisingly, I was really amped for the tour bus – although I can’t tell you how many times I have privately made fun of people sitting atop those awkward, lumbering vehicles, for some reason it just seemed like the ONLY thing that made sense to do first. And I’m happy to report, this gut feeling turned out to be correct!

[Brian]

I have to admit that I wasn’t too excited about riding a tourist bus. Tickets were about $30 for the day but after consideration I figured this was the best way to get the layout of the city quickly. It was worth it – but barely.

[Kirsten]

Brian and I bought our tickets (good for one full day of bus riding) in the morning and promptly walked outside to wait for the next bus to pick us up. We had gotten a later start than we wanted to, and we weren’t sure how much that was going to affect our bus-riding experience (i.e., would all the seats on the top be full?) Sure enough, the next bus to pull up was….completely full on top. We were bummed, but we boarded anyhow and took our backwards-facing seats inside. We began to tour. Two stops later we had had it – we decided to disembark and take our chances that the next bus would be less crowded. As it turns out, that was the right decision. We got the two very last seats on the top and were happy as clams.

Brian and I enjoy the bus tour - note the cool teal earpiece that came as part of the audio guide

We first rode up to Montjuic, saw the Olympic Stadium and took in some great views of Barcelona and its environs. We descended on the opposite side of the hill and had our first look at Barcelona’s harbors; it was kind of a magical moment, what with all the sun sparkling off the water down below our perch on the rooftop bus. We drove past the famous statue of Columbus pointing to the New World (although he’s really not) which is perched at the base of the Ramblas, then took a detour to the piers which divide one harbor from the next.

[Kirsten]

After this we explored the outskirts of the southern parts of Bari Gotic and the neighborhood of Ribera as we headed for Barceloneta, which is the city’s recently spoofed-up and now somewhat overcrowded public beach. We learned on our audio guide that only recently was this beach paid any serious attention – in the early 90s, impending Olympics activity drove the government to clean up and renovate the beach to accommodate tourists. We turned north, drove through some fantastic plazas, turned left again to go back towards Ribera and drove down the side of it. This rode was bi-sected by tons of long and narrow streets. As I remember it, this was our first view of Barcelona’s tiny little streets, which really make this city the unique place that it is. We then took a rode that sliced through the Bari Gotic – we endured a few more stops before we got off ourselves, at one of the many famous Gaudi attractions in the city – Casa Mila, or La Pedrera.

[Brian]

Casa Mila (La Pedrera)

I got some great pictures in the Casa Mila, where I almost busted my ass on the numerous, randomly placed steps which navigated the undulating rooftop. Gaudi’s work makes taking pictures, especially macro-shots, pleasant. You can check out some pictures below.

Different Chimneys

A couple of windows facing the interior

Lunch was awesome as usual. It included tortellini with goat cheese, steak and fries (wow, I think I am eating too much fried food but the tannins in the red wine may make up for part of it). These huge lunches are really pleasing but it would be nice to have our hotel in an area of town close enough so we could enjoy the delights of the siesta.

[Brian]

Sagrada Familia

This is one of Barcelona’s landmark sites but it’s not even completed yet. It’s over 100 years old (construction started in 1883); I felt like I was visiting a construction site at times: One of the reasons construction isn't complete is that it has been constructed with all private funding. The 2.50 euro tickets we bought for a ride to the top as well as the entrance fees of around 10 euros were our contribution. Lines for the escalators are up to 1.5 hours long; what a miserable tourist experience. Instead of waiting so long, we opted for the slightly lower of the two escalators, which cost the same, didn’t face the ocean, and had a wait time of only 5 min.

We wrapped up the day with a nice, unexpected visit to Palau de Pedrables where there was a fantastic park in which to unwind.