4-13-2016: Day 17, Barcelona

3rd Day in Barcelona,

Anna is waiting for us in the lobby at 9:30 AM just like she said she would.  The hotel has set us up with Anna and Clyde picked one of her tours to get to know Barcelona a little better.  Bingo, we got the right person.  Anna was born and raised in Barcelona and she knows her stuff.  In fact, to become a licensed tour guide she had to study history, food and culture for an intensive 8 months following graduation from college and then pass a difficult  test to qualify.  We walk and the story begins.  

Turns out the famous La Rumbla was a passage to the sea for the sewer and waste in the Roman days and it is somehow funny to see the folks flock to the sewer to buy, buy buy.  We leave as soon as possible  as Anna leads us to the most famous market place in Barcelona - St. Joseph's Market.  

Set off the Main Street with a large roof overhead and a cocophany of sound and sight.  Our eyes shift right, then left, then up then back and our head is turning every which way.  Stalls with fruits, vegetables, flowers, beautiful meats of every description.  Hams are important here.  In fact we are told if you really want to give the ultimate present to someone flowers are nice, olive oil is great but above all is the special ham.  Whole leg, with hoof, are hanging in the meat section and each have a tag around the hoof of various colors.  Forget the red tag or the yellow tag,  the black is where it's it.  Now the pig that was once attached to these black legs lived a good life - for a time that is.  If the pig looks good and makes the cut it is taken to a special area with acorn trees and they feast and feast.  Several restaurants and deli have a pig leg set in a vice and with a good Spanish knife they will shave off a thin slice for the asking and money.  The seafood section was really impressive with every Atlantic sea creature in the book and still others from the   and it is in abundance.  The seafood is on ice and looks as fresh as can be.  Amazing and super clean the local folks visit several times a week to snag a meal at the many counters or to take some home.  The counters started when the vendors in the stalls paused for a break after starting work in the very early morning and it became so popular others wanted in on the action.

We head into the Gothic Area, the original Barcelona born under Roman rule and the roads still follow the same routes.  All of a sudden the Cathedral appears and it is impressive but a bit of a fake.  It turns out a benefactor of the City and a man with money decided the Cathedral was a bit shabby and should get a face lift before the  Olympic Games in the 1970s.  They worked fast and  in only a few months the work was done and without research most folks take it for the original.  The route we take is narrow and still more narrow as we enter the original Jewish area and hear how they were eventually pushed out and to this day have not returned in large numbers.  The Spanish Inquisition was a nasty time in Spanish history.  Anyone not willing to leave there faith for the Roman Catholic religion was in deep trouble.  Some of the most gruesome torture known to man was invented here - the rack, the gibblet and others that literally pulled a person apart and finally death by hanging was used to "cleanse" the city.  

The "Old Days" were not always so great.

Yuck!  But on to some better stuff as we emerge into the main square with impressive steps lead to a flat area where the Queen could address the people of Barcelona and receive Ambassadors from other lands and kingdoms.  On one very special day Queen Isabella  received Christopher Columbus here following his voyage to the New World.  Since the Queen was a main benefactor of his voyage, he brought presents to impress the Queen including some Native people, gold, silver, plants, animals and who knows, maybe some sea shells.  Oh yeah, he was a hit even if he did find the wrong continent.  There is a copy of the contract Columbus signed with the Queen and Church for viewing and it was impressive.  Columbus got a small percentage of what he found and the Church and Queen got all the rest of everything he found till the end of his days.  Turns out there was enough for everybody and  it all worked out.  There is a great hall just off the steps where the official business of the Queen was conducted and only recently found. Not all things were recorded in those days but there was a document speaking of the great hall but its location was a puzzle for folks.  Finally someone said, "Wait a minute, that hall should be right where the Nuns place is" and so they broke through a wall and, surprise! There is the great hall and in perfect condition.  If only the walls could talk......

 

Anna leads us across the street to a special church for the folks in Barcelona.  In fact, Anna tells us all the families that have the means wish to hold the marriage of their daughters in the Santa Maria Del Mar (it used to be on the beach but is now several blocks away) Church.  The church is just lovely and built with narrow sides leading to a much larger front with 12 slender columns of support.  The result is the feeling of a ceiling lifting to the heavens.   Beautiful stained glass windows finish the feeling.  It is beautiful and a wedding here it would be one to remember.  We climb to a spot overlooking the main floor where the choir would sing and.  It must have been amazing.  The structure is beautiful but it is rather plain and the reason is interesting.  Somehow the church was set on fire, by accident is all they say, and it burned for days and days.  There is still smoke stains on the walls and only the highest stained glass survived.  As we prepare to leave we see advertisement for a concert the next evening by a Russian Ensemble doing Vivaldi.  Wow, hearing Vivaldi in a beautiful ancient church in Barcelona!  Krim and Clyde are in and Jim and Tina are also but on second thought, we must rise at 3 to catch an early flight to Granada so Jim and Tina give our guide Anna their tickets and she is happy.  The next evening Krim and Clyde make the concert and it is a packed house and they give the group a well deserved standing ovation.  The music in that church was very special indeed and I swear I still hear the sounds flowing through the church.  Good stuff!  

But meanwhile, back to the tour we Leave the old stuff behind and head for the most famous of Gaudi's works - the Sagrada Família.

We have seen pictures and read about this Cathedral but seeing it is another vision completely unexpected.  It is crazy and wonderful and whimsical and stunning all at once.

This cathedral is hailed as Antoni Gaudi's best work and finest masterpiece.  Construction began in 1882 by the much more conservative architect  Francisco de Paula del Villar.  But Del Villar and the church got into it and he was relieved of his duties.  Looking for a replacement they spoke to one of Gaudi's teachers who called Gaudi either a genius or a mad-man.  Whatever he was he was not well known and his fee was cheap so they gave him a shot.  Gaudi lived to see only one façade, the Nativity Façade, the apse, crypt and one tower complete. The church plans called for 18 towers and an area capable of accommodating 13,000 worshipers.

Following Gaudi's death in 1926 the building process dragged on slowly through the Spanish Civil War until the 50s when construction began in earnest. At present there are 8 complete towers and two facades. The building process continues and it was only in 2000 that the roof of the main nave was completed. It is hoped that construction will be complete by 2026 which marks the centennial of Gaudi's death.  The inside literally stops you in your tracks when you enter.  Your eyes cannot take in all you see in this place and one surprise after another befalls you.  The stain glass takes advantage of the placement of the building so that the sun brings fire in the day and blue light in the evening as it travels across the sky.  We have all seen nothing like this building and it will stick with us forever.