More Gaudi and more Basque food

Day 4     Barcelona     Monday, July 28, 2014

One of the highlights of the day was Park Güell, another gaudy Gaudi creation. It was our first adventure of the day, but we didn't even get started until 12:20. From the nearest subway stop, it was a long walk. Luckily we already had tickets because the line to get in was long.

The park began in 1900 when a Gaudi supporter named Eusebi Güell had him develop this hillside for wealthy residential homes. It turned out not to be viable (hard to get to, too expensive) so they abandoned it in 1914. The Güell heirs donated it to the city as a park in 1922.

This picture of Janet and the one above show the "Nature Square" where celebrations and sports events were held for the residents and friends. The undulating decorated bench (virtually all Gaudi artwork may be said to be "undulating"!!) around the entire square is made with tile-shard mosaic and pieces of ceramic.

In this photo of me you can see the mosaic bench a bit closer, as well as the tower from the Porter's House at the entrance and the sea way back in the distance.

Here's the very famous mosaic lizard in the middle fountain of the steps from the entrance to the columned section above. Both of our Barcelona guide books had this lizard on their covers. The mosaic style is called "Trencadis" tiling, whereby Gaudi used smashed-up ceramics and pieced them back together in mosaic patterns.

There are only two residences left at the park, one privately owned (the White House) and still lived in higher up the hillside, and this one (the Pink House) where Gaudi himself lived right up to his death in 1926. It is now a museum.

It would take dozens of photos to show all the interesting sights at Park Güell, but here is at least one more to show how they designed many of the walkways and terraces.

We walked back to the subway and went to the Palace of Music, which is not too far from the cathedral in the old town. We took a tour and this was definitely a Barcelona highlight for us.

This is the outside of the palace, which was built 1905-08 and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has hosted the top classical music stars and artistic performances of every kind. I took 14 photos of the interior and will post several of them here:

 

 

The signature piece is the stained glass ceiling. The story goes that the building needed more light due to the tall structures all around it, so they opened it up with light from the top. It is the only auditorium in Europe that is bright enough during the daytime without using any illumination. The concert hall is considered one of the most beautiful in the world, and we agreed.

Our next subway stop, late in the afternoon, was the Maritime Museum located very near to our flat by the port. Its highlight was this life-size replica of the 185-foot-long royal galley Admirals of the Juan de Austria. 

Here's a view from the stern, with all its paintings and decorations. It fought in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 in which the Turkish Armada was defeated. It was powered by 236 oarsmen (mostly slaves).

Our walk home took us past this section of the medieval city wall, which originally surrounded the Roman settlement but has been rebuilt many times over the past 2000 years.

Another highlight for the day and our entire Barcelona visit was eating dinner back at the Basque Restaurant where we had lunch two days earlier. It is most popular for its tapas section, but it also had a small sit-down section at the back where you ordered from a menu and had table service. Our waiter, Joseba, was Basque and he and Janet exchanged e-mails because he is interested in attending next year's Jaialdi Festival in Boise, ID.

We admired the Basque lauburu symbols on the plates, so Joseba secretly wrapped up two of them in a cloth napkin and handed them to Janet, saying "Don't tell anyone." We now have these cool souvenirs!

Of course, the food was incredible. We ordered the house salads, which turned out to be a series of samples of things that were all so good. We didn't think we'd have room for our entrees. Janet's entree here is lamb, and I had a pork dish.

I also had room for a homemade chocolate delicacy for dessert. All in all, it was a fun experience. Our secondary waiter also was Basque, so it added to the unique nature of Euskal Etxea.

This final photo for the day shows where we spent lots of time in Barcelona:

We took 15 subway trips in all, and got pretty good at navigating the system. Interestingly, on an earlier trip on Saturday, we were part of a pickpocket attempt. We had been sitting waiting for a train next to two men and a woman. When it arrived, completely packed, we crowded our way on, in front of the other three. The woman's hand rubbed against my pants at the back, and it made me think to grab where my wallet was, which was in my front pocket. As the train was rolling, a British man, right next to us, started challenging one of the men who had gotten on with us for having taken his wallet. Sure enough, a wallet dropped to the ground and he and his accomplices said something like, "Oh look, there is it, you dropped it. All is well." Everyone realized they were pickpockets and said other things to them to get off the train, which they did, but so did we because we were going only one stop. Once off, the three of them were talking in Spanish to each other, and another Spanish local said something to them and they swore at each other. The three then sat down, we guessed to wait for the next train to try again.

Other than that, all our subway trips were uneventful but usually very crowded. We went to bed that night knowing it was our last in Barcelona. In our flat over the course of our stay, we got to visit briefly with other renters from Poland, Croatia, Germany, South Korea, and Canada.