So much art, they can walk on it.

After a slow start this morning, we went to The Phone House and got a prepaid SIM card for one of our phones. Using our US T-Mobile SIMs is expensive here. For starters, it’s about $1 per minute to make a local call and if somebody calls me from the States, their call is free (it’s a local number for them), but in addition to the high roaming cost per minute, I’m also paying for their international call. That’s just voice. Data would be something like $10-15 per MB. A local SIM card costs €20 but comes with €20 calling credit, so the SIM is essentially free. For this, local voice calls are about 8 cents per minute and and for something like €10 we have up to 500MB of data per month. Such a deal!

Next stop was the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s monumental lifetime project. He was actually brought in as the second architect in 1883, after another one departed the project after just one year, having created a very traditional apse for the church which still remains. Gaudi’s style changed over time. While one façade looks a little more traditional, another façade is heavy duty Modernista. Most of the decoration is on the exterior of the church which includes various Bible scenes, animals, plants, and other allegorical forms.

The interior is a vast forest of columns, but it’s pretty sparse, making the stained glass windows really stand out. It’s size is deceptively large. It can accommodate 11,000 worshippers and more than 1500 choir members. Although construction is not expected to finish until at least 2026, the church was consecrated just last November (2010) by Pope Benedict.  Gaudi worked on the church continuously towards the end of his life, sleeping in his simple onsite workshop.  He was killed when a tram hit him.

We headed over to the main promenade of Las Ramblas, which is a funky mix of restaurants, flower shops, and street entertainers. Nearby is the popular local food market,  La Boqueria, where we grabbed a vegetarian lunch on the go.

At just about the midpoint of Las Ramblas there is a large ceramic mosaic created by another Catalan artistic genius named Joan Miro. I have liked Miro’s abstract art for a long time and I remember (before the boys were born) our favorite Los Angeles restaurant for special occasions was L’Ermitage, which is sadly no longer in business. The first time we were there I looked at the wall and asked the waiter, “Is that a real Miro?” to which he responded with a delighted, “Yes.”

Also near the Las Ramblas Miro mosaic is another Gaudi building, the Palau Guell, built for the industrialist of the same name. From here we took a metro to Parc Guell, which is northeast of the downtown area and a 20 minute uphill from the nearest metro station. The metro system in Barcelona is really good. It’s easy to use, gets you all over the city fast, and especially with a T10 card is very inexpensive.

Parc Guell itself is wonderful with all sorts of curvaceous lines and animal forms including the famous gecko fountain. Another area of the park has a forest of columns that were intended to be part of a market space. While all of Gaudi’s forms may seem fantastical, they are in fact grounded in solid engineering and mathematics. Back at the museum under Sagrada Famila, we learned how he engineered many of the tall arches used in his structures without the aid of modern CAD tools. If you hold a piece of string in each hand, the natural valley created between them is called a catenary arch.  By holding your hands further apart, closer together, or one hand higher than the other, you can create many different forms of natural arches.  This is what Gaudi did to design structures such as the Sagrada Familia using copious strings and weights and then looking at the whole in a mirror to see the structure right side up.  Later, the structures were described with detailed drawings and math.

While at the Sagrada Familia we had bought a combination ticket to the church and the Gaudi Museum in Park Guell.  This is where Gaudi lived for many years and the museum includes a number of furnishings and furniture that Gaudi designed.  Nice pieces, but if you come here, I’d definitely come to the park, but skip the museum unless you are a die hard Gaudi fan.

Parades, Protests, and Pyramids

Sunday seemed to be the day for protests and parades.  It started when we arrived at the Placa Catalunya in the heart of Barcelona to find squatters who seemed to be there to protest for quality housing.

At the Placa de Sant Jaume, which is where the Catalan government sits, there was a good size “free Syria” protest. while meanwhile, elsewhere in the square there was a competition with different teams vying to build the tallest human pyramid.

Later in the day we ran across large protest parades that seemed to be asking for economic freedom.

Barcelona has a Chocolate Museum, which has the distinct bonus that with each ticket, you receive a high quality chocolate bar. The museum is mostly about the history of chocolate and how it is made, but perhaps the most impressive artifacts were chocolate centerpieces made by master chocolatiers:

We then walked around the Old Town, or Barri Gothic,which is studded with old buildings and interesting decorations. 

One part of the quarter has a bridge modeled after Venice’s Bridge of Sighs.

It was hot today and at least this overweight basset hound had the right idea!

After lunch we went to the Picasso Museum, which was free today after 3pm.  The museum focuses on his time in Barcelona, and does a very good job of tracing the development of his style from classic portraiture in his earliest days to the cubism we all associate with Picasso,

Beneath the City History Museum lies the largest subterranean Roman ruins in the world, about 2,000 years old. I’ve seen Roman ruins in many places, but this place was unique in that you could actually see where they made  fish sauce (this Rome’s equivalent of Worcestershire Sauce or Thai Fish Sauce) and their wine making factory.  Fascinating!

Also on display were Medieval Jewish inscriptions and displays explaining the Jewish history of the city, unfortunately all in Catalan and Castellano, but we could understand  well enough.

Afterwards, we took a walk down Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian walkway, to the seafront.  The city is full of statues old and new, including  Frank Gehry’s “Fish” made for the 1992 Olympics.

Nearby was another statue, entitled “David and Goliath” by Antoni Llena, also from 1992.

We rode the Metro back to the Barri Gothic where we had dinner consisting of Papas Bravas; Smoked Salmon, with dates, mascarpone cheese and sesame oil; gazpacho with apple and sunflower seeds; and roast eggplant with yogurt honey dressing and cheese infused polenta.  Yum.

We Got some desserts at a pastry shop on the way back to the hotel and Kelly and I agreed that the almond in filo dough pastry was amazing.  Hope to find more like it!

No sign of Manuel

For those of you who used to watch Fawlty Towers, you may recall that their hapless waiter Manuel’s vocabulary was mostly “Que?” and “I am from Barcelona”. The actor Andrew Sachs was British, and his childhood language was German (don’t mention the war!)  According to Wikipedia “The character's nationality was switched to Italian (and the name to Paolo) for the Spanish dub of the show, while in Catalonia he is a Mexican (still called Manuel).”  Well thankfully we’ve not met any Barcelonans of this ilk.  Actually the people we’ve met have been very hospitable and helpful.

After getting in from the Airport via suburban train and subway we rested at hotel.  The public transportation system here is very good.  If you come to visit, here is a money saving tip – but a T10 card.  The ticket is good for 10 journeys at about 1/2 the total price compared to individual trips,  And any transfers within a 75 minute period count as a single journey.  It is even good for the ride in from the airport.

By early evening we were ready to go, so we walked along the Diagonal and saw some Modernist buildings, including Gaudi’s Casa Milla and Casa Batllo.  What a crazy genius the guy was,  I can’t help wonder what a building would look like if he and Frank Gehry designed it together.

As it was Saturday night, there were lots of people about.  What appeared to be a drunken stag group insisted I take their photo, although what they thought I would do with it, I don’t know.  Here’s the shot in case you come across them, you’ll know to be on your guard and put your camera away quickly.

We had a nice dinner of some tapas, salad and very simply, but perfectly prepared fish. Then we walked over to see the Sagrada Familia at night.

In case you aren’t familiar with it, the Sagrada Familia is a church and considered a  Modernista masterpiece, and was Gaudi’s passion until the end of his life.  It has been under construction since 1882, and will continue to be so until at least 2026.  And you thought you had problems with slow contractors!  The organic nature of the structure with no right angles and decorations that at times look like melted ice cream sculptures is almost surreal.  Did I mention he was a crazy genius?

I guess this put us in the mood for some real ice cream, and here is Kelly enjoying some scoops in front of the church.

It was pretty late by the time we got back to the hotel and went to bed, but I guess we were early by Barcelona’s standards.  Our room is on the first floor overlooking the street and revelers continued to shout and sing throughout the night.  It got quiet around 3am, but then I can’t figure out if the noisy people at 6am were out very late, or just up very early.

Some Toilets I have Known

When you travel far and wide you get to see a lot of different interpretations of the concept of a toilet.  Beyond the typical American seated variety, occasionally I come across an old style with the tank raised up above head height, particularly in older English locations.

Of course, when you travel to the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, the squatter is something most westerners dread.  In Japan, you have to be careful of the high tech toilets.  Because the toilets are so sophisticated they have an “idiots mode” just like most modern cameras, just so you don’t accidentally press the eject button.

In various locations there are gatekeepers who charge you to go in, no matter whether it is a #1 or a #2.  The best of these at least hand you toilet tissue and towels on your entrance, like in Belize last year. Pity the person that does not have change in these locations.

In China there were the communal toilets with no privacy, and in Thailand, I remember using a communal urinal, which was fine, except that the cleaning lady was constantly there wiping and mopping all around you.  None of the local men was fazed.

Today I had a new minor addition to the plumber’s travelling hall of fame.  A toilet with a shredder.  At least that’s how the sign behind the toilet in our room described it.  After using the toilet (or for that matter the sink or shower), a fairly loud whirring noise is heard as the sewage is “shredded” on exit from the toilet.  I am not really sure why this is necessary as the sign explains not to put anything in the toilet that doesn’t come out of your body plus toilet paper. How much is costs to repair the device if you do is spelled out in detail.

Perhaps this is a new privacy thing, and maybe I should sleep sounder knowing my waste has been properly shredded and is secure from identify theft.  Forget the bidet, a toilet shredder may become the next “keeping up with the Joneses” thing to put in your bathroom.

Cheap and Cheerful

By buying an Austin-Dublin Madrid-Austin ticket on American Airlines, and separate Dublin-London and London to Barcelona flights on BMI and EasyJet respectively, we saved about half compared to a single Austin-Dublin-London-Barcelona Madrid-Austin ticket.  As a frequent traveler, there were two elements of our London to Barcelona flight that I was interested to experience. 

The first was flying out of Luton, the only “London” airport  ! had not previously used.  Luton is actually about an hour from central London, but as we were starting from North London and could pick up an airport bus nearby, it only took about 35 minutes to get there. There are actually 5 London airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Stanstead, and Luton, and each has its pluses and minuses. Luton and Stanstead are mostly served by the low cost airlines. 

Luton airport is small and contemporarily decorated.  Best of all it has a Marks and Spencers Fresh, which sells very good quality prepared foods at reasonable prices, so we were able to have a nice lunch onboard our flight and no rely solely on the airline’s food for sale.

I’ve flown many different airlines. Many times people will compare the largest of the low cost European airlines, Ryan Air and EasyJet to the US’s SouthWest. But Southwest is more like a full service airline in comparison. Ryan Air really brings out he “coach” in air travel – almost everything about the experience is uncomfortable, except the price of the basic flight. EasyJet is their main competitor in Europe and I was interested to see if it would be just as bus-like, or any better.  Both airlines have very low basic prices, basic facilities, and charge additional fees where they can, e.g. for baggage, early boarding, etc.

A few years ago, we extensively used AirAsia in SE Asia which is modeled after RyanAir’s operation, but the experience was much better, with nicer planes and better options.  Our flight on EasyJet was more like that – the plane was clean and comfortable, although none of the seats recline.  Not such a big deal on an 80 minute flight,. In the end it got us where we wanted to go at a reasonable price and in reasonably comfortable fashion.

The British have an expression that has become commonplace – “cheap and cheerful”, which means that something is inexpensive, but with decent quality (as opposed to just cheap!).  I think that pretty much sums up our first EasyJet flight.

Shabbat Shalom

Today was a quiet day in London.  After sleeping in, we got up and had lunch with our friend Eileen Martell at a nice Thai place in Finchley. 

Returning to Michael and Marcia’s in the afternoon, we got to visit the JCoSS, the only non-orthodox Jewish secondary school in the country.  Just to make everyone who pays for a Jewish Day School in the US jealous, this is state supported, so parents only pay a nominal amount for the Judaics education and security. Tax pounds at work!

We helped get dinner together and had a nice Shabbat with the Plumb-Shires and some visiting friends.

Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona – Viva Espana!

London Calling

We met my brother Nigel this morning at the North Finchley tube station and went to Camden in North London together to look around the market and meet up with my sister-in-law Monique.

On the way, we passed the picturesque Camden Locks.

The Camden Market is a hip place, full of funky clothes and cheap eateries. If your kid was in a band, this is where they would probably shop.  The fact that this used to be an old stables/horse hospital gives it lots of character, and the horsey theme has been used to good effect, keeping the stables-like feel to many stalls, in the decorations about the shops, and in the many equine themed statues throughout the place.

After grabbing a quick lunch, we walked to the nearby Jewish Museum in Camden.  Beyond the obligatory, “What is Judaism” type exhibits, and samples of various forms of Judaica, the museum also has a kosher (meat) cafeteria, exhibits on the Jewish communities of the UK, and a temporary exhibit space, which is currently about British Jews in the entertainment industry.

They made good use of their multimedia resources.  In particular, I found two exhibits quite compelling.  In one of them they included a number of common, but potentially controversial questions such as “What is the role of Women in Judaism”.  For all of these questions, they had short video responses from rabbis representing most of British Jewry including United Synagogue (modern orthodox), Masorti (similar to American Conservative), Reform (somewhere between American conservative and reform), and Liberal (most like US reform).  So you could look at a particular movement’s perspective on a number of issues, or look at one issue and see how the different movements have similar or differing opinions on it.

The other multimedia exhibit I liked was about the communities throughout the UK.  This showed all the towns were Jewish communities were known to have been established and included a brief chronological history of them, as well as photos and drawings when available.   While I always knew that there was (and still is) a community in Belfast, Northern Ireland, I had not realized that there had been a community in Derry also.  In Southern Wales (where Nigel lives) there were many communities during the height of the industrial revolution, all but two of which are now gone.  Looking at the map and reading about the Port Talbot Jewish community, it stuck me that Nigel IS the Port Talbot Jewish community today.

It was a nice day, so we decided to walk across Regents Park. We found ourselves in the rose garden (which had a very pleasing odor!), presenting some nice photo ops.

 

With our various dietary restrictions,  my sister-in-law Ruth very graciously made a lovely dinner for us all. Ruth is married to my oldest brother Andy, and their son Nathan drove up from Nottingham to join us.  He is graduating with his bachelor’s in Zoology in a few weeks and is also avid about music and photography.  Perhaps he can charm animals with his music and then take pictures of them.

It was very nice to catch up with everyone. It is rare that we can all be in the same place at the same time, hence my desire to get a family photo, which isn’t as easy as it might be when you have your two older brothers heckling you.  As I told them, other people pay me big bucks to do this! Thankfully they went fairly easy on me this time.

L to R: David, Kelly, Andy, Ruth, Nathan, Nigel, Mo.