Making Circles

Yesterday morning I headed to Girona. Since I had a little time before picking up my rental car, I wandered around town a bit.
Lo and behold, more awesome architecture:

I love the mix of old and modern with these two structures!

and check out this pattern:

love the color and design of this door:

Some construction work brought some really cool color and lines to these buildings:

some children’s clothing laid out to dry on this roof:

some views from the cathedral:

and from belowl:

After I picked up my car, I drove east to a very small village called Madremanya, where we’ll be taking our guests next week, for the first 2 nights of their trip. From there, I drove our Day-3 route, which heads south-west to the next hotel in S’Agaro, a beach town on the Mediterranean. Sorry I don’t have pictures of any of this, as I was driving for the first time in the region, holding both a route guide and a map in my hands…

Today, I drove up to San Marti d’Empuries, a tiny village on the sea where our trip will begin next week. I love that this parking lot is totally integrated with some ruins:

After about 20 km, I arrived at Ullastret, where there are Iberian ruins. (The Iberians settled in the region by 800 BC.) At the Archeology museum, I found this:

All the description said was that there seemingly was some sort of cult of the skull in the Iberian culture. It had to do with their spirituality, but no more details…

What I found especially interesting was their alphabet:

Apparently these symbols represent both letters and syllables, and the Iberians wrote both left to right, and right to left. How freeing is that? Perfect for art and craft-making.

In the bathroom, I found the most ingenious hook for holding purses:
Open:

Closed!

my lunch spot among the ruins and Cypress trees:

After finishing this route, I met with one of our hotels, and then hopped on my bike to learn another route. At the same time, I threw in some training to the mix, working on VO2 Max intervals in between riding through tiny cobbled streets…

woah. I am beat. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen most of this city in 2 days. After sleeping 11 hours last night, and a couple of cups of excellent coffee with breakfast, I headed outside… I started with a photo exhibit featuring contemporary Indian photographers’ work in a cultural center that was also displaying some of the giants used in parades here.

There was also another photo exhibit with locals’ work, and I couldn’t help but notice people all dressed alike again! I actually think these are groups of “tower builders” who make human towers during the festival that’s going on. I haven’t witnessed it, but I did read about it… Anyway, I got a shot of some of these folks looking at the exhibit

before being reprimanded for taking photos…

Then I headed to the northernmost part of the city to explore the Gràcia neighborhood and the Park Güell, another one of Gaudi’s madcap creations! As soon as I stepped above ground from the Metro, I noticed some more crazy architectural contrast…

After wandering around and climbing many many stairs, I was finally in the park.

Here’s a lookout area in the park:

and a close-up to show the tile work:

Under the lookout:

and the gates to one of the several entrances:

amazing.

After lunch, I headed back south in the city, and took a walk through to the Church of Santa Maria of the Sea, which unfortunately was closed, but was nice to walk around. I then got lost a little bit and ended up in Barceloneta, the area along the sea. There was a crafts market, and then further down, this statue that looked suspiciously like a Lichtenstein:

pretty sure it is…

I then headed out to the gardens of Montjuïc, where after much climbing I ended up at the castle. You can walk all around it for 360 degrees of Barcelona… I especially liked this view of shipping containers on the port:

It was a little hazy so unfortunately the amazing colors don’t show up in the photo…

And now I am off to look for some dinner!

It looks like Barcelona has a rent-a-bike program like Paris’…

I landed in this unbelievable, beautiful, and strange city this morning. After getting off the airport bus at the wrong stop, taking the metro to where I should have stopped, then walking all around Plaza Cataluña (it might be bigger than a football field) I finally found the street I needed to follow to get to my hotel for the next 2 nights. whew!

After settling in (I like to “nest” when I travel, arranging all my things in the room as soon as I get in) I started to explore this city I’ve wanted to see for years… I began walking south on La Rambla, the main shopping thoroughfare (a block from my hotel…dangerous) until I hit the water, and started walking north-east up into Barri Gotic, the old Gothic neighborhood. I stumbled on this sculpture,

some cool architecture,

and a small church, before eventually running into the Cathedral…

These 13 geese are in the cloister! They are said to protect the town from evil-doers.

And I just liked this palm tree also in the cloister.

This sign at the entrance of the cathedral is awesome.

I climbed up to the roof, and wow, Barcelona has one of the coolest skylines ever, with crazy colors and shapes and textures all over the place.

Best of all, this big guy was hanging out (or rather waiting to be fed, unfortunately) on the one of the roof walls

how stately…

Then I had a lunch of Catalan salad (veggies covered in cold cuts), meatballs stewed with squid, and flan, with a nice coffee to finish it all off. YUM! At the table next to me a young father entertained his baby daughter by repeatedly smacking himself in the face with some sort of small bag. She thought it was hilarious.

I saw these folks wearing all the same clothing while searching for a SIM chip for my phone…

I later saw a small group of people wearing matching devil outfits with little bells that rang as they walked. (A big festival is going on all over the city, the Mercè. There are large stages with bands playing all over the place. These people like to party!)

I also saw on the metro a guy wearing blue paint on his face. It was painted and textured to look as if it was a thick crust breaking into pieces (alien-ish, and wierd) Sorry no picture of this one though. People keep blowing whistles (I can hear them outside my hotel window- oh joy).

Anyhow, my goal this afternoon was to finally see some of Gaudi’s work. Ever since I studied his work back in an Art History survey class Freshman year, his buildings have fascinated me. Luckily, Barcelona is the mecca for Modernista work as well as amazing Design in general. I might have to add it to my list of places I could live in…
This is the Casa Battló

Check out the crazy contrast with the building next to it!

and higher up…

a close up so you can see the skull-ish looking balconies…

Then I headed to Gaudi’s masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia. This temple was begun in 1884, and work on the first of three facades was not even completed before his death. The first facade, Nativity, was finished according to his plans.

After anarchists destroyed his drawings and plans for the rest of the church, the Passion facade was done by the sculptor (an atheist) Josep Maria Subirachs:

This thing is crazy! Totally asymmetrical and angular in contrast to the drippy Nativity side. And the Jesus, of course, has caused quite a scandal.

The third facade, the Glory, is underway…

I really liked the contrast of the new statue against the older work:

And this tree being held up near the scaffolding…