Barcelona

Carol Fishman and I took the AVE train to Barcelona from Madrid – a fast and pleasant 3 hour trip. Although it was crammed with tourists and we were constantly warned about pickpockets, Barcelona is an extraordinary city. Our hotel was the Hotel Colon, very conveniently located across from the Cathedral in the scenic Barri Gotic. As its name implies, many of the buildings in this quarter date back to medieval times. The Picasso Museum is located in one of them (an odd combination!) and in another the Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat, which features extensive subterranean Roman ruins that include a winery and a fish-processing factory.

The Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar is the archetypal Gothic church – all columns, tracery, and stained glass. We took the funicular up to Montjuic to visit the National Museum of Catalonian Art (which has reconstructed apses of over a dozen Romanesque chapels from the area) and the Fondacio Joan Miro.

Barcelona is also known for its early 20th century Modernista architecture. Montaner’s Palau de la Musica Catalana is a sumptuous building with mosaic-covered pillars and a huge inverted stained-glass dome. In Eixample, four wildly disparate Modernista houses abut on the “Illa de la Discordia”, including Gaudi’s Casa Battlo – an indescribable exuberant fantasy of stained glass, biomorphic form and smashed ceramic. Casa Mila (also known as “La Pedrera”) is another apartment building designed by Gaudi – its exterior is all waves and the roof a jungle of curvy air ducts and chimneys. When you enter his Parc Guell, you see a swooping stairway leading to a surrealistic Greek temple topped by a terrace edged with a loooong meandering bench. All of this is covered with brilliantly patterned ceramic mosaics. Further on, the park has walkways atop arcades of piled-stone columns tilting at what seem like impossible angles. A park like none other I’ve ever been to.

                                                                  Sagrada Familia

However, it is Sagrada Familia, the cathedral designed by Gaudi, that is his crowning glory. On the exterior, the Nativity Façade is a gorgeously-sculpted crazy drippy sand castle while the Passion Façade (by a different artist) is movingly bleak and austere. Sure hope I’m alive to see the Glory façade completed! The interior is a soaring forest of white tree-like columns lit by dazzling stained-glass windows. Although still a work in progress (building started before the turn of the 20th century), it nonetheless left me breathless.

We had delicious Catalan meals at Caputxes, La Polpa, and El Salon. Metro and Museum Cards saved us a lot of both time and money. Barcelona is a large city with a lot to see, and in 2 1/2 days we only scratched the surface.

Mimi Santini-Ritt 2010