Yesterday with our guide, we had a more typical noontime meal. We sampled these tapas: octopus chunks with potato, shrimps in garlic oil (a dish we’ve enjoyed in the past), thin slices of fried eggplant, crispy like potato chips, and tomato bread.
Crispy eggplant slices
Everything was good, especially the eggplant.
Seafood paella for 2!
Then seafood paella, sized for 2 people, was delivered to the table. It was huge and by then, none of us had much room left for more than a few forkfuls. We dined at 1:00 pm, but most Spaniards have a big meal sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 pm, and then something light (tapas, perhaps) at 10:00 or 11:00 pm.
Dinner at our hotel
After that sizable lunch, we ordered more sparingly last evening. In addition to some wonderfully toothsome bread, we tried mini brioches stuffed with crabmeat, the cheese plate, and little potato tacos. These were tiny potato chips stuffed with shrimp like a real taco.
Shrimp tacos
Both the brioches and the tacos were scrumptious! We also sampled the orange cake which was just okay.
Lunch at Bar Mono
Art in Bar Mono
Today we took a more relaxed approach to life after our big Gaudi excursion yesterday. This meant a later start and a short walk before returning to this tapas restaurant we had liked on our first day. Patatas bravas, beef croquettes, and the lovely fried artichoke flowers gave us enough sustenance for the afternoon.
From La Rambla to the Port
After lunch, walking to the port was our goal. La Rambla, a long boulevard, divides the Old Town in half with the middle portion being pedestrians only. Currently, La Rambla is being improved and renovated so there are torn up areas, construction vehicles and fenced off areas. Nonetheless, it’s still fun to pass by flower stands, news vendors, and many open-air cafes.
On our way, we briefly detoured down a side street to the magnificent Placa Reial or Royal Square. It was teeming with people, tourists and others, as we sat by the fountain and enjoyed gazing at the palm trees and the mustard facade of the buildings.
Placa Reial
Port Vell at the end of La Rambla is the port for leisure and is just beyond the old customs house. Large boats are anchored and alongside is a pier of contemporary design containing shops and a restaurant.
We spent the day with Javier, a wonderful Barcelona guide who was personable, knowledgeable. and fun to be with. He’s been a guide for several decades and knows a lot about Antonio Gaudi and his masterpieces in Barcelona, especially Sagrada Familia. With him, we visited three sites: Hospital Sant Pau, La Pedrera (Casa Mila), and that beautiful cathedral, Sagrada Familia. The whole day was fascinating.
HOSPITAL COMPLEX
View of roofs of hospital complex showing elaborate touches
Hospital Sant Pau is really a set of buildings founded about 600 years ago in what was then woodland. It was a medieval welfare house and then became a modern hospital complex. Designed by Louis Domenech i Montaner, not Gaudi, it’s an example of modernism or, as the style is called elsewhere, Art Nouveau. In 1997, UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site due to its “architectural uniqueness and artistic beauty.”
Hospital waiting areaCeiling decorationLarge open ward
Today, there are nine historic buildings, several of which one can tour. A modern hospital exists on the back side of the site. Some of the buildings and interiors use ceramics and other elements that are similar to some of what one sees in Gaudi’s work.
LA PEDRERA
Exterior of La Pedrera, note the rooftop
La Pedrera is an apartment building that Gaudi designed between 1905 to 1912. It was built for the Mila couple, hence its alternate name of Casa Mila. It too is a World Heritage Site as of 1984. Here, we didn’t go into any of the apartments, but spent time seeing Gaudi’s unique arches, studying the facade models, and then exploring the unusual outcroppings on the rooftop.
Gaudi’s interleaved arches
Up among the rooftop sculptures
SAGRADA FAMILIA
One view of several faces of Sagrada Familia
Sagrada Familia was started in 1882 and after more than 140 years is still not complete. Gaudi lived from 1852 to 1926 when almost 74, he was hit by a streetcar and died ten days later in the poor people’s hospital. He was disheveled poorly dressed, and without identification, initially languished in that hospital unattended from several days.
Architects who followed Gaudi added towers and sculptures to the original building. Before the pandemic, completion was slated for 2026, but with work halted then, the timeline is now 2032. The current architect, the ninth, is Jordi Fauli. Today, the cathedral has fourteen towers, and attracts more tourists to Spain and Portugal than the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Tree-like column rising to the ceiling
Gaudi loved curves and angles, and supposedly was asked when studying architecture, couldn’t he draw any straight lines. His work includes themes from nature: trees, plants, and flowers, and this cathedral is unlike any other I’ve ever seen. The columns look like trees while the colors of the stained glass are marvelously rich and bright, especially on a sunny day.
Light, columns, & color
View of several clusters of stained glass windows
Javier, our guide, worked at the cathedral some years ago, got to know the architects, and was able to pump them for details about the building and Gaudi’s and their intents. The Chief Penguin and I visited it on out own more than ten years ago, but we learned more about the facades and the interior on this visit. It remains a spectacular sight and definitely a must for anyone visiting Barcelona!
Note: Photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
Our flights were smooth, the line for entry into Spain long, but moving; the bags, however, took a long time to be delivered to the belt. There was traffic from the airport making the ride to our hotel longer than usual. Given the hotel’s location in a pedestrian area, we were dropped off a short distance away. Thomas from the hotel met us and assisted with getting the luggage there. Our room has a large window and a French balcony overlooking a historic square and an elementary school. The square doubles as a playground, and kids were noisy running around. After hours, small groups of adults gathered here and there in the square enjoying the soft night air.
TAPAS AND AFTERNOON
Interior of Bar Mono
The culinary theme of the day was tapas. After checking in and cleaning up, we were ready for some lunch. Ever efficient, Thomas walked with us to point out several possible small options for lunch not far from the hotel. We opted for Bar Mono and shared some tapas: chicken croquettes, fried artichokes with Romesco sauce, and cod fritters.
Fried artichokes w/Romesco sauce
Cod fritters
All very tasty! The Chief Penguin also sampled a bowl of gazpacho, a lovely cream version that too was delicious. This was a good way to return to Barcelona on a sunny pleasant day.
We booked dinner at the hotel and then spent part of the afternoon sitting on the rooftop deck. There’s a small pool, not really deep enough for swimming, but attractive to the doves and pigeons diving by for a drink. We both relaxed and struggled to stay awake, mostly me. Later we took another walk, and the Chief Penguin found the hotel we had stayed at 10 years ago. It’s on a big square in front of a cathedral where we had witnessed a lively, yet peaceful. demonstration for Catalan independence. Our old hotel had changed its name and, when the security guard allowed us in to take a peek, we could see that it had been nicely renovated and was more elegant than in the past.
MORE TAPAS FOR DINNER
Dinner started at 7:30 pm and we were there, ready to eat again and then retire for the night. This time we had smoked salmon and chicken croquettes, a lovely plate of paper-thin dark red Iberian ham, a board with small wedges of three cheeses, and a chewy round fougasse (bread) stuffed with potatoes, all washed down with glasses of the local white and red wines! The food here was more refined than that at lunch and simply delicious.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, we have a full day devoted to Gaudi, Sagrada Familia and two other buildings of is. Now for some desperately needed sleep!
When we lived in San Francisco, we subscribed to the opera, and when we were very lucky, we were invited to sit in the director’s box, close to the stage. I loved the opera seasons there, mostly because their season always included at least one contemporary opera. We saw a wonderful production of Nixon in China, for example.
The Chief Penguin signed up to watch post-performance live streams of some of this season’s SF Opera offerings. He watched all of Rigoletto (I caught snatches of it), and together we endured Dead Man Walking with music by Jake Heggie and lyrics by playwright Terrence McNally. I say endured, not because it was bad in any way, but because it is extremely intense and moving. Based on the book of the same title by Sister Helen Prejean and the 1995 movie (which we have seen), this powerful opera premiered in 2000.
The staging of the opera is simple and minimalist, but very effective. Sister Helen leaves the school-aged children she works with to visit Joseph De Rocher, her pen pal who is on death row. He is initially distrustful of her, not sure she can help him, but then asks her to be his spiritual advisor as he awaits the recommendation of the pardon board and, ultimately, his execution date. Almost to the end, he proclaims his innocence and denies that he has killed the two teenagers, not having the courage to admit the truth and seek forgiveness. While he is bitter and vulnerable, Sister Helen herself becomes overwrought with emotion from their encounters and questions her own beliefs and assumptions.
The scenes with Joe’s mother and brothers are heartbreaking, while those with the teens’ parents seeking accountability and justice are heartrending in another way. I would not have thought that an execution scene would be so excruciating and powerful to witness, but it was. A thought-provoking and demanding work of art. See it if you have the opportunity.
POWERFUL FICTION: 1960’s MAGDALENE LAUNDRY
Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs
Young women at Good Shepherd Convent/Laundry in Buffalo, (buffalore.facebook.com)
Susan Wiggs’s latest novel is a bit of a departure for her. Her earlier enjoyable books are heartfelt stories of family and romance, often in a series built around a particular location (Lakeside Chronicles) or historical works set in the 19th century. Wayward Girls is set in the late 1960’s in Buffalo, NY, and then zooms ahead 50 years to the present day. I’ve read about and seen films about the Magdalene laundries in Ireland, but I was not aware that from the 1880’s into the 1920’s, there were a number of these institutions in the U.S. including in Buffalo, Albany, and Philadelphia.
Masquerading as do-good institutions for reforming girls who were pregnant and unmarried or were troublemakers, they were industrial laundries run by nuns. The girls were forced to labor all day, were physically mistreated, and regularly punished by being locked in a dark closet. In essence, they were prisoners with no visitors and no escape.
Mairin, a 15-year-old with a lively spirit, misses her deceased father greatly. When her stepfather Colm tries to get “handsy” with her, she lashes out at him physically. He lies, her mother takes his side, and Mairin finds herself carted off to the nuns at Good Shepherd Refuge. Not one to settle quietly, Mairin makes multiple attempts to escape, before she becomes friends with several other girls. A natural leader, she inspires Angela, Helen, and Odessa to think about how they might successfully escape before they turn eighteen.
Much of the novel details daily life in this prison and then shifts to the present day and what Mairin’s life now is, years after she escaped. The trauma of that time remains, yet Mairin’s curiosity impels her to try to discover what happened to the other girls.
The characters are fictional, but the situations are based on a real laundry and survivors’ accounts. It’s a totally absorbing book. I also found the setting, from the music and TV shows of that era to the descriptions of life and culture in upstate New York, spot on. Not surprising, I guess, since although Wiggs lives in Washington State currently, she spent her early childhood near Buffalo. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
Both Honor, married to Tom, and Grace and her husband Pietro make important decisions that have repercussions years later. Finding Graceis Briton Rothschild’s novel debut. Chapter One is shocking and totally unexpected.
Without giving away the plot, it’s fair to say this is a novel about love in several forms: parental love, romantic love, and love among friends. It’s also a book about big secrets, those we hold rigidly tight, and smaller ones, things we protectively guard in how we present ourselves to one another. How candid are we with someone we are attracted to, and how soon do we reveal ourselves fully?
The conundrum at the heart of this story is an unusual one, and it threatens to upend the progression of a new love. Finding Grace has some surprising twists and turns of both character and plot. Recommended!
