Welcome to Barcelona, Spain

September 30

I now have added a new city to my top ten list of favorite cities. To put it simply, I love this place. Any culture that prizes art as much as they do deserves to be on anyone’s top ten list. There is magnificent public art everywhere you turn and that doesn’t include the hundreds and hundreds of buildings that are simply functional art by my standard. People live in gorgeous pieces of art work and that so appeals to me. Would I especially love to live in a Gaudi creation, yes, but truly any one of the great design treasures in this city would be a pleasure to live in.
Barcelona clearly prides itself on displaying great artists in grand ways as exampled by the Roy Lichtenstein sculpture on the waterfront as well as unknown artists who design their lamp posts and water fountains. This city takes great lengths to preserve old architecture and during re-construction projects they cover the entire site with enormous murals that reflect, in life size, what the building will look like when it is completed. I am inspired by their dedication to beauty and their initiatives to preserve the past as well as make room for the new.

Although I don’t often love much of the new buildings that go up in New York, here in Barcelona each new high rise is clearly an opportunity to express a unique artistic vision and to make the city an even stronger presence in the world of architecture and design.

We took the hop-on-hop-off bus and thoroughly enjoyed the four hour journey around the city and I was so excited when we arrived at Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia a true testament to his indomitable faith. He was asked, according to the audio guide on the bus, when the cathedral would be completed and his answer was when it is done, his client has all the time in the world. Gaudi had a strong faith as well as a clear sense of the enormity of his work and the impact it would have on Barcelona. He was said to have told people that it will be because of this cathedral that people will come to Barcelona. Yes, it is certainly a great reason to visit and when the construction is finished it may be impossible to get near the place because of all the admirers who have waited decades for its completion. Prior to my visit today I knew only a little about the artist and his contemporaries but I must admit that I will do much more research on their works and look forward to understanding better what made them create such delightful, whimsical, thought provoking and inspiring creations.

I am glad I saw several of Gaudi’s works including La Pedrera an exquisite building which has a sense of movement about it like a wave in the ocean.

We also passed an interesting convent in a beautiful neighborhood above the city center area that we were told plays a large part in the many wedding traditions observed in Barcelona and has been for many years. It turns out that to ensure that your wedding takes place on a sunny day you must bring to the convent several days before the nuptials are to take place, a dozen eggs and give them to the nuns. I'm not sure exactly how it all got started but I did enjoy hearing these kind of things and can even see modern day brides observing it for what is a dozen of eggs compared to not having gorgeous weather on your very important day.

After our tour we took a long walk along the Rambla which is a winding street that slopes down to the sea side and to Columbus circle. We took a few little detours off the Rambla main street and enjoyed some of the side street shops and even stopped for pastry in one little café. I would like to say it was only because I had to use the bathroom but truly those cakes looked so good.
And speaking of food we came across a Mercado which seems to be housed in an old warehouse right off of the Rambla. It was a feast for the eyes with every color represented in the different fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, etc. being sold at myriad of vendors all crowded in this small space. Everything looked to good to eat but since we had no place to store any food on the ship we were able to refrain from buying anything rather easily.
It was an incredible day and I look forward to hopefully returning to this great city one day to explore for days what only and few hours could never permit. As we pulled out of port I watched the sun go down and longed for just a bit more time but was also looking forward to the next adventure in a new port-of-call tomorrow.