Espana, los campeones!

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Today we decided to try a non-city beach so we asked the front desk staff at our hotel for recommendations of places to go and she recommended a few different beaches and provided us with instructions to get there by train. So after breakfast we set out for the beach, and we definitely weren’t the only ones with the idea. It seemed every person on the train had a beach umbrella in hand. Two trains and an hour or so later we arrived at the beach and found a nice spot close to the water to set up camp. While still crowded, the beach was a little less packed that the city beach we visited previously in Barcelona. After only a few hours of the sun beating down on us we decided we had probably gotten enough sun and packed up to find something for a late lunch before heading back to the hotel to clean up before heading into Barcelona center to watch the World Cup Final in the evening.

After our rest, we caught the 6:30 p.m. bus from the hotel to Montmelo and then caught the 7:01 p.m. train into town. We got off at Passeig de Grácia and walked from there to the Placa de Catalunya where our waiter last night had told us people would be gathering. However, when we arrived at the Placa, there was no signs of this being a gather place for Spanish soccer fans. So again my Spanish came in handy as I asked someone on the street where to go, and they told us Placa de Espanol. So we hopped back on the metro and headed to Placa de Espanol with what seemed like the entire rest of the city. When we arrived at Placa de Espanol it was packed. We could barely see the screens at the front of the Plaza, but the atmosphere was electric. We stayed to watch the beginning of the game and through most of the first half before we decided to go find a restaurant where we might be able to better see the game, and hind-sight this was probably a very good idea, because after Spain won, things likely got very crazy there. It took us a while to find a restaurant that had a table available with a view of a television. It wasn’t the ideal atmosphere for watching a soccer game, but everyone there was there for the same reason, so it was still pretty intense. We enjoyed a meal while watching the rest of the game. And from the moment Spain won in the last minutes of overtime, the people of Spain were celebrating. The restaurant even gave every group in the restaurant a complimentary bottle of champagne to celebrate Spain’s victory which we promptly popped open when we arrived at the train station and enjoyed while waiting for our train back out to the suburbs. We caught one of the last trains back out to the suburbs and arrived in Granollers station at nearly 1 o’clock in the morning and walked out to absolute mayhem. Bottle rockets were being shot off in every direction, people were running through as the fireworks were exploding, people were up on top of statues, swimming in fountains, and blowing up what I can only describe as “bombs”. Growing up in a family where we were required to squat behind a picnic table turned sideways when my dad set off fireworks in our backyard, the whole situation made me feel quite unsafe, but was exhilarating at the same time. I was also concerned about getting a taxi home, we obviously could not get one from the train station because well police had blocked off the entire square in front of it for the fans' celebration. So we carefully crossed the plaza and walked away from the celebration to find somewhere to call a cab from. Luckily we were able to find a hotel and asked the gentleman at reception to call us a cab, and we safely made it home. Turns out I had no reason to worry at all.

That building is soooo Gaudi!!!

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

Today we missed the bus leaving the hotel, not realizing that it runs only every hour on the weekends, so we had to take a taxi from the hotel to the train station in Montmelo. After just one switch of trains in the city we arrived in L’Eixample and at La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia is Barcelona’s most famous building, and it is still a work in progress. Construction on the building began in 1882 and it is estimated that they could be completed by 2020, but judging by what I saw on the inside, I doubt this will actually happen. However, when it is complete, La Sagrada Familia will have 18 towers, all 100 meters or more high. The towers represent the 12 apostles, four evangelists and Mary, Mother of God, plus the tallest tower standing for Jesus Christ. The outside of the building is the most intricate, but the inside is pretty unbelievable as well. I really hope that they finish the building during my lifetime, as I would love to come back and see the finished product, as it is hard to imagine exactly how it will look when complete.

After leaving La Sagrada Familia we grabbed a quick lunch before heading back on the metro to Park Güell. Park Güell can be found up in the Grácia district. Park Güell was originally designed to be a self-contained community with houses, schools, shops, etc. The project did not succeed, but the city turned the “Dr. Seuss –style” plaza into a park filled with colorful mosaics and paths/plazas designed by Gaudi.

After walking through the expansive park we made our way back to the metro and to Passeig de Grácia. As soon as we got off the metro at Passeig de Grácia, we noticed a large number of people gathering with flags in what looked to be some sort of demonstration. Nevertheless we stopped in front of Casa Botlló and Casa Amatller to view their unique modernista facades, before continuing up Passeig de Grácia towards La Pedrera, Gaudi’s best-known secular creation. However, the closer we got the thicker the crowds of people with flags grew. Finally we stopped and asked someone what was going on. The gentleman informed us that it was an “Independence” demonstration. Apparently, Catalonia, the region of Spain of which Barcelona is the capital wishes to succeed from Spain. And just like that we all learned something new. We fought our way through the crowds to La Pedrera, and made our way up to its surreal rooftop terrace with its bizarre chimneys. La Pedrera was an amazing building, but I have to be honest, the hundreds of thousands of people who were gathered in the streets below us, kept drawing our eyes, and we probably spent more time watching them than looking at Gaudi’s work at la Pedrera. Walking out of La Pedrera we found ourselves right in the thick of things and had to fight our way through and walk several blocks to escape the crowds.

Once we did make our way out of the crowds we walked to the Placa de Catalunya and down La Ramblas looking for a place to eat. We finally made our way down near Port Vell before selecting a restaurant to watch the third place World Cup game between Germany and Uruguay. The boys were happy to find a place to watch the game and I was happy to finally sit down to have some Spanish tapas and sangria. We sampled Calamari Romano, Bombas, Croquettes, Patatas Bravas, and Pincho Morenos and we enjoyed them all. After the game was over we took the metro/train back to Granollers, where we were able to just pick up a taxi back to our hotel.

Soccer and the beach...two Spanish traditions in one day

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Having had our meals at traditional times for the Spanish culture yesterday, 2 or 3 in the afternoon for lunch and 9:30 or 10:00 in the evening for dinner, we did not go to bed too early last night, so we slept in until nearly 10:00 before quickly grabbing breakfast and setting out. Today’s plan was to go to Camp Nou in the morning, FC Barcelona’s Soccer Stadium, and to the beach in the afternoon.

We again had no troubles with the bus or train into the city and just had to switch trains in Barcelona in order to reach Camp Nou. Once we got off at the station near Camp Nou, we basically just followed the crowds to the entrance and purchased our tickets for the Camp Now Experience. The tour of the facilities was pretty good. In addition to the museum we got to see the pitch from various different levels (including the press boxes and the player’s seats), walk through the different press rooms, tour the visiting team’s changing room, and more. I am certain that the boys enjoyed this much more than I did, but it definitely helped me to better understand/appreciate the importance of soccer to the Spanish, which was even more important than usual given the upcoming World Cup Final game between Spain and the Netherlands.

After our tour of Camp Nou we made our way back to the metro station and after a switch of trains we arrived at the Barceloneta metro station. From here we found a place along the Port to grab a kebab before making our way to the beach. Here we spent the next several hours soaking up the Spanish sun amongst the mobs of other sun thirsty beach goers. Before we knew it, it was nearly 8:00. We packed up our stuff and made our way back to the metro to make our somewhat long journey back to the hotel. Once we arrived back at the hotel and got cleaned up we head back out for dinner. We had been told a previous night by a hotel employee about a restaurant just down the road, but the individual working at the hotel tonight advised against eating there, so we went back to our little sandwich place for another late dinner, with plans to try and eat in the city the next couple of nights, to hopefully get some Spanish cuisine since I have been craving it so.

An adventure in the Catalonian Capital

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

After a late dinner and a couple of drinks with David upon our arrival at our hotel in Barcelona late last night and a good night’s rest, we woke up in a much better mood today. I spoke with the hotel staff and found out more detailed information on transportation to and from Barcelona center and we left the hotel after breakfast feeling that the hotel might not be so bad after all.

We didn’t make it far out the door however before we had yet another detour, however, this time it was a good one. As soon as we stepped out of the hotel door we could hear the high pitched sound of something racing around a track. So upon Tim and David’s request I went back to the hotel and inquired about how to get to the track and whether or not we could get in to watch the practice or test or whatever it was that was going on. Little did we know, perhaps because we arrived at nearly midnight, that our hotel was literally adjacent to the Catalunya Circuit, Barcelona’s F-1 racing track. Once inside we watched the motorcycles race around the track for some time. This was definitely an unexpected bonus for the boys, again, maybe our hotel isn’t so bad after all.

After our detour to the F-1 track, we walked to the bus stop where we had been informed a bus stopped every 30 minutes and would take us to within a 5 minute walk of the train station in Montmelo. We weren’t exactly sure to get off, and Tim and I surely didn’t recognize anything since we walked the town in darkness the previous night, so my minimal Spanish came in handy and I asked a lady on the bus which stop we needed to get off at for the train station and she said “Aqui, Aqui!” or “Here, here!” So we quickly disembarked. Thank goodness I had asked! From the bus station it was as the hotel staff had said less than a 5 minute walk to the train station. From the train station we boarded our train and headed for Barcelona Sants, Barcelona’s main train station, to inquire about tickets to Pamplona before starting our day site-seeing in Barcelona.

When Tim and I had arrived in Barcelona yesterday we had asked a lady at the Barcelona Franca station about tickets to Pamplona, and she said there were none, well there weren’t any that would work for us at least, it seemed she could either get us there or get us back, but not in subsequent days. We thought we would check again one more time at the main station however, since she really didn’t seem to know what she was talking about. But when we reached the main station I picked a number, 79, and looked up to see that they were now serving number 599, and the numbers were going down from there. Needless to say, we simply decided that Pamplona was not meant to be. I’m sure our parents, or at least my mom, will be pleased to hear that we DIDN’T run with the bulls. We were disappointed, but there is always next time.

From the main train station we took a metro line to Placa de Catalunya where we strolled down La Rambla, Spain’s most famous boulevard, which stretches from the Placa de Catalunya to the waterfront. The part-pedestrianised street is filled with street performers, artists, newsstands, restaurants, cafes, and all sorts of other vendors. The street’s highlight, in my opinion, is the Mercat de la Boqueria, a colorful fresh food market. This was by far the best market we have been to thus far on our trip and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the variety of fruits, sweets, meats, fish, and more that filled the colorful and abundant stalls of this busy market. After perusing the market we continued down La Rambla to the waterfront where we visited the Monument a Colon, a tall pedestal, atop which stands a statue of Columbus. We took the lift up the Monument for panoramic views of Barcelona and the waterfront. We then made our way to the waterfront and found a place to stop for lunch at Port Vell, one of Barcelona’s two ports, before making our way to the other, Port Olympic. The walk from one to the other was quite spectacular as we saw some yachts that could easily compete in size with those we had seen in Cannes.

After a short rest at Port Olympic, we made our way to the nearest metro station and headed in the direction of the Barri Gotic. Once there, we made our way to Barcelona’s Gothic Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on top of the ruins of an 11th century Romanesque church and its neo-Gothic façade was added later, in the 19th century. I almost didn’t get to tour the Cathedral, as I had forgotten my scarf and did not have anything to cover my shoulders. Luckily some elderly peddler woman had realized the potential for profit in persons just like myself and was selling small scarves just outside the Cathedral for 1 Euro a piece. After viewing the inside of the Cathedral, we made our way to La Ribera, a trendy district of Barcelona which is home to the Museu Picasso, which is home to over 3000 Picasso pieces, most from early in the artist’s career. I found it fascinating to see Picasso's earlier works to see how much his style changed and progressed over the years. From the Museu Picasso we continued down the picturesque narrow streets to Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, a beautiful example of Catalan Gothic architecture.

By this point we were all pretty tired having walked quite a bit in the blazing Spanish sun, so we found a metro station and made our way back to Montmelo where we were successfully able to catch the bus back out to the hotel (or very close to the hotel at least). We had a quick meal at a Sandwich place right by the bus stop before walking back to the hotel.

Sometimes things don't go as planned

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

We slept in a bit this morning, leaving the hotel around 9:30 a.m. for our 10:30 train to Barcelona (via Montpellier). We arrived in Montpellier around 2:30 p.m. or so. We had purchased baguettes in Cannes to eat for lunch on the train. Our train into Barcelona was approximately an hour late. We arrived at nearly 9:00 p.m. when we were supposed to arrive just before 8:00 p.m. We were a bit concerned about this first of all because the semi-final soccer game between Spain and Germany started at 8:30 p.m. and secondly because David, Tim’s brother, was supposed to have arrived in Barcelona earlier in the afternoon, and we had no way of communicating with him to let him know our train had arrived late. And not only was our train late, we had thought that we would be able to take a train directly from the station our train from Montpellier stopped at to Montmelo station, where our hotel was, but as it turned out we actually had to take a train to Barcelona Sants Station, the main Barcelona station, before heading to Montmelo. And sadly, that is not where our troubles ended. Once we arrived in Montmelo, we could not find a taxi, so I inquired about how to get our hotel with a local restaurateur and was told that it was a mere 5 minute walk and was given directions. Once we had fulfilled the directions given I stopped in another restaurant and asked again, and found that we had been misled, from that location it was still another 2-3 kilometers. So of course I inquired about a taxi, only to be told that there was no possibility of a taxi at this particular time of night. So we started our long walk to the hotel. I have to say that I am extremely glad that I was not traveling with other women, or by myself, because even as it was, I was terrified. We walked for what seemed like miles without seeing any signs of civilization down tree lined dark streets before reaching a factory laden area that did not seem likely to have hotels before we finally saw the familiar “Holiday Inn” sign, and I couldn’t have been more relieved. It was nearly midnight and we had been traveling for well over 12 hours and were more than 3 hours later than we had anticipated, but we had made it. Whether or not we will stay in this hotel for the duration of our time in Barcelona is yet to be determined.

Sometimes there's nothing better than doing nothing

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Today was exactly what we both needed. We started the day off by sleeping in until 10:00, something I don’t think we have done yet the entire trip. We then took our time getting ready before boarding the bus to the port and arriving at the beach around noon. It was much hotter in the midday sun that it had been yesterday in the afternoon, so frequent dips were made into the cool Mediterranean water. We shared a baguette sandwich for lunch and pretty much did nothing but relax on the beach with the crowds for the next several hours. We finally had soaked up enough sun around 4:00 in the afternoon and decided to cool off back in the confines of our hotel room. We again made our way back to the center of town in the evening to have dinner. This time we decided on a pizza place that seemed to be very popular just across the street from the harbor. After dinner we walked back to the restaurant where we had dinner last night (as they had TVs playing the World Cup game) to have a few more drinks and watch the game, as it was already in progress. After watching Holland score their way to victory and to the World Cup Final we made our way back to the hotel. A perfectly relaxing day in the French Riviera.

Bonjour!

Monday, July 5th, 2010

This morning’s train is the first train that we have had to reserve in advance. Many of the trains in France and Spain require reservations, whereas thus far we have simply boarded the train and found any available seat and have had to pay no additional fees. The reservation fees for most trains as a pass holder are pretty nominal, with the exception of overnight trains, which we had planned to take from Madrid to Lisbon and back and from Madrid to Paris, however after looking into airfares, it will actually be cheaper for us to fly to Paris from Madrid, and we are just going to give Lisbon a pass. Our reservation this morning was on the 8:17 a.m. train out of Geneva, so we got up and had breakfast at the hotel (which was included, as it was a Holiday Inn Express, a rarity in Europe) at 6:30 and headed out shortly thereafter by the hotel shuttle to the Geneva Airport train station where we connected to the main station and boarded our train. We arrived in Marseille, France around noon and boarded our connecting train to Cannes, which departed Marseille at around quarter past noon. This train ride was very scenic, traveling along the “Côte de Azur” with it beautiful beaches and sailboats and yachts out at sea. We arrived in Cannes around 2:30 in the afternoon, and decided to take a taxi to the hotel, as we did not have clear instructions as to how to get to the hotel via public transportation and could not location an information office (this ended up costing us approximately 10 Euros).

After dropping our bags at the hotel we got public transportation information and a map from the front desk at the hotel, yet another Holiday Inn, and boarded the bus to the center. We arrived at the beach around 4:00 and it had cooled of considerably, but we still enjoyed a swim in the Mediterranean and some relaxation. After a couple of hours at the beach we went back to the hotel to clean up before dinner.

It was nearly 8:00 before we made it back to the center of town. We located a restaurant near the port and had a nice meal (something the costs in Switzerland had not allowed). I actually had a salad (another thing I hadn’t had in a while) which was quite an unusual combination of ingredients (including potatoes, yogurt, corn, bacon, brie, egg, tomatoes, etc.) but delicious. I again partook in the incredibly cheap but excellent wine offering, a 50cl carafe of wine for only 6 Euros. After dinner we walked through the harbor and looked at all the incredible yachts, and imagined what life must be like for their owners (luckily we weren’t the only dreamers doing so) before heading to an ice cream parlor we had spotted earlier to grab a couple of ice cream cones. With ice cream in hand we made our way back along the harbor to the bus station and then back to our hotel.