The Plane in Spain

• September 23
• September 24
• September 25
• September 26
• September 27
• September 28
• September 29
• September 30
• October 1
• October 2
• October 3
• October 4

October 1

Velasquez at the Prado

Today I got up a little after seven. After washing up, I woke up Brian, and we went down to breakfast so that he could get on his way. I put him in a cab, said goodbye, and wished him well. We'll see him in a week or so.

Ron and I dallied in the room a bit, then I came down to breakfast with him so that we could plan out our day. It's going to be different with just the two of us, but maybe less hectic, too. We've been packing a lot of activity into our days, and I'm just about dead.

So today, Ron and I went to Parc Guell. Today was hot, and Parc Guell is at the top of a hill, 1.2 km from the Lessups Metro stop. It wasn't what we expected, but it had its charms. I believe had it been 10 degrees (F) cooler, we would have stayed much longer. Gaudi designed this park as part of an upscale urban housing development. It went bust.

The park has some wonderful structures in it. Gaudi loved to cover surfaces with ceramic mosaics. This park has lots of gorgeous mosaics.

We went into the Gaudi Museum that is housed in his home. Think gingerbread and art deco. Gaudi was an exponent of the Modernissme Movement in Barcelona. I think he was probably a man of contradictions, too. He was an intensely religious man, and after he took over the design of El Temple de La Familia Sagrada, he devoted the rest of his life to it. He was killed after he was hit by a trolley car in 1925. His work were and are controversial. Anarchists destroyed his workshop after his death, and it almost stopped work on the church. Some of his other works were also criticized by anti-clericists.

Barcelona was not a very tame city in the early decades of the 20th century. It has many stories to tell. I see these ancient women walking down the street, leaning on a cane or the arm of a grandson, and I wonder what these grand (and believe me, they are grand) old women have seen. What stories could they tell of Barcelona?

The Gaudi house is full of furniture gems that he designed or were from the Modernissme school. I took lots of pictures. Today officially starts the off-season, so the entrance was only E4. If you like period furniture, and don't mind that the entrance fee supports the construction of the Temple of the Sacred Family, then you should see the house.

We walked some around the gardens, but it was simply too hot today outdoors, so we headed back to the Metro. We stopped at the Store Cafe for a very light lunch. We shared a tuna sandwich and a salmon sandwich. Of course, these were bocadillos - small sandwiches, and no mayo on the tuna, but served with olive oil and white asparagus. The salmon was accompanied with chips and a guacamole mayonnaise on the side. The salmon was raw, sliced thinly, and served on black bread. The tuna was served on a long and narrow roll (sounds like a baguette, but it isn't) with the tuna, ripe and green tomatoes, and lettuce. We each had a granzanita, an icy fruit drink.

We took the metro from Lesseps back to Rocaforte, our stop. The Metro system looks confusing at first glance, but is very easy to navigate. What is very different from our Metro, is that passengers actually move a latch on the door to open it. So doors don't open automatically, only if passengers need to use them. We were not the only confused tourists.

We got back to the hotel and found our keys didn't work. We straightened the situation out with the front desk, then went upstairs and took a nap. Ron and I had a pretty deep discusson about our relationship. It seems that traveling like this really does heighten some differences, and it challenges us. Being in a different place sheds a new light on our friendship, that maybe we don't see back home in Wheaton. In any case, I'm glad we had the talk. I love him so much, and I want him to be loved and joyful. I sometimes get in the way of that.

Afterwards, we took a long walk around the neighborhood and had a snack and a beer at a joint a block down. It's a little difficult to make yourself understood. The waiter gave us an English menu, but couldn't understand the item I was pointing to. Also some of the English is fancifully translated. It was very funny, and the waiter had lots of good humor, and of course, tunny=tunafish, and Budweiser is a premium imported beer. Who knew?

So after a snack, what do you think we did? Why we went to El Cargolet for dinner. It's right across the street from our hotel, and has a wide selection of tapas as well as a dinner menu.

We ordered escobeitched tuna, Navarre sausage, and a platter of mixed grilled vegetables. The waiter also brought us a plate of bread (with two cloves of garlic and a halved tomato). Our guidebook says that Catalans can't understand why anyone would want to ruin bread with butter or olive oil, when one can top bread with garlic and ripe tomato. So I rubbed my bread with garlic and scraped tomato on it and spread it around. Then I topped it with tuna or sausage and thought that I could really get used to this.

The grilled veggies were wonderful, too. We were served an assortment of zuchinni, eggplant, wild mushrooms, tomatoes, endive, and lettuce. The vegetables were first coated or dipped in olive oil, then cooked on a very hot grill. Even the tomato had grill marks.

We finished up with a whiskey cake and a Catalan flan. As far as we could tell, although the cake didn't appear to contain any cake, it contained a lot of whiskey. The Catalan flan was a creme brulee, but is served in a dish different than the container in which it was cooked. It must have been stirred very slowly, and may have been cooked in a double boiler. It's definitely a pudding, rather than a custard. It was topped with a layer of burnt sugar. It tasted very good.

I love meals where I can taste six or eight different dishes without getting too much indigestion. I think I could become a tapas kind of guy.