Barcelona

The Netherlands really brightens up in summer.  People sit out on the sidewalk in front of their houses enjoying a glass of wine, fill the park with smoke from Albert Heijn disposable barbecues, and head to the seaside in droves. As well as these, we also took apart in another typical Dutch summer tradition- a vacation to somewhere much warmer and sunnier.  For us, this was a long weekend away in Barcelona.

We arrived on Thursday morning, meeting up with our friends who were on holiday from back in Australia.  We went for a bit of a wander through the streets, having a quick look at the Barcelona cathedral, checking out some street markets, and admiring the incredible architecture.  There was a real mix between the old, typical Western European buildings and the loud, curvy, colourful style unique to Barcelona.  We learned a lot about this style when we visited Casa Batllo, designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi who is responsible for many of the most recognisable buildings in the city.  It was easy to spend time in this beautiful building that was full of colours and angles inspired by the ocean.

Casa Batllo

The rooftop

In the afternoon we visited another Gaudi site- the Guell Park.  This park had a great view over the sprawling city and out to the ocean.  The park itself had a number of buildings in the Gaudi style, and a particularly nice square surrounded by a terrace made with the colourful ceramic mosaics for which he famous.

Main square at Guell Park

Friday was again Gaudi inspired, starting with a visit to the La Sagrada Familia- the cathedral of the Sacred Family.  Over the last 18 months we have been to countless churches, cathedrals, basilicas, monasteries etc. throughout Europe but this was so different to anything else we have seen.  To start with, it is massively tall, which you don't really get a sense of until standing at one of the incredibly decorated facades.  These facades were designed with different styles, so each entrance to the building had a different feel.  Inside, the large multi-coloured stained glass windows were designed to give each area of the building a different mood- blue and green glass to give a cooler feel, reds and oranges to give a warmer, brighter feel.  The tall central pillars were topped with branch like supports to make it seem as though you are standing under the canopy of an alien rainforest.

Front of the Segrada Familia, still under construction

That night we went to a jazz concert hosted on the rooftop of another Gaudi masterpiece, Casa Mila.  The music was secondary to the the surreal architecture on the rooftop that was made spectacular by the flood lights reflecting off the white chimney tops.

Casa Mila

Jazz on the rooftop at Casa Mila

The architecture in the city was pretty incredible, but it is on a completely different scale compared to some of the beauty found in nature, as we found out the next day on our trip to Montserrat.  This rocky mountain formation, which gets its name from its comparison to the serrated edge of a knife, houses an abbey built into the top of the mountain called Santa Maria de Montserrat.  The funicular provides access from the local train station, which is about an hour from Barcelona.  There are a few different walking tracks on the mountain, and after a nice lunch looking out over the valley we took an hour hike out to a chapel on the face of the mountain.  Along the walk there were statues and icons depicting the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Funicular to the top of Montserrat

Serrated mountains which give the name Montserrat

On Sunday we were by ourselves as Tom & Jo had left early for the long flight home.  We had planned to spend the morning looking through the shops, only to find that Barcelona still keeps strong to the tradition of closing everything down on Sundays.  We were walking aimlessly through some alleyways when we heard some music and cheering, and the narrow road opened up onto a square packed with people. In the centre was a tower of people balancing on top of each other, human pyramid style.  We had stumbled upon a Castelling competition, a Catalan tradition where teams take turns to make towers.  We stayed and watched for a while as the brown and green teams traded single person, 3 level towers and complex 5 and 6 level creations that required maybe 50 people, including the base of strong guys supporting everything from below.  The most amazing thing was watching the little kids in crash helmets scrambling up the outside of the almost finished tower before reaching the top where they bravely raise one hand to signify that the tower is complete.

Barcelona was a great city for food and drink.  Although tapas and sangria are not typically Catalan, they are found at restaurants throughout the city.  Quality varies but with a bit of research it is possible to find some really great food.  We ate at tapas restaurants Tapeo and Sensi, the latter which was so hipster that you could barely see the Threadless designs on the waiter's t-shirt through his beard (he was nice though, and the food was really good). Others included a funky little Bohemian cafe, complete with pony-tailed, ear-ringed waiter storing his packet of smokes under the sleeve of his singlet, and a cool gin bar called the Rubi Bar with a wall of different home made gins, like cucumber or chocolate.

There is so much to do and see in this city, four days was nowhere near enough (although four days of the disgusting tap water was plenty).  And of course, it was nice to be again in a place where shorts and a t-shirt is the most appropriate attire.