(Missed yesterday’s post? Take a look at Day Two)
It wasn’t until my second full day in town that I head out into Barcelona proper. There was a reason for my wait. My plan was always to spend a day visiting the major sights and museums. After doing a spot of research it became apparent that a number of places remained closed on a Monday. So Montserrat became the activity for my first full day, whilst Gaudi, Picasso and the rest moved to the Tuesday. This trip was nothing if not properly planned! As this is the 21st century I used the Internet service TripIt to hold my itinerary, which conveniently also has a free iPhone application. This caches your details and saves you those enormous roaming fees that mobile phone companies are so keen to levy.
The day started as Monday had, with a stroll down to the nearest Metro station and the train over to Plaça d’Espanya. I headed over once more to La Rambla, but this time with the intention of visiting the Mercat de la Boqueria – a market which my guide book told me I mustn’t miss. I guess it’s my general loathing of markets in any shape or form, but I simply didn’t get on with the place. I took a single cursory loop of the main stalls before heading back out. If you’re after some meat, fruit or cheese then you’re in luck. Unfortunately I’d already got some lovely sheep cheese (which was beginning to take on a rather pungent aroma back in the hotel room) and I didn’t really need anything else. So I took to the myriad of streets and alleyways round about, taking a few pictures along the way. The apartment balconies above the small shops which lined the routes all seemed overflowing with anything and everything, especially clothing. I guess there’s not really anywhere else to hang out the washing!
Next on the list there was something I’d been particularly looking forward to – a visit to La Sadrada Familia. Gaudi’s monumental church certainly didn’t disappoint. In fact, it was more astounding than I’d imagined. Photographs I’d seen really didn’t do it justice, which always seemed to be to show this bizarre, semi-melting mess of a building. Nothing could be further from the truth. The exquisite, intricate detail of every nook and cranny seems to overwhelm. In between the hundreds of statues adorning the building are thousands of little flourishes which confuse the camera in wider shots. Seeing really is believing and I’d recommend a visit to Barcelona for its facade alone.
The inside is mostly inaccessible at present whilst (according to the leaflet) they attempt to get the interior complete by the end of 2010 so that services can start to be held. The exterior is planned to be completed by 2030, though given that it’s taken since 1882 to get this far, I really can’t see it happening. Perhaps if they worked weekends it might be done by now!
Once I’d dragged myself away from the exterior I decided to spend the extra €2.50 to take the lift up one of the towers to a viewing platform. The queue was only about ten minutes long, but if you go at peak times be aware that you may be queueing for up to an hour.
As soon as the lift started I realised I’d made a mistake. I’m generally not great with heights and those towers go up a long way. Ten of us were squashed into a lift which seemed as though it shouldn’t hold any more than five at the very most. Once at the top we were greeted with great views of the city, but only about a metre square of space to stand on. We also had to push passed people waiting to get back in the lift to go down again. My disliking of heights got the best of me after a couple of pictures and I decided I wasn’t going to wait up there for the lift to come back and get me. So I headed for the stairs. This was my second mistake since arriving at the church. The stairs down looped around the tower and offered both views of the outside and of the inside, right down to the bottom. So there was nowhere to look without frightening myself silly. As the stairs continued I had to squeeze passed people standing for photos, seemingly eager for me to have to move closer to those gaps in the inside wall. I reached the bottom of these stairs and thought that the ordeal was over. But it was about to get worse. I had to go back outside and enter another tower, this time with a more traditional sort of spiral staircase. But one without the central pillar. So one wrong step and I would have tumbled right down to the bottom. I don’t mind telling you that I was completely petrified. My heart gave a genuine jump for joy when I finally reached the bottom. I was covered in sweat by the time I got down there. I headed outside straight away to catch my breath. It’s not something I ever plan on doing again!
A look around the rest of the building uncovered a museum showing some of the older statues which had been replaced and photographs of various stages of its extremely long construction. One section I found rather interesting was an explanation of how the building works structurally, using physical examples to illustrate the point, and how Gaudi was influenced by nature in the design. The church is designed around the principle of a forest and the flowing curves in parts of the church certainly do look like a tree’s trunk and branches.
I bought my second piece of tat from the trip in the gift shop. And again, it truly is rubbish. Splendid!
After heading through the exit I was approached by a chap giving out leaflets for discounts at an all-you-can-eat buffet called Lactuca, which is just around the corner. I can’t recommend staying away from this place enough. I think it says it all that no-one else was in there when I arrived and no-one was there when I left. The food I ate wasn’t too bad, but the buffet apparently didn’t include the hot food on display and it wasn’t really all you can eat, but rather however much would fit in a single dish – there were no seconds. So I had to make do with the small amount of pasta salad that I’d managed to balance on my plate. Not somewhere I shall return to.
Next it was on to one of Gaudi’s other famous works – La Pedrera. This apartment complex is now open for visitors, though be prepared to have your bags x-rayed as security is tight. I’m not entirely sure why, as there’s not a lot in there that you could do damage to.
The building’s exterior is made up of a series of waves, with an accessible terrace roof of very strange shapes and pillars. Inside we get a view of an apartment as it would have been laid out during the building’s heyday. Interesting, but nothing too special. The attic space is taken up with displays on how the building was designed and has models of some of Gaudi’s other architectural wonders. There’s also a display on his experimentation with ergonomic design, though as you’d imagine, this wasn’t the most popular aspect of the visit. No, the most popular was up on the roof with the towering oddities. A nice place to visit for the rooftop walk, but I don’t think the rest of the experience really warranted the security or the hugely positive reviews I’d read.
On then to the Museu Picasso. I’m not going to lie to you – I wasn’t impressed. For one thing, it’s a lot smaller than I’d imagined. And I’m sure in the right circles (and if you genuinely know about these things), Picasso’s work is great. To me it seemed that the man spent a lot of his life sketching absolute nonsense which people faun over, whether or not it’s actually any good to look at. And he produced a lot of it. A huge amount. The most interesting part of the visit for me was the temporary display of Picasso’s and Toulouse-Lautrec’s personal collections of Japanese erotic prints and works based upon them. Graphic, yes, but at least they made sense! A display on how these were made, with various plates and prints at different stages of completeness, was also rather interesting.
My next plan was to head over to Cathedral de Barcelona for the last photo opportunity of the day. I arrived, took the camera out of its case and clicked the shutter release. Nothing. I clicked it again, only to be confronted with a message on the screen saying ‘ERR’. Argh! The last thing I needed on my photo holiday was my camera breaking. I looked again at the screen. There was a second message displaying ‘CHA’, which I took to mean that the battery needed charging. Strange, as the icon still indicated that it had over half a charge remaining. There was nothing else for it but to head back to the hotel early to try charging it once more. So it went back in the bag and I got back on the Metro. It wasn’t until I was back in the hotel room did I think of removing the lens and reattaching it. It worked. Arse. At least I knew there was nothing wrong with the battery or the camera, but that the lens had effectively crashed. Unfortunately I’d cut my day short for no reason. With the hotel being so far away from the centre, it was too late to consider heading back out. So it was an evening of coffee, packing and winter sports on the German language Eurosport in the hotel room.
Take a look at the photos:
- The Streets of Barcelona (Flickr | Photo Gallery)
- La Pedrera (Flickr | Photo Gallery)
- La Sagrada Familia (Flickr | Photo Gallery)
Related posts:
- Barcelona – Day Two: Into the Mountains The one in which I talk about my trip to...
- Barcelona – Day Four: The Journey Home The one in which I talk about my final day...
- Barcelona – Day One: The Journey In The one in which I talk about my journey to...
[...] rest is here: Barcelona – Day Three: Around Town Share and [...]