My dad and I spent our Saturday in Barcelona by going on Gaudí pilgrimages. We first went to the Street of Discord, a street where various architects built apartments based on their style, hence the discord. Gaudí's building is on the right and the roof is meant to look like a dragon.
From there we went to the Casa Milà. My friend Rebekka calls his work "undulating" which you can tell from this picture. It also had some goofy statues on it's roof.
In the middle of our Gaudí pilgrimage we found a nice church. It had really cool outer walls.
We made it to the Sagrada Familia--which is called officially in Catalan, Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família--and were immediately blown away. People had said that it was smaller than they had expected it to be. I don't know what they were expecting, but I though it was huge, and it's only going to get bigger. They haven't even really begun the main spire.
The front façade covers the last few days of the Savior's life. These sculptures weren't done by Gaudí, but by another man whose name eludes me right now. The crucifixion is interesting because Christ's head is a book, symbolic of the word or book of life. There's a sculpture of Judas' kiss which has a 4 number by 4 number magic square that adds up in various ways to the number 33. The scenes are juxtaposed, like the burial of the Savior in the sepulcher as well His falling while carrying the cross. There is a statue of the Savior tied to the whipping post with words from the scripture behind him. Another angle shows the Savior at the post with the stylized Alpha and Omega behind His left shoulder. The words of scripture were also placed on the front doors.
The inside is really fascinating. Gaudí was interested in incorporating nature into his architecture. I sometimes felt like I was in a jungle inside, but not totally. But the ceiling was hard to figure out, in that I couldn't completely understand why he wanted to build it that way.
The outside back wall is called the Nativity because it covers the first few years of the Savior's life, before his ministry, like the flight to Egypt as well as the nativity scene, another view with angels watching over, the Magi,
We road the elevator up one of the towers and wandered around up there for a while and I was able to take better shots of the towers and spires, specifically the fruity ones. The picture that I linked to Barcelona was taken from one of the towers. I can't post all of my pictures, so you should just go online and try and find more. it was a great place.
That night we went walking thru the other half of the city's center. We stumbled onto the Catalunyan dancing. Notice their shoes; I think they might be specifically made for the dancing. One person in the group calls out what the next set of moves will be. I put a couple of videos up of the dancing and then embedded them to my blog. I really appreciated and enjoyed the love that these people had for their culture. There were lots of different dancing circles. It was nifty.
This is also the night that I bought my Waterman, mentioned in this entry, with pictures.
The next day we went to the Picasso museum which was meant to show his time in Barcelona and the work it produced as well as show his development as an artist. He was really amazing. Later we walked around trying to catch a cab to Parc Güell--which we never got to. Clark says that it was okay because now I have an excuse to go back. I was sad though because I wanted to see it. But instead we stumbled onto the Monument to Columbus. He returned to Barcelona from his first trip to America. The statue shows him pointing to the New World.
I really like Barcelona and would love to go back anytime.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Catalunyan Dancing
This first video is a panorama of the square where they do the dancing.
This second one is up closer and shows various groups dancing.
This second one is up closer and shows various groups dancing.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Last full day in Europe was a nice Lisbon day
My dad and I left Madrid at around 8am and caught some traffic, but not much. I actually really enjoy driving around Europe. I think my dad is a step away from heart attacks at times, though. Anyway, it was clear sailing to Lisbon and took us 2 or 3 hours less than we thought it would, so we had a nice afternoon tooling around the city and seeing some things that we didn't get to see the first time around. It was really nice. I like the sun and the heat, which was plentiful today in Lisbon. Poor Clark's got a cold, so we avoided the sun as much as possible. Here's to hoping that he'll feel better tomorrow for our flights. The travel time for me we'll be about 19 hours including layovers and just a little bit more for Clark. Blech. It'll be good to get back to Provo. Wow, who thought I'd type that. Well, I could also stay in Lisbon for a while, too. Sometimes I feel like we've barely scratched the surface.
Well, come Saturday or Sunday I'll start posting pictures and videos. Hope you all have a great weekend. I just might see some of you soon.
Tchau tchau from BEATIFUL Lisbon.
Well, come Saturday or Sunday I'll start posting pictures and videos. Hope you all have a great weekend. I just might see some of you soon.
Tchau tchau from BEATIFUL Lisbon.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Last day in Madrid
Oh, and Happy 4th of July to all you Americans out there. I forgot to wish the Canadians a Happy Canada day on the 1st. Sorry: Happy Canada Day.
We went to the Reina Sofia this morning, which is the modern art museum. It has Guernica, which I've previously mentioned. I knew it was a large painting, but I didn't realize just hwo large it was. It was huge: 11ft tall and 23ft wide. And it is very powerful. The pain that Picasso transmitted is palpable. I'm reading a book now by Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, which I'm not very far into, but enough. It's interesting, but I'll have to finish it before I give it a thumbs-up or not. Anyway, the narrator, Billy Pilgrim, tells his son to never take joy in a massacre, to never laugh at it. Today, looking at Guernica and all of Picasso's studies that he did painting the finish work (which the museum has a lot of) made me repulsed. On left side of the painting is a woman crying over her dead baby. I almost started to cry. I fought back the lump in my throat. It was much more moving than I expected it to be.
We spent the afternoon walking around the city's center. We went to the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, the city's cathedral--which is new and very cool and you can go on a guided tour if you call a phone number and listen to the tour guide via a ¡phone message!--and various other things.
Perhaps the niftiest thing of the day was when we bought the treats from the nuns. Now you may think, "Why on earth is that so nifty?" Easy, we never saw the nuns. We went to the door and pushed a button that was for "dulces" and patiently waited for the nuns to respond. Once she did, Clark said that he wanted to buy some dulces and she gave us directions (¡Torno! ¡y otra torno!) and opened the door. We walked in and made our way to the place where the candies and cookies are sold. There's a list by a Lazy Susan. You say hello and the nun talks from behind the wall. You'll never see her because part of their oath is to stay hidden or not show their faces or something. Anyway, Dad put the money on the Lazy Susan and the nun sent around the cookies and the change. It was great fun. Who knew that buying cookies could be such a trip. The nun was so cute, too. Very nice. Such a happy voice. I think that this could be a great thing for Gretchen. She could cook and study all day and she wouldn't have to see people. She'd have to become Catholic though...
All told, today was another great day.
Andy and foxyj: ahhh, the peruvian music. I'm glad that it brought back such great memories. it's really crazy. I hear the some stuff everywhere. It kills me when they dress like Sioux, though. And, yes, Emily, I'm hearing the same stuff that you heard in Peru, I'm sure. There's nothing like catering to Americans.
Thx for the heads-up about the yogurt, Sarah. I'll be leaving Europe in a couple of days, though, so if I become lactose intolerant, it'll be for my first bit in the States, so who cares? And, yes, the Azucarado is the best. But I really have an affinity for strawberry and straweberry-banana. Yum.
BYE!!
We went to the Reina Sofia this morning, which is the modern art museum. It has Guernica, which I've previously mentioned. I knew it was a large painting, but I didn't realize just hwo large it was. It was huge: 11ft tall and 23ft wide. And it is very powerful. The pain that Picasso transmitted is palpable. I'm reading a book now by Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, which I'm not very far into, but enough. It's interesting, but I'll have to finish it before I give it a thumbs-up or not. Anyway, the narrator, Billy Pilgrim, tells his son to never take joy in a massacre, to never laugh at it. Today, looking at Guernica and all of Picasso's studies that he did painting the finish work (which the museum has a lot of) made me repulsed. On left side of the painting is a woman crying over her dead baby. I almost started to cry. I fought back the lump in my throat. It was much more moving than I expected it to be.
We spent the afternoon walking around the city's center. We went to the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace, the city's cathedral--which is new and very cool and you can go on a guided tour if you call a phone number and listen to the tour guide via a ¡phone message!--and various other things.
Perhaps the niftiest thing of the day was when we bought the treats from the nuns. Now you may think, "Why on earth is that so nifty?" Easy, we never saw the nuns. We went to the door and pushed a button that was for "dulces" and patiently waited for the nuns to respond. Once she did, Clark said that he wanted to buy some dulces and she gave us directions (¡Torno! ¡y otra torno!) and opened the door. We walked in and made our way to the place where the candies and cookies are sold. There's a list by a Lazy Susan. You say hello and the nun talks from behind the wall. You'll never see her because part of their oath is to stay hidden or not show their faces or something. Anyway, Dad put the money on the Lazy Susan and the nun sent around the cookies and the change. It was great fun. Who knew that buying cookies could be such a trip. The nun was so cute, too. Very nice. Such a happy voice. I think that this could be a great thing for Gretchen. She could cook and study all day and she wouldn't have to see people. She'd have to become Catholic though...
All told, today was another great day.
Andy and foxyj: ahhh, the peruvian music. I'm glad that it brought back such great memories. it's really crazy. I hear the some stuff everywhere. It kills me when they dress like Sioux, though. And, yes, Emily, I'm hearing the same stuff that you heard in Peru, I'm sure. There's nothing like catering to Americans.
Thx for the heads-up about the yogurt, Sarah. I'll be leaving Europe in a couple of days, though, so if I become lactose intolerant, it'll be for my first bit in the States, so who cares? And, yes, the Azucarado is the best. But I really have an affinity for strawberry and straweberry-banana. Yum.
BYE!!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Today was the Prado and a detour
Dad and I got up this morning and went right to the Prado. Oh, I only had 3 yogurts this morning. Does anyone know if eating excessive amounts of yogurt and restricting your diet mainly to one flavor does anything bad to you?
But before we got to the Prado, in fact as soon as we left the hotel we heard a girl screaming argumentatively. She was saying a lot of words that I won't repeat. She was walking with another American about her age (I'm assuming 18 years because she yelled something about that) and they were having quite the lovers spat: "Is that all I am to you, an embarassment?" It was pretty exciting--so exciting, in fact, that if it weren't for the agony on the girl's face I would have claimed it was staged.
Anyway, we got to the Prado and spent the next, I don't know, 6 hours there. It's an amazing museum. The painting Las Meninas was really cool. There was so much stuff, that I can't write about all of it. But the Goya was powerful, especially his later stuff. I didn't like the Saturno painting. Really gory. This painting was really powerful. The hotel that we're staying at is just around the corner from where that massacre took place. There was also a lot of El Greco. This nice thing about El Greco's painting is that it's very thinning. Now, Rubens, on the other hand, is, uhhh, voluptuous. So much so, that a word has been coined: Rubenesque.
The straight-shot road back to our hotel was blocked, so we got to take a detour thru the center of the town. It's a big city like any other big, old European city: statues, fountains, beautiful architecture and tons of people. It was pretty spiffy.
So sometimes Europe is weird. Something that we've seen in every city is a group of musicians dressed as though they were Sioux or Lakota but playing Incan music. Well, they play traditional Incan instruments, sometimes an electric piano, and play things like Simon and Garfunkel. Can anyone explain this to me? Oh, now the musician outside is playing My Heart Will Go On. Bring back the Simon and Garfunkel, I say.
Also, I can't think of mussels as snails. I accidentally saw the inside of one of the mussels. It was all hairy.
Gas right now in Spain hovers around 1.22 euros a liter. It was a little bit more in Portugal. All in all, I'm glad I'm not the one paying. I'm sure that Clark would be happy to read that.
I stood in front of the cheese aisle today and stared at it, so sad that in a few days it would be much more expensive, smaller and in the States. I did the same thing in front of the yogurt aisle. Sarah and I have a plan to intimidate Wisconsin into getting us better yogurt. If anyone wants to join, you're more than welcome.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our last real day in Europe since we drive on Thursday. I don't know when we'll get in on Thursday night and we fly in the morning on Friday. I'm hoping that we'll at least be able to meander a little on Thursday night. Lisbon is such a great city.
Have a great day, all. I'm out.
But before we got to the Prado, in fact as soon as we left the hotel we heard a girl screaming argumentatively. She was saying a lot of words that I won't repeat. She was walking with another American about her age (I'm assuming 18 years because she yelled something about that) and they were having quite the lovers spat: "Is that all I am to you, an embarassment?" It was pretty exciting--so exciting, in fact, that if it weren't for the agony on the girl's face I would have claimed it was staged.
Anyway, we got to the Prado and spent the next, I don't know, 6 hours there. It's an amazing museum. The painting Las Meninas was really cool. There was so much stuff, that I can't write about all of it. But the Goya was powerful, especially his later stuff. I didn't like the Saturno painting. Really gory. This painting was really powerful. The hotel that we're staying at is just around the corner from where that massacre took place. There was also a lot of El Greco. This nice thing about El Greco's painting is that it's very thinning. Now, Rubens, on the other hand, is, uhhh, voluptuous. So much so, that a word has been coined: Rubenesque.
The straight-shot road back to our hotel was blocked, so we got to take a detour thru the center of the town. It's a big city like any other big, old European city: statues, fountains, beautiful architecture and tons of people. It was pretty spiffy.
So sometimes Europe is weird. Something that we've seen in every city is a group of musicians dressed as though they were Sioux or Lakota but playing Incan music. Well, they play traditional Incan instruments, sometimes an electric piano, and play things like Simon and Garfunkel. Can anyone explain this to me? Oh, now the musician outside is playing My Heart Will Go On. Bring back the Simon and Garfunkel, I say.
Also, I can't think of mussels as snails. I accidentally saw the inside of one of the mussels. It was all hairy.
Gas right now in Spain hovers around 1.22 euros a liter. It was a little bit more in Portugal. All in all, I'm glad I'm not the one paying. I'm sure that Clark would be happy to read that.
I stood in front of the cheese aisle today and stared at it, so sad that in a few days it would be much more expensive, smaller and in the States. I did the same thing in front of the yogurt aisle. Sarah and I have a plan to intimidate Wisconsin into getting us better yogurt. If anyone wants to join, you're more than welcome.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our last real day in Europe since we drive on Thursday. I don't know when we'll get in on Thursday night and we fly in the morning on Friday. I'm hoping that we'll at least be able to meander a little on Thursday night. Lisbon is such a great city.
Have a great day, all. I'm out.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Driving from Barcelona to Madrid with a detour thru construction and Montblanc--a random assortment of thoughts
That's the Catalunyan Montblanc, by the way. The people at the hotel gave us great directions to Valencia, but not Madrid. But I've gotten better and better at maps, so I got us back on the right road with a nifty back road. The only problem was the construction. We spent forever trying to get thru a nice little mountain passage.
We came up on Madrid and I was driving by this time. My dad was doing pretty well with the maps that we had. So Madrid has tunnels--well it seemed more like one big tunnel. I think the chunnel could be considered miniscule compared to the one that we were in and out of today. We've also become good at driving on hunches and doubling back if we have to. I love roundabouts.
We're about a block away from quilómetro cero. It´s a nice little European hotel. Our goals here are museums and more museums. I'm fine with that. I'm going to miss Barcelona though. I really liked that city. I liked it almost as much as Lisbon. Ahhh, nice European cities. I'm going to miss the Catalan everywhere. But I did buy a dictionary, 4 Harry Potter books and El Petit Príncep, so I should be okay.
The Catalunyan dances were cool too. It was a great part about Barcelona. I'll have to put up some videos that I took. Hopefully no naked men will be in these. I'll let you know, Andy, so that you can see them on film even if you didn't get to see them on your mission.
I got more yogurt today, by the way. A lot more. There's a grocery store just down the way. I think Clark will quickly become annoyed at the amount of yogurt I'm going to eat before we leave. Is gorging a sin if it's European yogurt and you're at the end of an Iberian road trip?
Speaking of Iberian road trips, yes, Andy, this has been a lot of fun. I've actually loved driving across Iberia. My dad, however, curses the car and the driving. I understand that this probably has something to do with the fact that he's paying for the gas. But I'd do this again. It's been fun.
I bought a Waterman. Then it didn't work. I wanted to die. Then it worked again today. I said prayers about it, so I think that's why it's working. I'll take pictures of my new pens and post them (like you asked, Emily D.) But for now: Midnight Glamour. Sexy.
Tonight I tried--I really did--to eat a mussel. I just couldn't. But I did have some of Clark's scallop and his red pepper stuffed with cod. So thanks, Frau Magister and Assuming Undone, for the congrats on the fish. I guess I'm still a little weak on the fish-like things.
Oh, Becky, the eight things of yogurt that I got today were the azucarado type. SO TASTY. I think Clark's gonna flip when I eat 6 tomorrow morning.
Okay, that's it. Life's peachy here. Tomorrow we're going to the Reina Sofia and maybe some more wandering. It'll be great.
We came up on Madrid and I was driving by this time. My dad was doing pretty well with the maps that we had. So Madrid has tunnels--well it seemed more like one big tunnel. I think the chunnel could be considered miniscule compared to the one that we were in and out of today. We've also become good at driving on hunches and doubling back if we have to. I love roundabouts.
We're about a block away from quilómetro cero. It´s a nice little European hotel. Our goals here are museums and more museums. I'm fine with that. I'm going to miss Barcelona though. I really liked that city. I liked it almost as much as Lisbon. Ahhh, nice European cities. I'm going to miss the Catalan everywhere. But I did buy a dictionary, 4 Harry Potter books and El Petit Príncep, so I should be okay.
The Catalunyan dances were cool too. It was a great part about Barcelona. I'll have to put up some videos that I took. Hopefully no naked men will be in these. I'll let you know, Andy, so that you can see them on film even if you didn't get to see them on your mission.
I got more yogurt today, by the way. A lot more. There's a grocery store just down the way. I think Clark will quickly become annoyed at the amount of yogurt I'm going to eat before we leave. Is gorging a sin if it's European yogurt and you're at the end of an Iberian road trip?
Speaking of Iberian road trips, yes, Andy, this has been a lot of fun. I've actually loved driving across Iberia. My dad, however, curses the car and the driving. I understand that this probably has something to do with the fact that he's paying for the gas. But I'd do this again. It's been fun.
I bought a Waterman. Then it didn't work. I wanted to die. Then it worked again today. I said prayers about it, so I think that's why it's working. I'll take pictures of my new pens and post them (like you asked, Emily D.) But for now: Midnight Glamour. Sexy.
Tonight I tried--I really did--to eat a mussel. I just couldn't. But I did have some of Clark's scallop and his red pepper stuffed with cod. So thanks, Frau Magister and Assuming Undone, for the congrats on the fish. I guess I'm still a little weak on the fish-like things.
Oh, Becky, the eight things of yogurt that I got today were the azucarado type. SO TASTY. I think Clark's gonna flip when I eat 6 tomorrow morning.
Okay, that's it. Life's peachy here. Tomorrow we're going to the Reina Sofia and maybe some more wandering. It'll be great.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Barcelona
Sorry, I still don't have a way to put pictures on. But I will put some on, I promise.
We went on a Gaudí tour yesterday (meaning Saturday). We saw, among other things, the Casa Milà and La Sagrada Familia. I found Sagrada Familia awe inspiring. It was so amazing. His style is round. I'll put up a post about it when I get back. We spent a long time there.
Then I sent Dad on his way and I went to the Bookstore: La Casa del Llibre. I bought Harry Potter in Catalan, books 1-4, book 4 of HP but the british version, I got the little prince in Catalan, German and Italian, I got a catalan dictionary and a picture book of La Sagrada Familia. I was quite happy.
Later on we saw dancing by Catalans in the street. It's the native dance. It's really cool. I'll post a video about that two. It was hard to get a good video of the crowd because of the two naked men. They were icky. The old guy had tattoos everywhere. Bizarre.
I bought a Waterman fountain pen that's very sleek. I just can't get it to write. Hmmph.
Last night we had tapas. It was fun.
Today I had lots of yogurt because i didn't get any yesterday. Then I had yogurt gelato. Yum.
Today we went to the Picasso museum. It was interesting to see his progression as an artist. He was amazing as a young (14ish) painter.
Then we wandered around and saw the big Columbus statue then the Mediterranean. Today has been a little damp, so it was a real Mediterranean afternoon.
There's more, especially with pictures. But the computer's gonna kick me off.
Tomorrow in the early morning we're off to Madrid!!!
Here's to more yogurt!!!
We went on a Gaudí tour yesterday (meaning Saturday). We saw, among other things, the Casa Milà and La Sagrada Familia. I found Sagrada Familia awe inspiring. It was so amazing. His style is round. I'll put up a post about it when I get back. We spent a long time there.
Then I sent Dad on his way and I went to the Bookstore: La Casa del Llibre. I bought Harry Potter in Catalan, books 1-4, book 4 of HP but the british version, I got the little prince in Catalan, German and Italian, I got a catalan dictionary and a picture book of La Sagrada Familia. I was quite happy.
Later on we saw dancing by Catalans in the street. It's the native dance. It's really cool. I'll post a video about that two. It was hard to get a good video of the crowd because of the two naked men. They were icky. The old guy had tattoos everywhere. Bizarre.
I bought a Waterman fountain pen that's very sleek. I just can't get it to write. Hmmph.
Last night we had tapas. It was fun.
Today I had lots of yogurt because i didn't get any yesterday. Then I had yogurt gelato. Yum.
Today we went to the Picasso museum. It was interesting to see his progression as an artist. He was amazing as a young (14ish) painter.
Then we wandered around and saw the big Columbus statue then the Mediterranean. Today has been a little damp, so it was a real Mediterranean afternoon.
There's more, especially with pictures. But the computer's gonna kick me off.
Tomorrow in the early morning we're off to Madrid!!!
Here's to more yogurt!!!
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