As I’m busy planning for an upcoming trip several friends have been posting photos from Barcelona, where they visited Sagrada Família. That caused me to go back and look at my photos: I have a lot and I need to work on more, but this first one … well … I’m sure you can see why I’m posting it. I just might make it into a card!
Today was an early rising kind of day due to a 10:40 flight, and including an airport we had never gone to before. We caught a taxi (he was early but that is fine by me, as I’m always concerned about being late), and got to the airport much earlier than we expected. Security at the Barcelona airport was tighter than most places we’ve been so far, aside from Sagrada Familia and, I think — how have I already forgotten?! — one other spot here. But we got through just fine, and went to our gate.
As it turned out our flight took off about an hour later than scheduled. Kind of figures, don’t you think? I found it so interesting that not one person went up to the desk to ask why the flight was delayed or to complain. (I did suggest to Dan that I go do that … only joking to him, mind you!) We were on Singapore Airlines, and the plane was quite empty: most were boarding for the flight to Singapore in the next city.
Goodbye, Barcelona!
The flight was fine. Short. Easy. And the seats were awfully nice. Food was not great, though, and (ACK!) they played the same looped music over and over. THAT was pretty awful!
I had a window seat so I shot a few iPhone photos, both of the interior and then, of course, what I saw through my window.
Anyway, we made it to our next stop and, yes, we are in Italy. But where, you might wonder? Or maybe you don’t. I’m going to tell you anyway.
We’ve landed in MILAN. Now when you land “in” Milan you still have a train ride to get into the city, but that was easy enough. Funny story (kind of): a man asked if he could go in front of us because he was about to miss his train so we motioned him ahead. Well, HE made the train. We missed it and had to wait another 30 minutes. Heh.
Milan wasn’t a city we had really thought a lot about, as I read it was the bank and fashion capital. If you know me, you know I’m not considered a fashion kind of person, and banking? Forget it! But someone (thank you, Greg!) told me it wasn’t ALL about those things, plus it’s where we could fly from Barcelona without a lot of trouble, using a Star Alliance airline. So here we are!
Our place is nice — a bit of a step up from our 1 star hotel in Barcelona. (But truth be told, I’m realizing a 1 star isn’t the horrible thing I feared it would be, so I think I could consider those.)
We’ll rest up a bit and then head out to investigate our area. We are a walk away from The Last Supper and, thankfully, I read quite a while ago that I should order tickets ahead of time. The book suggested a month, but I checked things out much earlier than that and already there weren’t a lot of available times for us. I grabbed what I could, even though it meant paying a bit more for some sort of talk after. (There weren’t any time slots left for just viewing the work.) We will go tomorrow for our 15 minute appointment (Yes, that’s all they allow.) and talk.
But what else are we near? I’m really not sure! Sadly I didn’t do as much work as I should have before we left: I guess I ran out of steam. I did manage to purchase tickets to the Duomo, as well as La Scala just this morning. Of course we are here at the wrong time for performances (typical of our travels), but at least we get to see the hall.
I’m not sure if I’ll post more later tonight or not: it depends upon what we do and whether I take any photos. But Italy, we are happy to be here!
Time seems to go by so quickly — at least during the day! At night, when I can’t sleep, it’s a bit of a different story. This time I got up and shot an iPhone phot through our hotel window. I mean … why not?
In the morning we woke, headed upstairs for the coffee they said we could have — but were told the machine was broken. Oh well. Instead we headed to the market I wrote about earlier. It was pretty amazing and I totally forgot to take any photos. Oops!
Later we headed to another Gaudi sight, Park Güell. We learned after the fact that we took the long way with lots of stairs. At least we got our steps in! We spent a good amount of time there … loads to see, and tremendous views. Plus the playfulness was there … I just love Gaudi whimsy!
Then it was back to our hotel for a short rest before we headed to Sagrada Familia. And just WOW. I’ll not write more at the moment because we have to get to bed … we say goodbye to Spain in the morning and fly elsewhere! But I’ll share some iPhone shots.
And now goodnight.
We began our day with coffee and croissants, which is not all that uncommon. Then it was off to the Palau de la Música which included an audio tour. Turns out they are fixing some things on the exterior, so we really couldn’t get a good shot of that, but after we did the inside we walked around and I found at least a little spot where I could attempt an outside building shot. It’s not great, but better than nothing. In addition we missed out on a few things they audio tour talked about. I’d have thought they’d warn people about this when purchasing tickets online, but it wasn’t a huge deal, so I won’t grump too much. But what a fabulous place! SO much to photograph, but as always I won’t post everything here. There were people on the stage and they occasionally were doing work with lights and color. I don’t know what that was about … sadly there are no concerts while we are here, so I don’t believe it was for any performance. At certain times the organ would play (I’m going to guess it’s a recording), and I must say that was quite fun for several reasons. First, I just love to hear a good organ, but secondly (and rather important), I’ve been having distortion in my left ear, but when the music was playing I didn’t have it at ALL. I’m so glad that was the case!
After the concert hall we had a light lunch. Again it took us a while to decide on a spot. We will never change, I guess! Then it was off to the hospital.
Worried yet?
Well … okay … it was a hospital, but it’s not any longer. We opted to visit it as well because the same architect that designed the Palau de la Música, Lluís Domènech I Montaner, did the hospital as well.
First we had to figure out the Metro, though. So far we’d only walked everywhere in Barcelona, but the two mile walk didn’t appeal to us considering the horribly humid day. Seemed easy enough to get our tickets, and got on the first train. Then, stupid me, I managed to read things wrong and we exited the subway. Well, our tickets were good for two hours so surely we could just go back to catch the second train, right? NO. Because I did something with my ticket on the way out — tagging it or something — and it wouldn’t work then. But Dan’s didn’t either, so maybe it was something else that was a problem. In any case, those tickets were useless. We bought new ones, but getting smart we bought the 48 hour card that will also get us to the airport on Wednesday when we leave Spain for … well, I’m not telling yet!
We arrived at the former hospital, now called Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, at least according to my tickets. I sure wish we had hospitals that were as whimsical and creative as the one was. Sadly much of it is now in disrepair, but there were workers there, and I think they are attempting to restore and repair it. But what a place!
From there we took the trains back to our hotel. We needed a rest and we definitely wanted the A/C.
Finally it was dinner time. Our plan was to go to the Mercado and have tapas there. Turns out the market closes at 8:30. And we were trying so hard to be like the locals and eat late. Heh. Never mind the market. We walked around and finally found a nice spot called Tosca Palau. It was a bit of a fusion type place and it was lovely! No photos, though. I was too busy eating!
We are hoping to get brunch or whatever we will call it by the time we get out to the Mercado. Then it’s more Gaudi! Stay tuned! (Because not being tuned is kind of crummy.)
This morning we woke up and shortly after went out to get to our 10:00 time slot for Gaudi’s Casa Batlló. What an amazing place! I won’t post all the photos I took, but I have to share some because it truly is something to see!
Okay … must move on! …
Then it was lunch — tapas at what appears to be a food chain. But it was close, and it was air conditioned. And we needed that!
From there we walked up to the next Gaudi place, La Pedrera – Casa Milá. This, too, was mighty amazing, but I must admit I am more enamored with Casa Battló, even while it appears that Gaudi considered Pedera his masterpiece.
At both places we ended up on the room. I handled the first one pretty well, but on Pedrera I had to get off of it rather quickly. What is nuts to me is that originally there were no fences up on the roof at all. Eek! Dan stayed up longer … but I simply couldn’t! Prior to the roof we saw one apartment in the place. I can’t imagine living in something like this, but I’d certainly move in if it were offered to me! (Just no roof visits, thank you very much.)
Prior to the roof visit we were in the “attic”. Even there I was a little freaked: something about knowing we were so high up, I guess. But it was so interesting. Every arch is different … they say no two are exactly alike. I guess the maids did laundry up there. (I’ll gladly take a maid along with an apartment there.)
Prior to my freaking out and heading down some stairs that I wasn’t supposed to take (and it became so dark I had to pull out my phone and use the flashlight!), I did manage to take a few photos.
Can you imagine being up there with NO fences? I sure can’t.
I raced downstairs. No. I’m lying. I slowly went down the stairs … and had to take photos there as well: even the stairway was interesting! Then I was down in one of the two courtyards, waited for Dan, and we both saw the second courtyard before heading back to our hotel to enjoy some A/C and rest.
We headed to the Gothic Quarter for some dinner. I’d researched and read about a place that wasn’t supposed to be as tourist-y so we searched for that. On our way there someone from above dumped some water on me. At least it only appeared to be water! Was it just someone who likes to do that to tourists, I wonder? In any case, it definitely got my attention. Dinner was at La Vinateria Del Call. I really enjoyed it, and was glad we got in early so we had a quiet dinner for a while. From there we walked home, although I confess we did have ice cream cones. But hey, we walked a lot today, AND I was on TWO roofs which I think probably means I burned a lot of calories due to major fear.
& now goodnight! So far we have no plans for tomorrow, but I’m sure we’ll figure something ut.
This morning we woke up, had coffee and croissants at the hotel, and went back to our room. We finished up the packing and said goodbye (not literally, mind you), to the hotel.
Then we took a taxi to the train station (I nearly typed a train to the taxi station … I’m sort of tired!). Of course we were early, but I’d rather be early and not worry. We did have longer lines both for security and to get on to the train, so the early bit was maybe a good thing. Then off we went …
to Barcelona!
We are in a rather funky hotel in the middle of the action. I think it will be fine, but it’s probably the lowest rated of all that we’ve stayed in, and it is older and somewhat odd, but honestly we don’t spend enough time in a hotel room to really care as long as it’s clean and safe. We spent time figuring out our Gaudi plans (I foolishly hadn’t made reservations earlier but, as it turns out, we ended up getting better deals in a strange way: Dan was online and plugged in one destination and I did the same. It was cheaper on his phone than it was on my computer or phone. We made reservations for two places on his phone. For the next it was cheaper on my computer! Very, very odd, but we did get things done and then headed out to check out the area.
We wandered in a rather random way and ended up at a Gothic cathedral. I knew it had to be important … heh … but didn’t realize this was the Barcelona Cathedral. (Via Wikipedia: The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia (Catalan: Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia). I love how we just randomly end up at important spots … it happens in nearly every city! I have to admit the clowns and other people dressed up seemed so odd in front of what many would think of as a rather sacred space, but what do I know?!
We attempted to find streets that were less crowded, and happened upon an event that was just such fun … double reeds included. I wish I could post the video, but it didn’t work, so you only get stills, and it’s nearly impossible to see much. Sorry!
We also headed to the water.
Then it was back in search of dinner, but going slowly both because it was a bit too early for dinner and because people just walk more slowly here.
As always it took us a while to find our dinner spot, but we did finally find a place, and enjoyed a tapas assortment. Prices here are definitely higher than other cities, but we were prepared for that. By this time the crowds were just enormous. And it was 9:30 or so.
Now we are back in our room and as soon as I post this I think I’ll try to sleep.