Barcelona - a Real Treasure

         

Strolling along Las Ramblas

View from the Joan Miro Museum

          I never realized Barcelona is one of the most beloved cities in the world, until I went there this spring.  When I began telling friends about our walking trip in Catalonia followed by a week in Barcelona most people did not react to the walking part while easily exclaiming, “Barcelona,… my favorite city!”  Really?  I wondered why years ago when I travelled to Spain several times I had never gone to the Mediterranean coast and Barcelona. Even my brothers, who are not frequent world travelers any longer had each called me up to talk about the wonders of Barcelona…one focusing on the art museums we must not miss including Picasso, Miró, Tapies and Dali, while the other raved about the “awesome” architecture and churches.

            In 1970, I went to Aranjuez, famous for being the summer retreat for the kings and queens of Spain, just south of Madrid.  It was my second year as a Group Leader with The Experiment in International Living, an exchange program with a home stay.  It was a perfect job for me as I understood and spoke the language easily and was responsible for a group of 10 college students on a “summer abroad” program. We lived with Spanish families for a month and then traveled as a group with a brother or sister from our families throughout northern Spain.   In contrast, the previous summer of 1969, the EIL had assigned me to Bergen, Norway in charge of a lively group of high school students.  In those days, few Norwegians spoke English including those in the family I lived with.  Hiking and being out in nature, as Norwegians love to do, were not activities American teenagers were expecting. Where were the malls, the movies, and friends? Some had a tough time adjusting and at my young age, I had difficulty managing it all as well as the language.

            The summer after Aranjuez, I went back to Spain with my girlfriends, Jill and Mary.  Being independent travelers in our mid-twenties we three spoke Spanish fluently.  We planned our own trip south of Madrid to include the “must see” towns and cities of Toledo. Granada,  Cordoba, Sevilla, Ronda, and Marbella.  Now I wonder why we didn’t include Barcelona and Catalonia.  How could we have missed it?  It has taken me more than 40 years to go back.

            A few months before our trip I spent time searching the Air B & B website having decided we would do what we often have done in foreign cities…rent our own apartment.  It is the only way to experience what it is like to live in a place.  In the case of Barcelona it was a good decision as this is a city overflowing with tourists and hotels.  There is an element of luck in picking the right apartment and location.  I chose the barrio of Eixample, on the other side of the Plaza Catalunya. The Plaza is in the center of this city of 1.6 million people. We checked into our flat on Carrer le Bruc 17 and learned quickly we could walk everywhere.  Perfect!  Our second floor one bedroom flat had all the amenities and I liked coming and going on our own, entering the big rod iron, glass front door to walk into a large marble entry way with concierge.  A winding wide marble stairway with elaborate banister, swept up to the first and second floors whereas the tiny elevator seemed an afterthought tucked next to the stairwell.

View from our flat on Career de Bruc

Beautiful Palau de Musica - concert hall

            On our taxi ride from the bus station to Carrer Bruc, Art began a conversation with the driver about the secession issue which had been in the news last year when a vote was taken in Parliament for Catalonia to secede from Spain.  The resolution to secede passed but,the Spanish courts nullified it saying it was illegal.  Catalonia is the richest area of Spain because of trade. tourism , and high tech industry  Barcelona has been an important port city on the Mediterranean coast for centuries.  “Do people in Catalonia still want to secede from Spain?” Art wanted to know.  “Oh no,” the taxi driver responded. In his opinion it would be a disaster economically for Catalonia to leave Spain.  It appears the independence movement does not have the majority support of the people and the Spanish central government is not about to let it go.

            It is easy to see why so many people remember Barcelona as a favorite city.  While famous for its Gaudi monuments and buildings, I found every building an architectural delight.  The city streets and avenues are lined with shady tall trees and wide sidewalks so reminiscent of Recoleta, an upscale barrio of  downtown Buenos Aires where I grew up.  In fact I couldn’t stop seeing the similarities and exclaiming, “this is just like BA”.  And it is.  However, traffic seems so orderly in Barcelona and there is a definite respect for pedestrians.  No one jay walks and we quickly learned to get in line at street corners to wait for the pedestrian crossing light, All traffic comes to a stand still for pedestrians.When had I ever been in a city where that was the case?  Spaniards in Barcelona are polite and appear to have patience with the hoards of tourists that invade their city. 

Gaudi's La Pedrera apartment building

Flower Festival in Girona

            Taking a map and setting out each day, we quickly learned how to get around.  All street names are in Catalan and not Spanish as are many of the store names and advertisements.  Within three blocks we found El Corte Ingles, a nine-story department store in the heart of Barcelona.  It is the fourth largest department store chain in Europe and the biggest in Spain.  We frequented the busy supermarket on the lower level and would stop daily to pick up wine, cheese and crackers, fruit and breakfast foods to bring back to our small kitchen. Being close to the Plaza Catalunya we found the famous Las Ramblas where we strolled, people watching and window-shopping under tall shady trees. We explored the narrow back streets in the Barrio Gótico, (old city), to find the least touristy cafes where we could enjoy a leisurely lunch selected from the Menú del Dia.  We took a city bus in order to get to the Museo Joan Miró that is high up in the hills overlooking Barcelona.  Even the buses for the airport leave every five minutes, 24 hrs. a day from Plaza Catalunya.  Barcelona is an easy city to get around on your own and by the end of our week I could have stayed indefinitely.

            What is a surprise for the first time visitor are the many museums of the most famous artists in the world.  I kept wondering how is it that this one area of Spain – Catalonia and Barcelona and its environs just happened to produce artistic geniuses like Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Antoni Tapies, Salvador Dali, and Antoni Gaudi.  Each museum is a gem and makes you come away feeling the need for more time to know these artists. We booked a bus tour for a day to Girona, a medieval city in Catalonia, and Figueres where the whimsical Dali museum is located. Designed and planned entirely by Salvador Dali during his lifetime and built in his hometown of Figueres, it is 150 kilometers from Barcelona. It is one of the most imaginative and bizarre museums we had ever visited and it reflects Dali’s creativity and unique art. 

Dali Museum in Figures

Courtyard in the Dali Museum

            Our days in Barcelona went by quickly. Now that I’m home with time to reflect on all we experienced, I, too, will be one of those who exclaims “Barcelona…one of my favorite cities in the world…”