Barcelona

 

View from Montjuic Park

We’re docked in the small ship port near the Columbus Statue in Barcelona’s harbor. The city was founded by the Romans in the first century BC and now has 1.7 million people. We started with a bus tour of Montjuic Park, home of the 1992 Olympics and now the site of many sports complexes and eleven museums, originally built as pavilions for the 1929 exhibition. We stopped for a panoramic view of the city with Sacred Heart Church on the opposite hill side. Then we toured the center of the city until we reached the beaches with Gold Fish designed by Frank Gehry nearby and the W hotel looking like a wave in the distance.

We had time to the exterior of Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi’s life work after 1914. The church cornerstone was laid in 1882. He was hired as the second architect in 1883.  Over the years, he changed the design from a simple church to the unique design we see today with 18 towers: 12 for the apostles, 4 for the evangelists, Christ and Mary. There will be three facades: the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory. We spent our time studying the earliest façade, the Nativity. Only one tower was completed by the time of Gaudi’s death in 1926.  The tower of the Virgin Mary was completed in 2021. The glory façade is still not started.

La Pedrera

After lunch, we had a tour of Gaudi’s La Pedrera, a 20 story apartment building like no other. The exterior is all curves. In front is a Statue by Jaume Plensa. With its central courtyard all the rooms have natural light including what were servant quarters. The top floor has a vaulted ceiling. Once the laundry, now it is a Gaudi museum. The roof is unique with its art works.

Sagrada Familia - the Passion

I had the opportunity to visit the interior of Sagrada Familia in the afternoon. When we were here in 2004, the church had no ceiling. The Basilica was dedicated by the Pope in 2010. The colors coming from the stained-glass windows created a colorful environment hard to capture in photos.

Interior of Sagrada Familia

We headed home the next day, despite a cancelled flight and a 3 hour delay on another, we did make it home safely, but exhausted. 

The summary: We had two great guides with Maria and Victor. The 'yellow' group got along great and everyone stayed healthy. I really appreciated that folks shared their photos with me. The highlights of the trip: The April Festival in Seville was interesting, seeing everyone in their flamenco dresses and suits enjoying themselves till all hours. May Day in Valencia was exciting - all the different folks we saw. The Cathedral - Mosque in Cordoba was unique, such a change from other parts of the world. Finally, it was great to revisit Sagrada Familia - what a gorgeous work of art, especially compared to our visit in 2004. 

 

Valencia

 

Basilica and the Cathedral

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain. It was settled by the Romans in 138 BC on an island in the Turia River. The people here speak Valenciano, a dialect of Catalan. From the Serrano Gate, we walked to the Plaza of the Virgin with the pink Basilica of the Poor and the Cathedral of Valencia. It was built beginning in 1238 over the site of the mosque after the Catholics recovered the city in 1238. From the Plaza de la Reign, we could see the St. Michael’s bell tower. We wandered further to discover the Silk Exchange, a Gothic building built in between1482 and 1533. The city had become the end of the silk road from China. Then we went to the central market where each of us was challenged to buy an assigned item in the market. We had to ask 4 different folks before we found ours – Fried pig rinds.

Silk Exchange

We then took our bus to the pride of the city, the Art and Science Center. After a disastrous flood in 1956, the city rerouted the river and turned the dry riverbed into a park. The center was designed by Santiago Calatrava, it took 11 years to build the complex at a cost 3 times the budget of 400 million euros.

Art and Science Park

In the afternoon, we visited a vegetable town only 20 minutes outside the city. We could see the irrigation canals used to flood the fields. Shares are adjudicated by a water court that meets every Thursday at the cathedral. Here we watched the father prepare the traditional specialty, paella, meaning frying pan, because of the pan used to cook over the fire. We also learned about growing Tiger nuts, a tuber, that is used to make the local drink Orchota. We had our Paella meal and after lunch we had orchota with a piece of bread.

Father and Son with Paella

That evening we had dinner with the Captain and learned about his colorful life. Born in Cuba, most of his family lives in Florida. He started sailing the route from St Petersburg to Cape Town. He met his Romanian wife while working for Royal Caribbean. Today, they live in London with their 3 sons and daughter.

Cartagena

 

It’s May Day, Labor Day, so the town is filled with people and we were there for some unique sights. As we walked off the ship, a band marched down the street as we entered town. We encountered a bachelor party, the groom wearing a white horse costume. Then we saw a labor demonstration at city hall and finally a gay 90’s party.

The Carthaginians founded Cartagena in 300 BC. The Romans ruled here for 600 years. It has a well-protected harbor, served as the winter base for the Spanish armada, and remains a naval base today. The Town Hall is an impressive 3-sided building, but shrapnel holes are still visible from the Spanish Civil War. The Romans mined gold and silver here, then in the 1850s the mines produced zinc, iron, and tin. The mine owners began building Art Nouveau buildings along main street in the early 1900s. Balconies are on many of the houses to watch the military and religious parades. The windowed balconies could hide the women while they watched.

Roman Theater

In 1989, they discovered a 6000 seat Roman Theater underneath the houses. Fires destroyed had the area in the second century. Further into the city we came upon the former red-light district. As the area was razed to build apartments the ruins of a Roman bath were discovered in 2008. The archeological area was opened to the public in 2017. We saw the remains of a temple to Isis, numerous banquet rooms, and a large bath complex. This area was destroyed by fire in the 3^rd century AD.

The Roman Baths