Day 17 – Toledo

Today we had out last European hotel breakfast (we’re eating en route tomorrow), and then walked to Puerta de Atocha to catch our train to Toledo. Half an hour later, we stepped off the train into Toledo’s pretty and quaint train station (it had stained glass and fancy designs and things). We got a map of the city, then joined the flock of tourists on the bus to the historic center of the town. Nearly every person we saw today was a tourist; we even began to recognize people and tour groups.

The closest tourist destination was the Alcázar, which played various governmental and military roles throughout Toledo’s history. The museum is built on top of the remains of the old building. The exhibits we saw basically led us through all of Spanish history from 1400 to about 1800 (we skipped the twentieth century). Miel was very happily recounting all of her Euro knowledge and made us go back to the royal family tree that was displayed near the beginning of the exhibit to check her facts. She also asked a museum employee (the awkward ones that just walk around the exhibit and watch you read stuff, made more awkward by the fact that we were practically the only ones in the museum) when Carlos V reigned. The employee didn’t know, but Miel did get to have an awkward encounter in Spanish! Anyway, los Reyes Católicos were not on the family tree, “which frankly, I think that was a huge oversight, given how often they were referenced.” We saw a bunch of armor, weapons, flags, and other things to do with royalty and the military.

A statue in the courtyard of the Alcázar.

Because Miel doesn’t want me to start another paragraph with “next,” I will quote her: “The route we had mapped our earlier pointed us in the direction of the cathedral.” This was the biggest and fanciest religious building we saw today, and the most similar to other cathedrals and basilicas we’ve seen on this trip. There were no pictures allowed, so I only took a few. It had the usual cathedral-y things (cloister, chapels, ornate altar, stained glass), and also a Sacristy, which housed paintings done by such icons as el Greco, Goya, van Dyck, Raphael, and Caravaggio. We wanted to go up to the tower in the Catedral but were informed that we couldn’t until later in the afternoon, so we moved on.

Illicit photograph of the Catedral.

From the Catedral, we stopped briefly at the Iglesia de Santo Tomé to see one of el Greco’s most famous works, El entierro del Señor de Orgaz. We then went on to the Sinagoga del Tránsito, the main synagogue of the Jewish quarter of Toledo. The museum told us all about the history of Jews in Spain, and we also got to see important examples of mudéjar art. We were kicked out when the museum closed at three, which Miel tells me is an important cultural note.

Outside la Sinagoga del Tránsito.

We stopped by the house that once belonged to el Greco, but it too was closed, so we headed west towards Santa María la Blanca, a former synagogue (now preserved by the Catholic Church). It “was constructed under the Christian Kingdom of Castile by Islamic architects for Jewish use,” making it a unique mixture of cultures and faiths (Wikipedia). It is labeled as a synagogue, but the artwork inside (as well as the nun) is clearly Christian, and the architecture is mudéjar (Muslim).

The pinecones decorating the pillars are a typical Muslim motif.

To continue our religious and historical tour of Toledo, we went to the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes. It was Gothic and had a beautiful courtyard, as well as an intricately designed sactuary. I particularly enjoyed their gargoyles, which were in the forms of various birds and mythical creatures. There was a portrait in honor of Isabella de Castilla, who was the Catholic Queen that drove out the non-Catholics, including the Jews we learned about in the Sinagoga del Transito.

The cloisters of the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes.

Even with our lovely map, we got rather lost on the way to the Mezquita. Streets and “plazas” (usually just slightly wider sections of streets with four or five different roads branching off of them) were occasionally labeled, but even when we knew where we were, it was difficult to figure our which way to go. Toledo is a veritable labyrinth of narrow, sloped streets, without any semblance of an organized grid. We did eventually make it, and explored the thousand-year-old Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz. It built on top of a Visigoth church and was used as a chapel about two hundred years after it was built. The vestiges of a colorful painting are still visible on the ceiling, and it has many arches and uniquely designed ceilings.

The tall, narrow streets of Toledo, conveniently covered to provide shade.

Pillars and arches in the mosque, built in 999 A.D.

We walked through the Puerta del Sol on the way back, and bought postcards and swords. Toledo is famous for its steel and metalworking, especially swords, so we couldn’t leave without them. We hope customs doesn’t mind. We had jamón ibérico again for dinner, this time on pizza. It was the first time I have ever seen Miel give up on using a fork and knife (“my teeth work better!”).

Our last train ride in Europe. Goodbye, RENFE!

After consulting bus drivers and being consulted by other tourists, we found the correct bus back to the train station. We took the train back to Madrid, printed our boarding passes, packed and commenced the daily blogging ritual. We are sad to be leaving Europe and going back to real life – this is our last real blog, DEAR READERS! – but our adventures in Toledo were an excellent note on which to end.

-Sara & Miel

Day 16 - The Grand Dessert Quest (and other Madridian icons)

This morning marked the first time we used the metro in Madrid. We certainly have used less and less public transportation as time has gone on, though some of that may have to do simply with the relative locations of our destinations. (Insert our discussion about the relative merits of the various metros we’ve used.) We took the metro to el Palacio Real (note: separate the vowel sounds, and it’ll actually make sense). Upon arrival, we ambled around the outside, looking for a line. We tried to attach ourselves to a tour group, in the hopes that they knew what they were doing, but eventually realized that the palace was closed for the morning due to a changing of the guard ceremony. As such, we once again rearranged our schedule and headed over to the Catedral de la Alumdena, which is directly across from el Palacio Real.

View of the Catedral.

We later saw a bit of the ceremony that prevented us from getting into the palace on schedule.

The first portion of our (self-guided) tour of the Catedral consisted of an exhibit featuring gifts to the church and clothing worn by important religious figures, as well as the history of the Catedral, Santa Maria de la Alumdena, and the evolution of the diocese. After viewing many elaborate robes, we made our way to the dome-viewing section and the dome-level balcony, which provided a lovely view of the city. We enjoy having the opportunity to get to such levels in each city, as they enable us to see how layouts and general architecture styles differ from city to city. It was also nice to be able to take pictures of the inside of the dome at that level, rather than simply from the sanctuary level, as it allowed us to see the design in greater detail. This is the newest finished Catedral we have visited, and this was certainly reflected in the style of the arches and stained glass.

Looking up at the dome.

Different dome, cool painting and stained glass.

We next wandered to la Plaza Mayor, which is a main square of Madrid. I’m sure that our DEAR READERS would be interested in knowing that the 44^th Feria Nacional del Sello (stamp festival) is occurring at present there. We did not actually go into the festival structure, though we did eat lunch across from it. The restaurant at which we ate was chosen because Sara was able to ask a waiter if they served flan, and he replied with an affirmative. I have never had flan before, and it is very good. We had flan caramel, in case anyone is interested. Now for a few notes about western European restaurants….Waiters do not hover like they do in American ones, and diners should allow for a fair amount of time to pass between when they finish eating and when they can actually go. Today, for example, at least a half an hour was taken up by flagging down the waiter to ask for the check (during this period, I learned how to do this politely – “Me podría traer la cuenta, por favor”) and then waiting for the waiter to return with a credit card reader. I would note that the other diners were being fairly rude (by our standards, at least), as they were snapping their fingers (and pointing) and calling across multiple tables to get their waiter’s attention and simply demanding things (“I want” rather than “I would like”). We may be young and awkward and American, but we’re polite about it! Also, many of the outdoor restaurants here in Madrid have devices attached to the top of the table tents/umbrellas that mist water occasionally over the diners. We noticed it last night, and this afternoon, it actually happened to us. It wasn’t hot at that point, but they still had them mist us. Apparently one mister was malfunctioning/bothering someone at the very rude table, so one of the dignified waiters got on a chair and wrestled the mister into a different position. (Sara was reminded of the misters in grocery stores, which are used on vegetables. We are vegetables???)

Plaza Mayor and stamp festival structure (orange building).

Eventually we did manage to pay and headed back to el Palacio, which reopened at 1:30. Once inside, we went through the Farmacia Real, which contained various types of old containers for many varieties of remedies. After that, we went to la Armería Real (Kaitlin shout-out here), which featured many, many suits of amour (for humans as well as horses) and weapons. We mainly saw the amour for Felipe II and Carlos V (Dr. H-W shout-out here). We then ventured into the palace proper, where we walked through many elaborately decorated rooms, and tried to dodge tour groups (we generally were caught between the same two ones, one of which had a French guide, although we also ran into a French school group in la Armería). Related aside: while the Farmacia and the official rooms of the palace had the tour notes in both Spanish and English, la Amería did not, so I’ve been getting rather a lot of practice reading Spanish (not that I can understand much more than I did at the beginning of the trip – Latin based languages/cognates are wonderful things!).

View of the Palacio from the Catedral.

We then ventured to la Plaza de España, which is another one of those monument-squares to which one must go if in Madrid for the first time. After prompting, Sara did manage to ask someone to take our picture! (I say “manage” not because her Spanish isn’t adequate, but because she doesn’t like talking to random strangers to ask things, like the way she refused to ask the bookseller yesterday if he had a connection to Boeing, as he was wearing a Boeing t-shirt.)

Us, Plaza de España, statue of something unlabeled. 

Our final official stop for the day was at the Reina Sofia. There, we saw many works by Picasso, Miró, Dalí, and other surrealist and cubist artists. To summarize, they’re weird, but very cool. We of course saw Picasso’s Guernica, as well as various sketches he made prior to creating the piece itself, and post-Guernica follow-ups that focused on a single image (such as a crying face or a mother with a dead child). I was fascinated by the fact that some of the plaques were in Spanish, English, and French, many were in just English and Spanish, some were in only Spanish, and a few were in Spanish and French or Spanish and Catalán (depending on the artist). Additionally, some of the books featured were French, and a few of the paintings had French words in them as well, which was fun. We also ran into the French school group from the palace, which was odd. Aside: some of the room titles had “utopia” or “dystopia” in them (which makes sense given that it was 1920s-40s surrealism/cubism mainly), which I enjoyed immensely.

Penguin outside of the Reina Sofia (they're scatterd around the city for some cause)

After the museum and dinner, we began a gelato quest. We didn’t realize that it would turn out as such, because in Barcelona one basically only has to step out onto a sidewalk and a gelato shop (or three) will appear. However, apparently this is NOT the case in Madrid, as we took a very strange, meandering route for about twenty-five minutes before we stumbled across the place from which we had procured ice cream the day before (note: ice cream, not gelato). It was still quite good, but it did make us a bit nostalgic about the good old days in Barcelona.

Tomorrow, DEAR READERS, is our last true day of the trip. As Sara and I were discussing earlier, it feels like we’ve been travelling in Europe forever (and not in a bad way), like school was ages and ages ago. It seems strange that we will be back at school next week (even if we won’t actually be attending real classes). Still, you can be assured that we will enjoy our last day to the fullest!

- Miel & Sara

Day 15 - Art and Books

Today we went to the Prado around 9 o’clock, which was unfortunate because it didn’t open until 10. We walked around and looked at fountains (the Fuente de Neptuno, to be specific) for a few minutes, then spent the remaining time in line (“which was poorly marked, by the way”). We got in free because we’re minors/students. Yay! We saw many portraits by Diego Velázquez, who was a court painter for Felipe IV (who has come up in various places today, including museums and our hotel). Velázquez also painted Las meninas, which I studied in Spanish 3. We also saw paintings by el Greco, van Dyck, van Eyck, and Rembrandt, as well as a room for paintings influenced by Caravaggio (another shout-out to Dr. H-Dubbs).

A side entrance of the Prado.

Upon leaving the museum, we waded through the small children to reach el Parque del Buen Retiro, which is the largest park in Madrid. It was lovely and very green. We came across a memorial to the victims of the 2004 train bombings, which I did not know about until today (it was a big deal, but I was in fourth grade. Miel continues to be surprised at my ignorance). The park also had a marvelous rose garden featuring arches, fountains, and many types of roses. We found the book fair that I had happened across on the internet before our departure and browsed through the many stalls until it closed for the afternoon. We passed another small book fair on the way to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (which was closed. We’ll go back tomorrow). We then went to the bookstore that I had picked out, which turned out to be a bookstore/café. I found three books (two with poetry that I’ve read in Spanish class, and also the original Ender’s Game short story in Spanish). Miel read Artemis Fowl in Spanish (for the record, the Gnommish on the front of the first book (you know, the “Carry me always, carry me well…” bit) was translated into Spanish and then into Gnommish. It still rhymed).

Roses and arches and fountains, oh my! (Fountains not pictured.)

As we couldn’t go to the Reina Sofia, we walked up past many random fountains and plazas to see the Biblioteca Nacional and the Museo del Libro. The exhibit was on the history of written language – books and letters, and the restoration thereof. It was entirely in Spanish, which made it more complicated for Miel. They also had a temporary exhibit about da Vinci, featuring his sketches and writings found within the Madrid Codices.

Fuente de Apolo.

La Biblioteca Nacional de España.

We’ll have plenty to do tomorrow as it is our last Madrid day. Hopefully we will be able to right our schedule. I also hope to find flan, about the lack of which I am outraged, as it is a traditional Spanish dish. I know our DEAR READERS (at least my father) are sure to be equally distraught upon hearing this news. Wish us luck in our quest tomorrow!

-Sara & Miel

Their post office is cooler than our whole country.

P.S. Miel is letting me get away with this short and undetailed post only because she is so frustrated that I kept having to look things up and just wants to get this over with.

Day 14 - Gaudí

Much to her delight, Sara had warm milk and honey with breakfast this morning. I ate some more honey off of the edge of my knife. Quite delicious. (She refused to try milk and honey because “foods are mostly meant to stay separate.”)

La Sagrada Familia, still under construction.

The Passion façade of La Sagrada Familia.

The first stop of the day was la Sagrada Familia, which is Gaudí’s most famous work, and an integral part of the Barcelona landscape. We were able to skip the long line, as Sara had previously secured tickets online (hurrah). Entering the basilica was almost overwhelming, in that it is breathtakingly splendid (and, I imagine that by the mid 2020s, the projected competition date, it will be even more so). We’ve seen a lot of arches and glass windows over the past two weeks, but nothing composed quite like this. The light, the height – it was wondrous. We got audioguides, which helped to explain the process and history of the place, including the symbolism in the design/measurements and various stained glass elements and portions of the façades. By some odd accident, when I hit “1” on my audioguide to hear the welcome, it was in French, which Sara pointed out wouldn’t have actually been too much of a problem, but I went back and made them change it to English anyway, as I don’t actually know architecture words in French. There were elevators going up to a higher level, but we only discovered our tickets didn’t cover this portion until we had gone through the entire tour, so we asked two different employees how to get elevator tickets, and both of them directed us to go to the main ticket windows (where the people standing in the long line were getting tickets) and just go in the wrong way (they were the kind with the metal spinning bits (she means turnstiles), so this was feasible if awkward). After hovering for a little while, we managed to speak to a ticket-booth employee, who said that we would have to wait an hour and a half. By this point it was nearly noon and we did have other Gaudí places to visit, so we declined (but continued to puzzle over the inefficiency of a system that directs you to step in front of other people going the opposite direction to buy supplemental tickets). Regardless, la Sagrada Familia was absolutely stunning.

The tree-like, geometric columns designed by Gaudí for the basilica - not your traditional arches!

Some of the colorful stained glass inside the basilica.

Light from the window reflected in the organ (the only one of the four planned organs that has been installed as of yet).

As those of you familiar with Barcelona or Gaudí may have already guessed, Casa Milà was our next destination, and those of you familiar with Artemis Fowl should recognize this from the opening section of The Lost Colony (on that note, we looked for a café in which Minerva could have plausibly sat, but couldn’t find one). (NOTE: We’re currently on the train to Madrid, and the pair of seats in front of us just swung out into the aisle, which is somewhat problematic given that I’m typing on the tray table, which is of course attached to one of said chairs. No one else on the train seems to have found it peculiar that we had to re-lock these seats back into their proper and secure positions.) We did not get audioguides for Casa Milà, instead opting to wander through it on our own. Casa Milà was an apartment building, and we visited two of these apartments. The roof (as Gaudí’s roofs tend to be) was cool and wavy and weird (but genius), as you can see in the pictures. (Also, in between la Sagrada Familia and la Casa Milà, we attempted to go to a bookstore Sara had picked out previously, but unfortunately it was closed.)

The odd sculptures on the roof of Casa Milà - very Gaudí.

To finish off our Gaudí day, we went to la Casa Batlló, whose façade is magnificent and colorful and very Gaudí. The entire house has a water theme, from the blue tiles in the light wells to the curve of one of the staircases (which resembles the backbone of some creature) to the colors of the stained glass. The audioguide talked about the ways in which Gaudí brilliantly integrated form and function (for example, regarding lighting and draining). The roof of the Casa Batlló, too, is splendid (and for once, the floor is flat!). It features more tiled chimneys and the top of the façade, which is a dragon-like creature whose tiles fade from orange to blue. Sara would like me to mention that the British narrator of our audioguide did not pronounce “casa” correctly, and it annoyed her.

The blue tiled walls of the light wells in Casa Batlló, as seen through the wavy glass doors.

The chimneys and the spine of the "dragon" atop Casa Batlló.

We wandered back to la Rambla, where we ate dinner. I tried a bit of Sara’s lemon Fanta. One of things we enjoy about European restaurants is that they actually place the bottle on the table, and you can fill your actual glass as you desire. I reflexively drink when I have good liquids before me, thus I was continually refilling my glass throughout the meal, just like last night, which enabled us to laugh about the fact that I had two whole bottles by myself – half liters of water, that is. After non-awkwardly paying for dinner (victory), we once again stopped at a gelato stand, and Sara would like to note that she had chocolate with raspberry and that it “was delicious.” I used one of my few Castilian stock phrases (¿Entiende inglés?) to open my real question, which was about if a certain flavor contained nuts (it did not). I can’t actually pronounce whatever flavor it was, but it was quite enjoyable nonetheless. As a bonus, thanks to our gelato consumption habits, we now know the word for “scoop,” which is bola (and feels rather odd for me, who orders gelato in Spanglish that boils down to “dos bolas in a bowl,” complete with hand gestures to illustrate my preferred container). Another restaurant-related note is that last night, the menus available to peruse outside were in Spanish, Italian, German, and possibly one more. As we were being seated, the waiter asked in what language we wanted our menus, and he listed off Castellano, English, and Russian (which he said in English, possibly because this tends to be the common language of tourists), so apparently we can pass for Russian in both France and Spain, at least until we start speaking in English.

As I mentioned before, we are at present on a train to Madrid. At some sort of security/ticket check, the man started talking to me in Spanish, and while I understood that I needed to show him my Eurail pass, I couldn’t get the rest, so I had to use one of my other phrases, “No entiendo.” When I asked what the date was, he replied in Spanish, and another employee clarified in English (though I can understand veinte-ocho), to which I helpfully replied “ouai,” which is the French way of saying “yeah.” Despite my awkward language encounter there, we did get on the train, which is playing a Spanish movie (which is potentially a dubbed American film, and anyway comes with Spanish subtitles). I’m still rather amused about the fact that, unless they bother to check who purchased tickets and which tickets were actually used, France doesn’t know we left France and Spain doesn’t know we entered Spain. We didn’t have to show passports when we left Carcassonne/entered Figueres, so I guess they’re not too worried about tracking our whereabouts.

I was a little unsure about how I would make the transition from a country in which I speak the primary language to one in which I do not, but Spain so far has been wonderful. I enjoyed Barcelona very much and am sad to be leaving it behind at 271 km/h, according to the helpful screen at the front of the car. On a somewhat related note, Sara and I are continually amazed by the passage of the days… today is Day 14; we’ve been travelling for two weeks. It’s a strange thought, but perhaps one worth noting. Thank you, then, DEAR READERS, for sticking with us so far – for wading through my admittedly wordy posts, for indulging in our references to our various beloved fandoms, and for commenting on our adventures. It is always a great pleasure to return to the hotel at the end of a busy day and read what all of you thought of the previous day’s post.

We didn’t charge the laptop last night, so I shall close here. Only that slim red battery indicator can curb my loquacious tendencies! I trust that our DEVOTED READERS passed a lovely weekend, and encourage you all to have some gelato (or ice cream or frozen yogurt, depending on your taste).

- Miel & Sara 

Day 13 - Gothic Quarter & la Rambla

We had breakfast at the hotel again today, which I have to mention because Miel had her first miel ever. She said something along the lines of “Pretty good” or “decent.” She plans to have some tomorrow as well. I will focus on this victory because we also had gelato today, and she went back to her bowl-requesting ways.

The flags of Catalunya, Spain, and Barcelona fly atop the City Hall in the Plaça de Sant Jaume.

We went on a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter this morning (in English, so I didn’t have to translate. They had a French option, which I didn’t let Miel do). Oliver, our tour guide, was highly entertaining as well as knowledgeable. We started in the political square (la Plaça de Sant Jaume), and after explaining the history of the buildings (the Roman forum stood in the same location in the colony of Barcino), he started with criticisms of the Spanish government. He also pointed out politically charged graffiti throughout the tour. It was funny to hear him complain, but also interesting to hear a local’s perspective of current events. He had many other Oliver-isms, including “Rome never died,” “Nobody gives a damn” (half-jokingly, when talking about tourism and how people don’t understand what they’re taking pictures of), and “If you ask the stones, they will give you the answer” (when determining if a building is restored or original). Miel says that the tour was “Spain-centered AP Euro in two hours” (shout-out to Dr. H-W!). Oliver had nearly endless knowledge of Barcelona and the Gothic Quarter, including architecture, history (both ancient and modern, from the Romans to the Spanish Civil War and beyond), and religion, specifically Sant Jordi (St. George, the patron saint of Barcelona, who is honored and depicted in various forms in the city). He was also fluent in at least four languages (Catalán, Castellano, French, and English), all of which we heard him speak at some point. We now know how to identify Baroque churches, differentiate Romanesque and Gothic arches, and distinguish between northern and southern Gothic styles (Notre Dame vs. La Catedral). Oliver was definitely the best tour guide we have had on this trip.

A random view of la Catedral, with Oliver's head at the bottom. 

The façade of La Seu, completed hundreds of years after it was built.  This is why it was pinnacles, which are otherwise characteristic of northern Gothic architecture.

After the tour, we went back to the Catedral de Barcelona (also called La Seu or just La Catedral) to see the inside. Oliver had only taken us inside the cloister, and to the main entrance to point out how it was “more Gothic than it used to be,” (a commentary on how the restoration added Gothic elements that were not originally there). This was only the first time we crashed Mass today, as we also visited Santa María del Mar, another Gothic church, during Mass. Miel didn’t feel as awkward because in both churches, the front section was closed off so the tourists couldn’t disrupt the service. Both churches had the usual arches, stained glass, and chapels to various saints.

Inside of La Seu, during Mass.

Santa María del Mar, also during Mass.

Our next thing (“don’t say thing!”) was a short boat tour of the Barcelona port. There were many, many gigantic cruise ships, and we saw Montjuïc from yet another perspective (fun fact: the stone for many of the buildings in the Gothic Quarter were quarried from Montjuïc). We saw the monument to Cristóbal Colón and then walked up la Rambla, the main thoroughfare of Barcelona. La Rambla is packed with shops, restaurants, hotels, random old churches and government buildings, gelato stores, and other stalls selling various touristy goods.

Columbus points dramatically toward the New World.

Just off of la Rambla is the Palau Güell, a palace designed by Gaudí for his friend and client, Eusebi Güell (the guy who donated the land for Parc Güell to the city, surprise surprise). The restoration of the palau was completed sometime last year, and it is now restored to its former luxury and beauty. Gaudí and Güell were both fans of using very high-quality, authentic materials such as stone from the Pyrenees, fancy hand-wrought iron, fancy woods, and gold and silver leaf. On the roof, there are at least a dozen chimneys in the trencadís style that we saw in Parc Güell (referring to the abstract use of broken tiles of various colors, typical of Gaudí and Catalan modernism). We learned that Gaudí debuted this style at the Palau, and then used it further in the Parc and in other houses.

The front gate at the Palau Güell, with some unusual wrought-iron swirly things. Gaudí also used many parabolic arches in the Palau.

Trencadís on one of the many chimneys at Palau Güell.

After climbing down from the warped roof of the Palau Güell, we continued up la Rambla. We went to find the Hospital de Santa Creu, now the Biblioteca de Catalunya. Unfortunately it was closed, but it had a beautiful courtyard. We found a restaurant that served tapas for dinner, branching out from our usual fare of ham and cheese sandwiches (we had jamón ibérico and Camembert cheese). We then had the delicious gelato mentioned above (their dulce de leche actually tasted distinct from caramel, which was delightful).

I am now attempting to come up with a closing that will gain Miel’s approval; I need her eyebrowical consent (she made up that word; don’t blame me), DEAR READERS. She raised an eyebrow, DEAR READERS! Oh dear, now she’s covering her face…anyway, lots of interesting history and pretty buildings today (and Miel pointed out that for once we didn’t take a single train, metro, or tram), and more Gaudí tomorrow!

-Sara & Miel

Day 12 - All Over Barcelona

The day began with a trip to a tourist information hut to pick up our Barcelona passes, which enable us to get on the metro, as well as to take various buses and trams. Additionally, the pass gives us free or discounted access to many points of interest around the city.

Once this detail was taken care of, we took the metro to the Parc Güell, which was designed by Gaudí. It was very, very cool and weird in a fascinating sense. He certainly has a distinctive style. I was continually amazed by the wild creativity and detail of the various parts of the park, which is quite large. Fairly early on, we stopped at his casa, which is currently a museum featuring models and furniture designed by him, as well as some pieces/notes on people with whom he worked at various points in his career. Unfortunately, the house itself was not designed by him, but it was designed by one of the people with whom he collaborated (Berenguer). It was very beneficial to have a brief history of his work and style before we continued our wander through the park (and before we visit a few of the houses he designed, as well as la Sagrada Familia). We ended up exiting on the other side of the park into a random neighborhood, and then spent a few minutes locating ourselves on the map helpfully given to us by the tourist hut employees. (In between leaving and our quest to pinpoint our location, we managed to help a few American tourists who were searching for a back entrance to the park.) A friendly Spanish (we think) man came up to us and helped us; he gave directions to Sara in Spanish to the metro station we were seeking. Yay for language skills and helpful locals!

Entrance to the Parc Güell - there was no mistaking it!

Roof of one of the terraces in the Parc; exquisitely tiled

Casa/museo Gaudí

Our next stop was CosmoCaixa, the famous science museum. It was really quite cool. The entrance lobby has two walls painted with various physics formulas, and it was exciting to look and see which ones we could recognize (Sara knew more than I, obviously, but three semester of physics still paid off). (I interrupt our usual program to inform our DEAR READERS that we have opened the doors to the balcony and are currently sitting in front of said balcony, so as to better hear the band that is playing just out of view somewhere nearby. Also, it’s very nice out. Continuing on… ) The museum is quite large and very cool, so we saw just a fraction of its contents. One of the exhibits we spent a fair amount of time on was what I’ll call a contemporary, collaborative science exhibit (Sara’s specific translation of the title on the brochure is “Era of Convergent Technology”), which specifically dealt with cognitive science, technology, biology, and nanotechnology. The exhibit featured exciting developments in each of these fields separately, and then showed examples of various collaborations, with “percentages” by each example regarding how much each of the four fields contributed to that specific development.

Tree in the center of the evolution staircase at the museum

Another one of those... also, as we were leaving, we got to see it knock one of the metal bars down!

All of the jars contained gold nanoparticles; the exact size of the particles determines the color we see.

After this section of the museum, we moved into a section focusing on Newtonian mechanics, including waves and rotation. This was also exciting for me because I’ve actually studied that! Sara read the descriptions in Spanish and sometimes Catalán, while I read in English and occasionally glanced at the other languages (since French has a fair amount of shared roots with them). Regarding translations: it’s very interesting to read announcements or restaurant descriptions in multiple languages, because either one language is fairly poorly (directly) translated, or they phrase things in different ways; either way, it’s fascinating. Back to the museum! We didn’t even see a whole floor of it and we were there for about three hours. Sara says it was a “quality science museum,” and I concur. She also adds that she got to “learn things, as well as be excited about things I already knew.”

Eventually we agreed it was time to head out, so we made our way to Montjuïc, which is a large park on a hill with various museums and the site of the Olympics that were held in Barcelona. Additionally, there is a castle of sorts at the top, from which one can view the city and port. While at the castle, there was a random performance group in the courtyard, doing some sort of short musical theater piece in Spanish. We’re really not sure what it was about. While wandering about near the bottom of the park, we stumbled across Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which is big and nice and in front of la Plaça de Espanya. We ate dinner on the terrace outside the museum, and then weren’t actually permitted into the museum, since by that point the museum closed in twenty minutes. Instead, we wandered down the various sets of stairs, terraces with fountains, and escalators until we reached la Plaça itself.

View of the sea from Montjuïc; the sea fades into the sky/sky into sea

MNAC

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a crep (apparently that’s how it’s spelled in Catalán) place. The menu was in English, Spanish, and French (the front/back also included Catalán). After scanning the English side and deciding what I wanted, I glanced at the first foreign language page and began to attempt to pronounce my order with a Spanish accent; after listening to a few words, Sara stopped me, realizing that I was trying to say the French words with a Spanish accent. (“Wait, how do you pronounce this? Glacé?” “…That’s French.”) Next page! Anyway, I did manage to make my order in Spanish (both the words and my terrible pronunciation), which was an exciting achievement. Sara got a lemon and honey crep (that looks so wrong) (“crep de limón y miel”), which I tried mainly because I can’t remember if I’ve ever had honey, and I suppose that could be construed as rather odd for someone whose name means “honey” in several languages. (I CANNOT BELIEVE that she’s never had honey; I’m making her eat some at breakfast tomorrow if they have it. First ice cream/gelato cones, now honey…what has she eaten her whole life?!?!) Thus, you may have a note in tomorrow’s post about my honey-eating adventures.

We are still sitting outside our open balcony doors, which is lovely and feels European and just… wonderful. The band stopped playing and some religious-sounding singing commenced, but now someone is just talking. We don’t know what’s going on, so our DEAR READERS will have to forgive our lack of clarity and detail on this point.

I will also apologize for our one-day hiatus from the BLOGOSPHERE (which missed us sorely, I’m sure), due to the fact that we didn’t figure out our hotel’s internet until tonight (so Spain has been good to us so far in terms of that, we just didn’t realize it right away); thus, our PATIENT READERS will now have two blogs to go through tonight! This could be a plus (two at once!) or a burden (two of these monstrosities???). I’ll leave it up to you.  (UPDATE: Sara’s decided it’s the Ave Maria, and now it is clear that’s what’s they’re singing… we’re still not sure if this a late Saturday night service or some other type of… something. We continue to be confused about the band bit. It was like a marching band kind of band, with lots of drums and trumpets and such; not really churchy. Hence the confusion.)

Last note: Every time we enter a new city, the first few hours (mainly, navigating the metro and getting to the hotel) are (almost) overwhelmingly foreign and somewhat confusing. However, we get through every time, and by the next morning, everything is more manageable.

Sara is commenting now on how she looks away briefly and returns to discover new paragraphs, and is thus preventing me from thinking of a proper closing worth of our DEVOTED READERS. (UPDATE: Sara saw candles, which again indicates a religious something.)

With that, I’ll close.

- Miel & Sara