November 12th, 2007 - Barcelona

Neighborhood Tour and Not So Happy Ending

By the time all was done and said, we arrived back home after mid-night, from our Dali Museum adventure last night. If cultural stereotypes hold true, then that was a fairly average returning time as the Spanish are known for eating late and staying out even later.

Rainer and Cynthia were nice enough to drive me into Barcelona to meet up with Grace in the afternoon. She had agreed to serve as local tour guide and I wasn’t going to turn down that opportunity.

We started in El Born Barrio or neighborhood.



It is an old, narrow street, part of town with lots of local interests...



... like this renovated farmer’s market.



Barcelona has many similar buildings to Paris, in a general European style, but they appear taller by a few floors.  A fun city structure note is that each neighborhood has a distinct name and many times persona as well.



Leaving El Born and entering into El Ribera, we stopped by the Palau de la Musica, which is an interesting performance space originally constructed by local patrons who wanted a place where the average person could enjoy music. As such, there is no royal box for the King.



Mid-afternoon meant a stop for coffee and tea at a legendary local proprietor, “The Four Cats”. This Café / Restaurant, founded in 1897, was the haunt of Pablo Picasso and his friends, who even designed one of the menus. The name of the restaurant comes from a Spanish expression meaning “a few unimportant people.” In other words, this café served as Barcelona’s “Montmartre.” Picasso even held his first individual art exhibition here in 1900, before moving to Paris to join "Toulouse and the boys" on the actual Montmartre.



The narrow entrance to the restaurant gave the appearance of supporting only a small café.



The painting behind the coffee station is the icon of the establishment.



But, I liked this one even better. It seemed like a cross between an early 1900’s avant-garde style painting and a Gorillas music video still.



Towards the end of the narrow cafe beginnings and behind the working coffee bar is the main dining room entrance. It is quite a design, complete with a second story balcony of tables.



After hours of sipping and talking we decide to actually take a tour of the city and wander to the oldest section of town, Barri Gotic, to visit the old Cathedral. (This bridge was made so that the local governor of the period wouldn't have to walk the streets to attend mass, but could simply pass via this private walk way, which coincidentally somewhat resembles the 'bridge of sorrows' in Venice.)



In spite of best efforts, it was difficult to capture a still image of the towering cathedral hall.



But, leaving the camera on one of the pews, the ceiling came in rather clearly. Really what was interesting about this particular building were the bare innards. Instead of gilded surfaces, the stone structure stood for itself.



From there we walked the waterfront, La Barceloneta, and came upon what appeared to be the shell of an oddly rounded airliner, but I’m told is actually a piece of art that is a gold fish in the day light. The scale is massive. I’ll have to check it sometime when the scales are naturally illuminated.



Coming up on proper “Tapas Time”, around 9:00pm, we headed to a couple of bars to try the “two bite” Spanish answer to a light dinner.



Not wanting to be out too late, since Cynthia and Rainer were going to pick me up at the rail station near their home, Grace and I called it a night at 10:30pm. Once at the rail station I purchased a ticket, that didn’t pass through the automatic reader and had to be manually replaced by a station attendant, then headed to Track #8 as instructed. The 11:10pm train passed right through the station without stopping.

The next train came up on the board as leaving at 11:50pm. It came. I got on board and began waiting for the half hour trip, but didn’t see any familiar sights. Finally, asking a local if the train went to Mataro, it was confirmed that I was on the wrong train headed to the middle of nowhere. To make things worse, this was the last train in either direction. Welcome to the nocturnal ghost town of Mollet Santa Rosa.



After walking to town to call Cynthia and Rainer, they insisted on coming to pick me up, instead of my taking a taxi. So, back at the rail station, this is what it looks like when placing a camera on the rails for a time delay exposure at 1:00 something in the morning.



I really felt bad that Cynthia and Rainer had to come all the way out into the country to pick me up, especially on a work night, but I was very glad to be home by 2:30am. (Thanks guys!)