This 'n' That in Barcelona

We're getting into the B life.  Yesterday, b'fast around 10am, heavy lunch at 3pm, light dinner (tapas) at 10pm.  Lunch prices are ridiculously cheap.  We stopped into an Italian restaurant, table cloths & linen napkins.  We chose between an appetizer or a salad, then a main course, then a dessert and a drink which could be anything from bottled water to wine or beer...all for 12 euros, about $14.

In Paris, at best that would get you a two-combo choice of an appetizer + main course, or a main course + dessert for 12 euros & that's all.  Drinks and the other course extra.

Food pics!!!

Our lunch main course, Susanne's mushroom/ham pizza & my spaghetti carbonara (ham):

After the heavy lunch, light dinner that night, three tapas...potatoes, olives, mild peppers:

We had our first yoga class this morning, Hatha style...more mellow than the Vinyasa we're used to but after going two weeks yoga-less on the ship, it was a very welcome shift.  Easy going movements, more emphasis on stretching/flexibility/relaxing, less on building strength.  No standing poses.  Our old bones appreciated that a lot.   It's a morning class twice a week, so we'll be back.

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Meet Dane, an American.  I would characterize him as a perpetually wandering professional student.  We chatted with him at length, very enjoyable; very nice guy.  He attended Ariz. State among many other schools.  He's living in Barcelona but also lived in Germany & Sweden & would like to study in Scotland; get a degree in archeology.

He lives in this freaky 'do all the time, an attention-getter.  Sleeps with it, on his side, of course.

He can draw a crowd.  Look at their faces.  He reminds me of our encounter with the biker dudes in Bozeman last year.  The old book/cover thing.

(By the way, we are returning to Bozeman in July.  So after we get back home, this blog will go dark until that trip starts.)

Here's an addition to the Señorita collection.  She is pondering who/what to TM next.  And yes, everyone seems to be staring into their palms here, too.

Spoiler alert...more food pics!  Dinner last night at an old (since 1890) very nice Catalan restaurant just down the street from the apt.  We often like to arrive at a nice place right at opening time.  We were the first diners.  It gave us the opportunity to meet & visit with the owner, James, a wonderful man with great English.  He advised us on our food choices & recommended a Spanish red that was perfect.  He took this photo.

This was the appetizer, a salmon/lox & avocado combo.

I am not a fan of rice-based dishes.  I love plain rice to be covered with Chinese, Japanese, Indian or other foods, but a rice based meal like risotto, not so much.  However, we are smack-dab in the middle of paella-land, so I decided to try it.  Here is the seafood version which is very popular.

I liked it & finished it but that will probably be my last paella for the trip.

Susanne ordered fish, turbot in a Catalan seafood-based sauce.  All you see is the sauce but there is a very nice fish swimming underneath.

Here's the wine.  I described what I wanted as a lightish red, soft, not too dry.  That's exactly what he served, as a half bottle, the right amount for us.  The man knows his wines.

Susanne imbibed and as a bonus, it didn't give her a migraine which reds usually do.  A large family of French tourists took up culinary residence at the table next to us. You can see a few of them through the wine glass and James taking their order.  Susanne chatted briefly with the Irishman in the red shirt.  From our table, she heard him speak in English.  By the time we left, the place was jumping.

When traveling, it is so true that strangers are simply friends you haven't met yet.

Breakfast in the apartment.  The three pastries from the patisseria just across our narrow street, a mere €2.60, about $3.  The blue bottle is the heavy cream we like, nata in Spanish and that brown container is raw brown sugar.  European plugs & sockets are big and klungy, probably because their line voltage is 250 V compared to ours, 120 V.

Susanne placed & took this shot.

OK, enough food already.

I'm going to try a video.  It's long, 1:14.  If you're subscribing to the blog by email, you have to go to the web (click on Steve's Travel Blog above) to view it.  Look at it a second time & click on the Full Screen symbol, lower right.  The focus goes to hell, but you get a better feel for the "happening".

I was wandering thru the Barcelona market off Ramblas when I heard this music, a group of musicians playing ancient & fraying instruments surrounded by people having a great time.  The man on the left who gets up and sits down.  The annoying lady taking a vid with her phone.  The lady on the right joining in, swinging a cloth.  The sitting man in blue with the big, fat cigar. 

This happening along with the Dane visit are Barcelona's travel gifts.  They don't come to you, you have to walk the streets of the city to stumble upon them.  It reminds me of a Sunday morning in Paris years ago when my ears led me to a 20-piece string group giving an impromptu concert of classics in the Place des Voges; enthralling was the only way to describe that.

You won't find these happenings by being herded off & on a tour bus or rushing to museums & monuments.  You can't plan them or buy them...they just randomly happen.  To me this is the difference between seeing a city and experiencing it and why, to everyone's amazement, we're in Barcelona for three weeks with no plans to be dashing madly about.

You simply walk the streets.

If you've experienced a travel gift, tell us about it in the comments section.

OK blog post, off you go!!!

Early Barcelona Days

We've arrived, taken right from the ship to a quick 4 hour tour of Barcelona, dropped off at the apartment, checked in & by golly, here we are!

There are more ship photos but that part of the trip has taken on a "been there, done that" feeling so here we go.

B (my abbreviation for Barcelona) has much the same feel as Paris...old buildings, narrow streets connecting to busy boulevards, lots of shops/restaurants, people scurrying about.

The first difference is that while Paris is the city of many contributors, not only artists & writers, but Haussmann who planned it, B is the city of Antoni Gaudi, a late 19th to early mid 20th century architect who left his handiwork all over the city.

The most famous is the basilica of Sagrada Familia:

When construction started in 1882 (& Gaudi took over the following year) SF was in the middle of nowhere but the city grew up around it so it is difficult to get back far enough to take it all in.  But our trusty guide knew a place & here it is.  It is well known that even now it is unfinished.  The construction cranes are busy at work.  In 2015, the current architect projected a structure completion date of 2026 with the final decorative elements finished around 2030 - 2032.

One feature that sets Gaudi apart is that he likes to incorporate words into his buildings.

Check out the white area and on the steeples.  This is the rear of the church.

He also did a Park and apartment buildings around the city.  Here's one.

The style is very distinctive.  He obviously hated sharp 90 degree edges & corners but prefers curves.  Note the center balconies.  None of the five curves are the same.  This building is constructed of cement block.  But each block is distinctive; has to be designed & cast, then placed in only one position.  Here's a closeup of a balcony edge.

That's very expensive; wouldn't be done today.


His style doesn't resonate with me, seems like the structure is inflated from the inside.

I also like photos of people.  At the Gaudi designed park, this lad's DSLR is almost as large as he is:

In Paris we had a photo department called "Les Mademoiselles des Paris".  Perhaps we can start a collection of "Las Señioritas de Barcelona".   Here's the first candidate:

Barcelona tourist humor:

Susanne is a licorice-aholic.  She couldn't pass this place by.

 

OK, some throwbacks to Gibraltar.  I've never seen a shipload of boats. 

Take a look at the orange lifeboat.  How do they launch that thing?  Let it just slide off?  Ouch! when it hits the water.  Catapult it?  Can't believe that.  Or maybe swing it gently down as the lifeboat crane sets it on the water.  But what if the vessel is listing badly, or going down bow first?  The answer will have to remain a mystery.

Susanne says I wonder about the weirdest things.

Saw a statue of a man on a horse (Europe has lots of those, the US has a few).  A set of Roman numerals is probably his years of birth & death:  MLXXXII - MCXXXI.  1082 to 1131, right?  I guess back in those days just getting the years right was good enough.

B appears to be refugee friendly.  

English seems to be the common language of foreigners.  The other night we had dinner next to two 24 year old students going for their masters. He from Italy, she from Taiwan, conversed in English, attending classes at a local university, classes conducted in English.  The fellow wanted to know all about Donald Trump.  It's hard to explain that all of this hullabaloo is only on the Republican side and that volume does not equal strength.

My high school Spanish is being dusted off.  I figure in another 6-8 months, I'll get along just fine.  Trouble is, we're leaving in a couple of weeks.

Susanne & I are early birds, Barcelona is not.  The restaurants are jammed with diners at 10:30pm.  We're trying to fit in.  B'fast @ 9-10am, lunch (the heavier meal) @ 2-3pm, a light dinner, perhaps a few tapas @ 9-10pm, hit the sack at 11-11:30pm.

Enough for now.

Last Day on Ship

(We're in Barcelona, land of high speed internet.   But I want to devote one last post to the rest of the trip over before digging into our new digs. That shipboard internet was a real ordeal.)

We docked in Gibraltar before dawn, here's the view of the Rock from our veranda.  I mean...that's it???  This big rock I've seen photos of all my life...that a major insurance company based its reputation on and all I see is a bump in the distance???

Well, it's not quite that bad.  The rock face we all know & love is actually at a 90 degree arc to the left & can only be photographed full-on in a boat from the sea.






Here's a shot on land from the other side, we went thru a tunnel to get there.

However, it turns out this Rock is all a scam.  Thinking about the famous view, you get the impression that this huge thing stands anchored to fortress Europe.  I mean, it's solid Rock all the way into Spain and beyond.

Well, here's an aerial view, a photo of a photo on the side of another bus:

   
There's actually nothing behind it.  In reality, the world famous "Rock of Gibraltar" is the world's largest, oldest permanent movie set.

But it does have one advantage...it stands at the Mediterranean/Atlantic choke point which is a bit less than 9 miles wide.  Here's Africa over a rooftop...seems like a not-too-distant swim (and lots of people have done it).

So in 1704 Great Britain grabbed this 2.6 square mile splinter of Spain & has held on to it ever since, to the massive consternation of the Spanish, very much like Guantanamo/Cuba.  Spain laid siege by sea later in that century, it failed.   They even tried to starve the Gibraltarians out in the late 1960's thru & into the '80's by shutting the border down...didn't work cuz the Moroccans came to the rescue to provide/sell whatever was needed.  Spain finally caved in (permanently) as a condition to get into the European Community.  But they still hate it as our Barcelona guide reminded us.

The place is so small, the only road to the Spanish border transverses the only runway at the airport.  Relax...there are only six flights a day (to London only), so they close the road for takeoffs & landings.

All this for a population of 30,000.

The Rock actually encloses a huge cave (stalactites, the whole bit).

OK, moving on.

Some thoughts as the cruise is coming to a close.

As you can imagine, the serving staff is a fixed group members of the United Nations of varying ages.  They live mysteriously somewhere below deck 5 and are assigned various positions at the different dining venues at different mealtimes.  So the smiling lady who made Susanne’s Cesar salad in the evening becomes our server in the casual breakfast restaurant the next morning.  Each of these places has certain appropriate uniforms that must be worn & kept scrupulously clean.  (That in itself has to be a massive undertaking.)  And so it goes as these folks pop up everywhere and anywhere.  After awhile they're like old friends.

Our favorite is Alessandro, an expansive Italian probably in his forties.  He’s a head waiter & loves kidding with the guests.   Spotting him makes our meal.  He tries to fake us out by tipping a capped bottle of ketchup on a salad.  Saying good bye the last morning was tough.  And you know Susanne is a hugger!!

Last dinner on the ship.

An oil of Smilin' Jacques...the inspiration for the ship's cuisine.  And he succeeded.  The French pastries, from the baguettes to the croissants & pain au chocolates...as good as anything we've had in Paris.

Here's the breakfast buffet:

I never did get around to shooting the lunch & dinner versions.  Aren't you glad??

There are those PCs who still cruise in the old style, dressing for dinner.  And it's all on display in the Grand Dining Room.  In the center is a huge chandelier and under it sits the Captain's table.  And only those guests who are PCs to the max & dress the part are invited to join Monsieur le Capitan, he's the one whose sleeves are festooned with more stripes than the other ship's officers.  It's the ship's royalty and they look wonderful.

I didn't get a shot of the grand entrance, nor did I venture close enough to get a pic of the table.

Since this part of the trip is over, I'd like to draw it to a close blog-wise.

On to Barcelona!!!

The (Cruise) Days Dwindle Down

Yesterday was a shore day in Madeira.  The weather didn't cooperate...mostly cloudy with light rain, a little sun, then pouring rain from 2pm on.  The best part of the tour was a very nice lunch at local restaurant...a local fish lightly breaded then fried to a perfect doneness, with two cooked bananas & some garlic bread.  Seemed like a fair meal for 12.50 euros.  Then came the side dishes: boiled potatoes, seafood paella & salad.  Madeira prices.

The island seems like one very large mountain that rose from the sea.  The cliffs come down to the sea leaving almost no room for beaches.  Bermuda is surrounded by beaches, Madeira has two.  Getting around Madeira has its ups and downs, literally.  Getting from one place to another means gong through tunnels, some quite long.  The narrow roads hug the mountain with a sheer drop on the outside lane.

The homes are perched on or carved into the mountainside.

<It's 6am & internet access seems OK.  Shhhh....I'm going to try to sneak in some pics>

This is a scene going through a village.  The green areas are growing bananas.

Yes, a dreary day that eventually turned to pouring rain.  A scene thru a restaurant window:

Zooming in on the water area:

Madeira is a rugged, mountainous place with some spectacular scenery that the rain muted to monochrome.

Waterfalls spring from openings in the mountainside.  Apologies for the bus window reflection.

I'm going to use this time to throw in photos that I've prepared...no particular order.

Call this the department of weird art.  I don't get the point of this one.

And this next one is just plain screwy, literally.

So what's so screwy about this piece??  Let me zoom in a bit.

Yeah, the peppers are covered with screws & nuts.  Go figure.

We have on board a wonderful string quartet; four lovely ladies that make beautiful music, from classical to Broadway.

The photo upload speeds are slowing way down which tells me the ship is waking up.  So I'm going to publish this now.  We're two days out from Barcelona & better internet.

Thanks for your patience!