This is the third and final part of our serialised guest blog. For the previous blog entry, click here.
Monday 25th September
Today was a bank holiday and we decided we would go for a walk in the Pantà de Vallvidrera. We started from Vallvidrera itself and followed the well laid-out paths down to Baixador de Vallvidrera. Even here, in the middle of the woods there are statues, like the one of the monk offering a blessing, or a promise of comfort.
It was a hot day so we were happy to stop in Baixador for a beer at the other restaurant there, El N9U. Refreshed we headed back, one of us taking the obvious path and the other what looked like an obvious more direct route. Don’t need to guess who got back first.
With more family coming round for supper we did not go down into Barcelona.
Tuesday 26th September
After a rather rushed breakfast we took Flavio to school, had coffee and croissants at Vivari and then headed out without our guide, Violetta, to try to discover interesting parts of Barcelona on our own. That is not difficult to do when there is so much stunning stuff to see.
We decided to go first to one of the districts that the train passes through before going on to the centre. We stopped at Gràcia and wandered around for a bit, but not really doing it justice. We did go to the covered market where there were many stalls mainly selling, fruit and vegetables, meats, fish, cheeses or bakery items. It was well-used by the local residents but the prices were not particularly cheap.
Getting ready to leave Gràcia station we came across one of the potential problems with the T-usual travel card. Because this has no limit to the number of journeys you take it does mean you cannot go through the same entrance or exit place within a certain time, probably 10 to 15 minutes.
Having put the card in the wrong slot I could not then get entrance and had to find someone to allow me in, at which point they asked to see my passport as its number had been used to buy the card and was printed on it. After some time explaining why I did not carry my passport around with me I was finally let in. I fully understand why this is done because otherwise one could simply pass the card over the barrier for someone else to use.
From Plaça de Catalunya we headed northeast to somewhere we had not visited before. One of the first places we found was the remains of the Covent de Sant Agusti.
It was here, in part, that the Baró Istardipé (The Great Gypsy Round-up) took place in 1749. On the night of July 30, King Ferdinand VI ordered the arrest and imprisonment of the entire Romani population and the confiscation of their lands and property. Between 7,000 and 12,000 were imprisoned. The men did slave labour in the arsenals or mines, women and girls were forced into convents or houses of mercy, children under the age of four were interned in religious institutions.
It is clear there is still anti-gypsy feeling here and conferences are held regularly to try to foster resistance to these feelings, the latest being on the 30th July 2023. Within the convent there is a courtyard where there is a very peaceful feeling and there is also a café in a
remaining part of the building.
A short distance from the convent is the pedestrianised Passeig de Lluís Companys.
At one end is the Arc de Triomf and at the other the Parc de la Ciutadella. The Arc was built in 1888 as the gateway to the Barcelona World Fair held in the Parc itself. The architect was Josep Vilaseca I Casanovas. The two pillars of the arch have bats carved into the stone, bats being the emblem of King Jaume I.
Lluís Companys, whom the street is named after, was head of the Catalan government during the Spanish Civil War and remained loyal to the Republican faction. Exiled to France after the civil war, he was captured by Germany’s secret police, handed over to Franco’s regime and executed by them in 1940.
On the side of the Passeig, like in so many streets in Barcelona, there are huge ornate streetlamps and at the end the monument to Francesc de Paula Rius with his bust and flanked by statues of a worker and a crowned female symbolising art and on the other side a winged figure with a torch symbolising fame and a naked child with book, globe and battery symbolising science. It’s all there and also then reflected in the Parc itself.
The citadel of the Parc de la Ciutadella was built by Philip V of Spain to control the Catalans. It was once the largest fortress in Europe. Today the Parc has many attractions including a zoo, the Catalan Parliament, the Museu d’Art Modern, the Castell dels Tres Dragons (containing zoology and geology collection), Hivernacle (winter garden), Umbracle (tropical greenhouse and shade loving plants) and a great many different statues and sculptures. We only walked round part of the Parc which included going to sit next to the boating lake.
Two of the sculptures we looked at were The Lion Hunter and The Stork and the Fox. ‘El Caçador de Lleons’ was placed in the Parc on the 21 st September 1883. White marble on limestone it was sculptured by Agapit Vallmitjana I Abarca. It is also described as an African
who seizes the cubs of a lioness fearful of being surprised by the mother.
The other sculpture is the ‘Font de la Cigonya i la Guineu’ by Edward Bastiste Alentorn, and depicts part of the Aesop fable of the stork and the fox where, as a joke, the fox serves up soup in a shallow dish and the stork cannot eat it with his long beak. In revenge the stork
invites the fox to dinner and serves up a fish dinner with a very appetising smell, but in tall jars that only he can get his beak into, so the fox goes hungry. Moral – Do not play tricks on your neighbours unless you can stand the same treatment yourself.
We walked back to Plaça de Catalunya in a rather round-about way, first to the edge of the port and then to Columbus’ statue before going all the way up La Rambla, walking very rapidly so that we would be in time to pick up Flavio. We should have used the metro!
Wednesday 27th September
We took the train in as far as Proveça so that we could walk across, with Violetta as guide, to the start of Passeig de Gràcia. As well as the famous buildings by renowned architects there are also more streetlights designed by Pere Falqués i Urpí, in this case 32 in total, built in 1906.
Each of the lampposts has a bench structure at the base with small ceramic pieces which glisten in the sunshine. On the street side there are metal doors into which hot coals would have been placed to keep the seats warm in winter as people waited for the trams.
Passeig de Gràcia is home to a mixture of upmarket stores and boutiques and what were the residential homes of rich traders, designed by the famous architects of the time who often competed to show that their building designs were better, or possibly more outrageous, than those of their fellow architects, and perhaps the most daring was Gaudi.
The first of Gaudi’s that we looked at was Casa Milà (La Pedrera – the Stone Quarry), commissioned by Pere Milà and his wife Roser Segimon (the wealthy widow of Joseph Guardiola, who had made his fortune with a coffee plantation in Guadeloupe).
The building was unique with the façade not being structural but acting almost as a curtain, blocks of stone fastened to the structure by metal components. The wrought-iron grills round the 32 balconies, in the shape of plants, leaves and animals, were all created from scrap-iron sheets, bars and chains. On the roof, which we could not see much of, are ornate ventilation shafts and chimneys.
Further down the Passeig there are five ornately designed residential buildings.
The first we came to was another Gaudi building, Casa Batlló. This has been nicknamed the ‘House of Bones’. This building was originally built in 1877 by Emilio Sala Cortés with a very ordinary façade. It was purchased by Josep Batlló y Casanovas, a textile industrialist, in 1903 and it being next to the ornate Casa Amatller, (who made his fortune out of chocolate), Batlló decided to give Gaudi a free hand in designing a new building.
Initially the original building was going to be knocked down but instead Gaudi decide to completely redesign the façade and create a totally new top. Gaudi’s façade has three distinct sections and, on the roof, what looks like the back of a dragon. What resembles a cross raised in the air could be the hilt of a sword that is being thrust into the dragon by St George.
The competition between designers is obvious when one looks at the four buildings next to Casa Batlló.
First is Casa Amatller (by the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch) inspired by Netherlands architecture. The second is Casa Josefina Bonet (designer Marcel-li Coquillat in an eclectic neo-baroque style). The third is Casa Mulleras (another textile industrialist) and was designed by Enric Sagnier. This is the only one of the five building that met official regulations and did not incur a fine. And, at the end, on the corner, is Casa Lleó Morera (by Lluís Domènech i Montaner), here with a hint of mulberry trees.
While looking at Casa Batlló and taking pictures someone had moved behind us and was quietly unzipping Violetta’s rucksack. Luckily, we noticed the person behind us acting strangely and nothing was taken.
Pickpockets are very common in Barcelona so one needs to be alert. The reason for this is partly due to Spanish Law. Non-violent theft of money or items worth less than €400 is not a crime, so very few people are prosecuted. Theft above €400 value can result in up to 6 months prison sentence. If there is violence during a robbery, the perpetrator can face between one and three years in gaol – so if a pickpockets are confronted they tend to run away, not wanting to be involved in any violence.
On our way to meet up with the rest of the family we went to a complex (El Nacional) where there were half a dozen bars/cafés under one roof all trying to outdo each other in their elaborate designs. The toilets were also elaborate, having been converted from what was once a garage and repair site. On the way out there was a line of mirrors that one might have found in a posh upmarket theatre.
Walking on we came across a sign on Carrer del Pi for a shop selling nothing but Rubik’s cubes. This was in the Galerias Maldà where there were many shops dedicated to specific types of product including a Harry Potter shop (best selling wands being Harry Potter’s and, strangely, Voldemort’s), a boardgame store, miniature dolls shop, a costume shop (currently Halloween) and a sweet shop with Willy Wonka candies and chocolates.
Now having met up with Blake and Flavio we had beers and smack plates of meat balls and other dishes before we went on to The Comedy Clubhouse on Carrer del Canvis Nous (a street where money changers used to do business).
The Comedy Clubhouse also does ‘improv’ nights, when anyone who wishes to can join in. Improv is short for improvisation, a spontaneous ensemble theatre where the performers make up the theatre on the spot. Here it was done with scenarios given by the organisers.
Home fairly late, trains and funicular still running, but no bus in Vallvidrera so we had to walk from the top of the funicular home. Next day was mainly packing and getting ready for an early start back to the UK after a very enjoyable week+ in Barcelona.
We will return.