Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
Thu (Aug 27)- We arrived in Spain's capital, Barcelona, in time for an afternoon walking tour. We got to see outdoor art by many artists. Sean's favorite was an enormous mural on the side of a building by Picasso. It is one of his abstract bulls that he was famous for (see pic). Picasso's goal was to simplify the drawing to show the essence of the animal. Very similar to Pompon's polar bear sculpture we wrote about in Paris. We also got to hear about a local Christmas tradition. For many of us, our parents told us that Santa Claus delivered presents via sled, reindeer, and a chimney. An odd story, but the Catalonians have a stranger tradition. On December 8, they get a log, paint a smiley face on it, give it a hat, and call it 'Tio de Nadal' (see pic). For a couple of weeks, the kids are very nice to it by feeding it nuts and sweets. At night, they cover it with a blanket so it won't get cold. On December 24, the kids switch tactics. They get sticks and beat their pet log while singing a song "Poop log, Poop nougats, Hazelnuts and mató cheese, If you don't poop well, I'll hit you with a stick, Poop log." Then the parents tell the kids to go into another room and pray that the log poops some good presents. When the kids return, they find all the presents that Tio de Nadal left for them. Then they throw their pet log into the fire. Friday - We joined a bicycle tour and went to the more distant areas of Barcelona. We went to the harbor, the beach and some beautiful parks. The highlight of the tour was seeing the buildings created by Gaudi and other Modernista architects. The amazing cathedral, Sagrada Família, was designed by Gaudi cannot be appreciated by any photo we took. The massive construction project started in 1882, was 25% complete when Gaudi died in 1926, and has an estimated completion date of 2026. We also saw four impressive houses in a row, each designed by a different Modernista architect (one was Gaudi). The street is nicknamed "The street of discord" because all of the houses, commissioned by wealthy people trying to outdo each other, were designed with very different styles. In each European city, some feature has stood out to us; Vienna/Berne had eye-catching water fountains, Paris had massive, mural ceilings, and Prague/Valencia had old, complex stonework sidewalks. In Barcelona, the street lights/lamps grabbed our attention (see pics). They were so many different ones and all so elegant, Tara found it hard to bike a straight line and was lucky not to hit obstacles or pedestrians.