Train riding - and blog post writing
June 21
One snag in trying to keep a travel blog is that we don’t usually sit down an write while traveling. We are out exploring - visiting museums or churches or graveyards or strolling new streets and people watching. So - now we are on a train to Bilbao, and now is a good time to catch up with a little writing, recounting our adventures in the last two cities where we have stayed - Madrid and Barcelona.
We left Madrid on Sunday, June 16, on a late morning train. Our apartment was small but wonderfully situated, right up the hill from the Botanical Gardens and the Prado. Our neighborhood was at the edge of the so-called Literary District, a section of town where Spanish literature greats such as Lopez de Vega and Cervantes had lived. It was a section with many small bars and restaurants and a few bookstores. The street pavements were punctuated occasionally with quotes from Spanish literary greats.
First impressions of Barcelona were not great, because our first ramble was on La Rambla, a concourse thronged with tourists on a Sunday. On our downtown wandering, we happened upon a demonstration against the Israel actions in Palestine. Separated by a cordon of police, a group of people wrapped in Israeli flags demonstrated their support for that government.
Eventually, we made our way to the Barcelona Cathedral, which was not open to us. On our return, we found a place to eat supper not too far from the apartment.
On our second day, our impressions of the town became more favorable. We found our local market, Mercat de Sant Antoni, a beautifully restored 19th century building packed with vendors of fresh vegetables and fruits and other foods. We bought three kinds of cheeses, some bread, vegetables, fresh figs, and some dried fruit. The provisions for several days, in other words. Later, we explored our neighborhood, which was not thronged with tourists. We were staying in the Poble Sec area, which the guidebook said was very trendy and fashionable. Perhaps. It did feel very livable. One striking difference from the US: Young and old were mixing - walking and talking together. In the United States, so often we do not see age groups mixing on the street. In Barcelona particularly we noticed the mix of people. Barcelona also appeared to have greater ethnic and racial diversity than Madrid.
Later, we decided to indulge in a tourist attraction, taking the funicular to the Castell de Montjuic. The views were spectacular, and the surrounding park was a beautiful wander. We descended the hills eventually, and visited the Barceloneta waterfront - again thronged with tourists and beach-goers. Not a place to linger. Packed with crowded bars. Paved and packed with traffic. Nonetheless, in the small side streets off the main drags, we found normal and vibrant neighborhoods.
On Tuesday, we explored the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya and the Miro Foundacion.
The Museu was HUGE - and overwhelming. We did not see all of it - but much of what we did see was impressive, a collection stretching from the 11th century to recent acquisitions. Many works illustrated the important role that Catalan artists played in development of early modernism. The region was far ahead of most of Spain in terms of industrialization.
This fact fueled Catalan nationalism and also the development of a revolutionary class consciousness, pitting factory owners against a nascent proletarian movement.
The Miro Foundacion was simply wonderful, much more manageable. We immersed ourselves in the his life-affirming work, the evocations of sun, moon, stars and sea suffused with primary colors.
We set aside Wednesday to explore Girona, an ancient city about an hour north of Barcelona by train. We considered - but rejected - a guided tour that our AirbnB hostess suggested. I’m glad we made that decision because the old town deserved a full day of rambling, and trying to fit our explorations into a tour guide schedule would have been frustrating.
Memorable moments:
• The view from the bridge entering the old town.
• The Cathedral -which was established on an ancient Roman temple and was under construction for centuries.
• The Tapestry on display in the Cathedral, woven in the 11th century - but then forgotten - and only re-discovered in the late 1800s. It depicts the story of Creation, as described in the Book of Genesis, interwoven with some folk mythology and even references to classical mythology.
• We happened upon several references to flies, and our understanding of Catalan was insufficient to understand the explanatory plaques. A young woman in a small art gallery explained it for us. The patron saint of Girona is St. Narcissus - a saint I’d never encountered before. The story goes that when the troops under Napoleon entered Girona, they opened the mausoleum of St. Narcissus - and a horde of flies swarmed out and attacked the soldiers and horses, forcing them to flee. The event is memorialized in a painting in the Basilica and in small statuary on the house on the location where St. Narcissus had lived.
Thursday was much lazier, and besides packing up, we spent the day walking around the beautiful campus of the University of Barcelona - and further exploring our neighborhood.
So - today - Friday - we are on a train to Bilbao.
-es
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