Beths in Barcelona

Now that our friend, Beth (aka "Other Beth"), has been here and gone, and we are now into our last week in Zurich, it is definitely time for an update. Beth arrived to (surprise!!) overcast weather and rain. At least it wasn't snowing, though the rain followed Beth and me to Barcelona a few days later. It was a delight to have another master punster, queen of the quick repartee, and, simply, a good friend with whom to re-walk the streets of Zurich's Old Town, take another boat ride on the Zurichsee (the clouds cooperatively parted for the hour and a half ride), revisit some museums and get a first look at a couple of others (Kunsthaus--excellent collection of Swiss and international art, as well as a very interesting special exhibit of works by Alberto Giacometti (the artist best known for his tall, skinny sculptures, mostly of women); and the National Museum's collection of 18th century faience (Bob P., do you know what faience is?) and porcelain at the Guild House "zur Meisen")), and to discover Truffe, which has now taken over first place on the list of best places to get hot chocolate. Truffe, however, requires an asterisk, because the chocolate used by the proprietress is from Italy! It also requires an asterisk as a warning to those who might find the concoction just too overwhelming. Imagine a cup filled with warm, dark chocolate, and just a tiny bit of milk to help melt the chocolate.

Other Beth also encouraged shopping for Swiss goods with a more lasting quality, i.e., jewelry. Conveniently situated virtually next door to Truffe was a jewelry store, which offered pieces made by a number of Swiss artisans. By Zurich standards, many of the pieces were almost reasonably priced, at least reasonable enough for several purchases. I had more success (or should I say, did more damage?) than Beth, but her lapse was merely temporary, as she worked hard to make up for it in Barcelona. Needless to say, we could not permit Beth to leave Zurich without being treated to our hausgemachte fondue, and while we were at it, we got our friend, Rod, to join in the party.

Henry made it to Spain the day before Beth and me, having accepted an offer from a former post-doc to visit Madrid for a couple of days and give a talk at the University. When I asked Henry his impressions of Madrid, he commented that after reading so many warnings to be wary of pickpockets, he directed so much attention to watching his wallet that he was unable to enjoy himself! Beth and I, on the other hand, had nine days to work through any pickpocket anxieties we might have had in Barcelona, where the warnings are even more prevalent.

The best move Beth and I made in our copious (NOT!) pre-trip planning was to rent a two-bedroom, two bathroom apartment for our Barcelona stay. We not only spent a lot less on the apartment than we would have for a hotel room (we easily made up the difference, and more, through our fine dining choices), but we had room to spread out and avoid getting into each other's space as we grumbled through a continuous flow of rain. Unfortunately, the rain in Spain does NOT stay mainly on the plain! With just one or two days of no rain at all, we heard a regular refrain from Barcelonan shop/restaurant proprietors that the rainy weather and cooler temperatures were "unusual". Yes, it was unusual that we should rate a weather forecast of "light rain, 60%" as a major improvement over "rain, 80%" or "heavy rain, 70%". In any event, it is amazing how the city takes on an entirely new flavor when the skies are clear and the outdoor cafe and restaurant tables are filled with happy customers who can relax over a glass of tinto (red wine) and read their newspapers, tour books, or whatever, and/or just watch the throngs of people (overwhelmingly young) promenading along the popular thoroughfares (e.g., La Rambla, Passeig de Gracia, Gran Via Corts Catalanes) and walking the narrow streets in the Barri Gotic and El Born.

Museums and rain are generally a good combination, as long as too many people do not act on that same sentiment. Actually, the museums would have been crowded with or without the rain. As the taxi driver who brought us to our apartment was trying to tell us, our time in Barcelona apparently coincided with a special period when school groups take museum and other cultural tours. Given that our Spanish language skills are meager and our Catalan language skills are non-existent, we did not figure out what the driver was telling us until we came upon the hoards of school-age kids just about everywhere we turned. Of course, the fact that our trip overlapped with the first half of Semana Santa (Holy Week) also brought out the crowds. Although "high season" starts with Holy Week, I cannot imagine what the streets, outdoor cafes, and tourist sites are like 2-3 months from now, when the tourists descend. Well, maybe I will be able to imagine it, as we will face the same phenomenon 2-3 months from now in Munich!

Beth and I made another wise move (thank you for the tip, Rick Steves, Fodors, and Lonely Planet) by purchasing an "Articket Card", which provided entrance into a number of museums for a single price. Not only did we save the difference in price for individual admission tickets, it allowed us to bypass the long ticket lines at each location. The Catalan Art Museum was the museum highlight--its Romanesque collection was outstanding, particularly the frescoes transferred from their original sites to individual custom-made vaults. I also enjoyed the Maritime Museum, with its display of vessel models (Columbus' and Magellan's ships included), and the Miro Museum. On the other hand, the Picasso Museum was a disappointment, with certain of Picasso's "periods" entirely unrepresented.

We also wisely used T10 transportation cards, instead of the tourist Barcelona Card (which might be more worth it if we were in Barcelona for only 3 or 4 days, not interspersing side trips out of the city, and not bothering to walk anywhere). We could share the T10 card (10 metro/bus/train trips within Barcelona), saving about half the price of single trip tickets, and it meshed with our level of public transportation usage (walking a lot not only gave us an opportunity to "feel" the neighborhoods, but also allowed us not to worry about caloric intake as we savored tapas, paella, helado (ice cream), and tinto). Thank you for the T10 tip, Sara Abarbanel, who breezed through Barcelona in December!

Barcelona stands out as a city blessed (or stricken, depending on one's taste) with a panoply of edifices designed by Modernista (Catalan Art Nouveau) architects during the late 19th century and early 20th century. A number of them are located in the Eixample area of the city and within walking distance of our apartment. The most famous of the Modernista architects was Antonio Gaudi (the origin of the word "gaudy", perhaps?). These architects moved away from square edges and straight lines. Gaudi, in particular, was a big fan of decorative bright-colored mosaics, which can be viewed in the Park Guell and on the rounded chimneys of the Palau Guell. Gaudi worked on his signature project, the Sagrada Familia (the Holy Family Church), for over 40 years, until his death in 1926. Even today, it remains unfinished, but a hefty admission fee helps pay the cost of the private efforts at completion. Although the architecture incorporates some fascinating ideas (e.g., slanted columns in the nave), I frankly do not "get" the appeal of the towers than look to me like oozing cement! The most impressive of the Modernista style buildings is the Catalan Concert Hall (Palau de la Musica Catalana), which was designed by Lluis Domenech i Muntaner. The tour of the interior was well worth it, especially considering that we did not attend an actual concert (though our tour guide had to compete with the piano tuner). The most fabulous element of the building is its stained glass domed roof, installed in place, piece by piece (much too big to complete at a separate location, then install en masse).

Catalonians are extremely proud of their heritage (Take THAT, Francisco Franco!), and this was especially demonstrated on Palm Sunday, when their yellow and red striped flags hung in full array. When we visited one of the old cathedrals, rows of the yellow and red dress of the Catalonian guards, with armor included, were carefully laid out in faithful tribute. The tour guide at the Catalan Concert Hall also kept emphasizing that all work performed on the concert hall was by Catalan artists. Whenever I asked a question, he appeared to assume I doubted the ability of the "natives" to complete the impressive edifice and decoration, and turned each response into a proclamation of Catalonian ingenuity and quality.

Three other Barcelona highlights are worth mentioning. One was our visit to the "magic" fountains between the Catalan Art Museum in the Park Montjuic and the Placa d'Espanya. On Friday and Saturday evenings, for about two hours, the fountains "dance" to all sorts of music, from classical to modern. The "performance" brought out the crowds, leaving little room on the steps heading down from the museum and on the sides of the fountains away from the wind. The second was our visit to the oldest synagogue in Europe, in the Jewish quarter of Old Town Barcelona. The remains themselves are not as impressive as the proclamation inscribed on one of the walls when the site was reopened just a few years ago. The proclamation commemorates over 1000 years of Jewish prayer in Barcelona (presumably including prayer by Marranos (Jews forced to convert to Christianity, but who continued to practice Judaism in secret)). The third was La Boqueria, a huge covered marketplace, with row upon row of stalls filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, cheeses, nuts, candies, drinks, and countless other “treats”, including entire suckling pigs!

Our out-of-town day trips took us to Sitges (a seaside town about a half hour south of Barcelona; small, but pleasant, old town, Museu Romantic, and delightful beach promenade); Girona (about an hour north of Barcelona; pretty old town, with architectural remnants of the Jewish community, ancient Arab baths, and restored, walkable ramparts surrounding the old town); and Montserrat (a mountaintop monastery about an hour and a half northwest of Barcelona). The monastery has been through a number of incarnations over the past one thousand years, but the setting is its most striking aspect. The options for getting to the monastery are switchbacks by car/bus, a cable car, or a rack railway up the steep cliffs. Two other funiculars, with 55-65% inclines, take visitors to hiking trails leading to old hermit chapels and caves. One trail is adorned with 12 religious statues created by various Modernista artists. We also listened to the boys' choir perform in the basilica of the monastery, as we watched a long line of "pilgrims" pass by the Black Madonna and touch her "royal orb". The dulcet tones of the choir capped off a delightful day.

Beth and I easily acclimated to the Spanish custom of eating lunch after 1PM, but we never got used to waiting until 9PM for dinner. Tapas restaurants mercifully opened early enough for us to dine on tapas with beer or tinto, but we really pushed the envelope at a couple of restaurants when we arrived for dinner at 8:30PM! Our especially memorable meals included:
1. Dinner at Manairo, a Michelin one-star restaurant in "outer" Eixample, just a block and a half from our apartment: Every morsel of the nine-course (yes, small portions of each) menu meal was mouthwateringly wonderful. We are not entirely sure what we ate, even after obtaining from the maitre d' a list of dishes. For example, the meal started with two spoonfuls of items described on the list as "amuse bush". Had he written the proper "amuse bouche", we still would not know what they were!
2. Dinner at Tragaluz, in Eixample: Delicious food and a fantasy garden built into a greenhouse window off the dining room on the second floor of the building. We left pleasantly sated, rather than stuffed.
3. Dinner at Loidi, in Eixample: Another "menu" meal. Excellent food at a relatively reasonable price!
4. Dinner at El Yantar de la Ribera, in "outer" Eixample, just a few blocks from our apartment: This was our last dinner in Barcelona. We were disappointed that several of our choices for dinner that night were closed for Semana Santa, but our concern turned to good fortune. We feasted on specially seasoned lamb chops grilled in a rounded hearth oven.
5. Tapas at La Tramoia and Cerveceria Catalana, both in Eixample
6. Lunch (le menu) at Oleum, located in the Catalan Art Museum
7. Lunch at Rincon de Pepe in Sitges

Although I spent several days after my return to Zurich on a sick bed, the trip to Barcelona was a big success. Best of all, Beth and I are still great friends!! Thanks, Other Beth!