Our Last Adventures in Spain: Barceloneta and Tarragona

The last travel post of this most excellent visit to Spain begins deliciously. After a few days of cellophane wrapped muffins for breakfast, we needed a change. So two days in a row we breakfasted at Granja Dulcinea, an old institution in the Barri Gotic. They serve delicious churros con chocolata, and assorted pastries. My only regret: not suggesting it sooner so we could have eaten a couple fewer hostel breakfasts of cellophane wrapped muffins.

At the table next to us there were two women who each ordered hot chocolate churros, melindros, crema Catalonia, a couple more things. They didn't eat any of it the whole time we were there, they were just posing it and taking pictures of it. That is a HUGE amount of food to not eat, and they couldn't possibly finish a fraction of it. I do not understand instagram, apparently.

Next stop: Barceloneta beach. If you want to plant yourself in the sand and hang out at the beach, I don't necessarily recommend this one. It is lovely, and it is a good place to go for a walk or jog or bike ride. The aggressive salesmen won't chase you down, but if you are sedentary they will descend like vultures on hot roadkill. 

Beach blanket sellers were plentiful and pushy, but they would take no for an answer. The massagers were a bit more invasive. If you don't like unsolicited, unexpected massages from strangers, this beach isn't for you. I spent probably 2 minutes getting a "free" massage while telling this woman constantly that I didn't want a massage and I would not be paying for a 5 Euro 5 minute massage. It took this long probably because I was too calm in my protestations. If I had responded like a crazy person, we could have gotten rid of them much more quickly, but I didn't want to shame them or anything. They're just trying to make a living. It takes guts to walk up and start massaging strangers, though I think much of it as a sales technique.

After our walk along the beach, we headed inland and uphill to the Parque del Laberint d'Horta. It is a big lovely garden park, complete with a hedge maze. A small maze, but deceptively tricky. 

The park was filled with rugged seeming wooded areas, fountains, ponds, and pseudo-Grecian statues. It was built as part of the estate of the wealthy Desvalls family starting around 1791, it was turned into a city park in the 1960's. It is a little far from the town center, which means it is delightfully devoid of tourist crowds.

After this adventure it was time to say good-bye to my lovely nieces, nephew, sister-in-law, and deranged brother. They were heading out early the next morning--except when they didn't because weather--but our joint trip ended there.

Lee, my mom, and I still had one more day of adventure planned. Our last day of travel we spent in Tarragona. This little town just down the coast was quiet, colder than expected, and full of Roman history.

Lee on the beautiful Balcony of the Mediterranean

This Roman Amphitheater has been many things over the millennia: dead in the center the early Christians built a church to commemorate an early martyr. That church was later destroyed and rebuilt and, obviously was more or less destroyed by neglect again. Due to a number of structural and preservation related concerns, the amphitheater was getting inspected and we couldn't go down in and walk around. Hopefully it gets the support it needs to keep intact for future visitors.

Just across the street is the remnants of the Roman Circus. This is where the famous chariot races would take place. Just one corner of the track and spectator stands remains.  Enterprising medieval Catalans used the structure at the foundation for look out towers, so there are some slightly more modern additions to the circus.

Under the stands where the spectators sat, there were these big long tunnels. I believe these were perhaps ancient locker rooms, merch stands, and food vendor stalls.

Inside a tall lookout tower one can find a collection of Roman artifacts...

Models of Tarragona's Roman layout...

And the rooftop provides the best views of Tarragona! You can see the tunnels, the sea, the Circus, the Amphitheater...

This is the best vantage for understanding what part of the circus we're looking at. Note the stadium seating and the curve of the track.

And our next destination: the cathedral of Tarragona.

The cathedral is quite large, beautifully Gothic, and had a small museum of artifacts from all eras of Tarragona's storied past. From the Romans to the Visigoths, the Moors to the Inquisition, the conquest of Napoleon and beyond.

I think you might know how I feel about Mudejar architecture at this point. If you missed it somehow: I love it.

And our last visit was a walk through the garden along the ancient fortified walls. The foundation of the walls are Roman, the rest has been built and dismantled half a dozen times in the past couple of centuries. It has been converted into a romantic style garden and makes for a nice walk.

And look at this NOOK we found. In case you've forgotten, we like a good nook.

And that afternoon we made our way back to Barcelona, just as it started to rain in Tarragona I might add, and headed to our last adventure! We took a food tour with Devour Barcelona. Unpaid promotion ahead: We got delicious food, an educational experience, visited local bars and restaurants, and had a good laugh with the other tour member and a very nice, smart guide.
We would never have found these spots without local help, and with a guide to help us overcome the language barrier, we tried delicious sandwiches, bomba, botifarra, patatas bravas, alcohol free vermut, sardines, olives, and cheeses. I have never been so full. Food tours are pricey, and this one was worth every penny!

BYOB: Bring your own bottle and you can fill up on the in house vermouth and wine at this old school bodega!

And with that, our trip to Barcelona concludes. We made our way to the airport and headed home to experience winter and rescue Grandma Karen from our kids. We brought home lots of goodies, photos, gifts, and happy memories. To all of 5 of you readers, I hope next trip is a good as this one!

What's Different about Spain? Dragons!

Before my final travel blog about the last two days of our trip, I want to talk about cultural differences and similarities we encountered. This is, to me, is the best part of traveling. Some things are unique to a region, but there is a lot we all have in common.
I will punctuate this post with dragons. All over Spain, but especially in Catalonia, dragons are everywhere. This is because San Jordi--St. George of dragon slaying fame--is a patron saint and a favorite of the people. I collected every dragon I could find with a photo. I would like to share with you my collection of dragons while I tell you about the culture we experienced.

In Catedral Primada, Toledo 

Thanksgiving is of course a major holiday in the US. It is not a European holiday. But they have picked up on Black Friday. Everywhere we went were advertisements for "Black Friday" sales. In English. And the sales started at least a week before the usual Friday and continued on afterward. So they took up, not the American holiday where we feast and tell everyone what we're grateful for, but they picked up on our aggressive commercialism of Christmas shopping. So that is nice.

Assorted dragons on Gaudi's famous fountain in Parc de la Ciutadella

Things happen later in the day in Spain. The one sit down, reserved meal we did was a lunch, which knowing Spain's meal schedule I made sure our large party booked for an early lunch: at 12:30. When we arrived at the sweet little Bodega, it was empty. By the time we finished, around 2:00, it was packed and only getting more so. We went for tapas one night around 8ish and were eating at the same time as the wait staff of the bar. We pushed our meals as late as we comfortably could, but after 12 hours on our feet, we just couldn't stay up as late as the locals.

I've heard that Europeans complain about how loud Americans are, this is not a problem in this country. People in Spain aren't overly concerned with being quiet in restaurants, very similar to what we're used to at home. though you still get a "nobody talk or make eye contact" rule in the metro. That is universal.

On the block of discord in the Eixample, this balcony has some great dragons.

Street performers and buskers in Barcelona have to get permits and demonstrate that they are skilled to get prime spots in the metro or near tourist attractions. As such, you can hear some pretty great Spanish guitar players just in the streets, along with other instruments and performers, but the guitarists were the best.

I believe this is the city building or mayors office or something, featuring St. George and the dragon prominently.

I'm convinced there is not a single drinking fountain in the entire country. The tap water is perfectly fine, but restaurants will not serve it. Refills aren't a thing either. Get your water bottle refilled at the bathroom sink--sorry if they only have hot water!--and drink that if you don't want to pay for a drink at a restaurant.

El Barri Gotic is home to lots of gargoyles.

If you do want to drink something and you're a teetotaler like me, here are my recommendations: There is coke zero everywhere. Gross, but if you're into that sort of thing then you're safe. Better is the Fanta Limon: it's like a carbonated lemonade. Legitimately delicious. Other good option: Fanta Naranja: Orange Fanta. Now, if you have negative feelings attached to Fanta because it tastes like artificial sugar garbage and you had a bad experience in your childhood involving a giant Maverick mug of orange soda, a long car trip, and up chucking into said Maverick mug, fear not. Orange Fanta from the rest of the world is very different. It tastes like actual orange juice with carbonation. It probably won't trigger you. I mean, not that I know anything about any of that. It was a totally random, totally not real example. We also tried an alcohol free vermut that I thought was very tasty. There are a lot of alcohol free versions of traditionally alcoholic drinks, some of them are delicious and some are alcohol free beer.

Frederic Mares's collection of pipes included this dragon claw pipe.

People sometimes confuse Spanish and Mexican food. They are not at all the same. People in Spain do not eat spicy foods. They can handle about as much spicy as my children, based on my experience and the information of a reliable guide. Another big difference is a Spanish tortilla: an egg and potato kind of omelette like dish. Mexican tortilla: I think you know what that is.

Frederic Mares also had this statue in his collection.

The main language of Barcelona is not Spanish, it is Catalan. Which has some similarities to Spanish, but an equal number of similarities to French. And when I heard it spoken, some of the accent and pronunciation reminded me of my friends who speak Portuguese. Most everyone who lives there is at least fluent in Catalan and Spanish, and lots of people knew at least a few words in English. With our broken, 8th grade Spanish and their bits of English we managed just fine.

carving on the side of a building on a little side street.

Even in what may be the cheapest hostel in Barcelona, the wifi was faster than the garbage service Comcast has back home.

Most every bathroom in Spain, regardless of how big the museum or monument attached to it, is a three holer and one of them is out of order. But the stall doors don't have a gap and are adequate for even the tallest of people. We could maybe take some of that privacy in the States.

We found this dragon shaped helmet in the Barcelona History Museum.

Shopping for groceries at home, I've seen persimmons around. Usually they are smaller than my fist and pricey. They must grow in Spain, because there you can get a persimmon the size of your heart and they are reasonably priced. My mom had never had one, so she tried them for the first time and I think she's a fan now. She kept talking like she'd never see them again, though. I want to reiterate, Mom, you can buy these at home. I frequently do.

Also in the Barcelona History Museum, this quilted wall hanging. Most of these dragons look very Komodo-esque...

Jamon flavored potato chips. They are superior to most chip flavors I've tried in my life. If you are in Spain, bring back some for me. Please. I love them.

From the maritime museum

We encountered soccer hooligans one time. There was an FCB game that night and a group of fans were heading to the game, walking down our street singing at the top of their lungs. 

We encountered one protest, it was very sedate. People gathered around with a few flags and ribbons listening politely to one guy at the microphone. Overall people were extremely nice, friendly, and I can't think of a single instance of rudeness, with the exception of a pick pocket who very politely stole some cards from my mother's purse.

Look was hanging out in one chapel in the Cathedral of Tarragona.

I hope you enjoyed this collection of dragons and observations. I certainly enjoyed collecting them.

1st Sunday = Free Museum Day + Night at the Opera

For many museums in many places, there are special free admission days. In Barcelona it seems that the 1st Sunday of the month is that day. Lucky us! We managed to get to 3 different museums to take advantage of this budget friendly opportunity. We found some seriously great museums, ones I would not have visited based on the description in a guide book but thoroughly enjoyed.

Let's Start with the Frederic Mares museum (excuse my lack of accent marks. I'm lazy).
Frederic Mares was an artist, but more importantly he was a collector. Er, hoarder rather. He collected an absurd amount of absurd things, and seemingly never threw anything away. He eventually turned his collections into a museum; a most bizarre and delightful museum. His tastes were varied and his collection eclectic.

The first floor almost is entirely Medieval/Romanesque/Renaissance era statues of Mary and Jesus. A few people, but it is primary statues of Mary holding Jesus, who looks more like a ventriloquist dummy than a baby, and wall hangings of Jesus on the cross. 

But there were also these lovely columns. Those are good.

I developed a theory about all of them. For more on that, watch the video clip.

And then upstairs, oh the oddities! First was the room filled with keys. Keys to what? Nothing. Just keys for keys sake. And of course a couple hundred fancy Spanish fans, a hundred or so pipes, thousands of cigar bands, match books, and stamps. Dozens of decks of playing cards,
old tools, weapons, bicycles, creepy dolls, books, and statues.

Our next museum took us back in time, back to the Roman city of Barcino. It's the Barcelona City History Museum! Home to the preserved Roman ruins of a fish factory. Apparently the Romans had this fermented fish sauce called garum that was wildly popular among Romans and all the people they conquered. I suppose it is a testament to how truly awful ancient food was if it was improved with a fermented fish sauce and everyone was really into it. Don't get me wrong, certain aged foods are delightful. I would not say that fish ages well. I would not like to live near a factory where fish is made to age. It sounds awful. But visiting one 2,000 years later is great! You barely notice the smell.

Our third and final museum was the Maritime museum. This one was cool, but was especially a hit with the youths in our party. Maybe because there were some interactive exhibits, movies, and a FULL SIZED GALLEY just hanging out in the middle of the place.

This is part of an exhibit on sailor superstitions, which I thought were interesting.

Fun facts, or maybe not so much fun as disgusting, the men rowing ships like these had a life expectancy of 2 years, were often slaves, and these ships could be smelled from miles away. Like before you could see a galley, you could smell it. They were primary a war ship, so the decks were often painted red so they wouldn't have to try to wash the blood out. I am happy to be a middle class land lubber.

And we wrapped up the night at the Palace of Catalan Music for an abridged performance of Carmen. This is such a cool, pretty, modernisme building.

Nearly everything you see is ceramic tile mosaic. Each pillar and all the ceiling is intricately decorated, and rather than a large central chandelier, there is a giant stained glass window/light in the center of the concert hall.

And in the ceilings along the left and right sides of the space you can find composer names in the mosaic. I found a familiar one...

I love listening to art while looking at art inside of an art. A lovely way to spend an evening!