barcelona time

We finally managed to find Isabelle’s most favorite place in Spain, Las Ramblas, in Barcelona. Las Ramblas is a long boulevard built along the site of a previous wall. It is full of street performers, vendors selling everything from parrots and turtles to FC Barcelona shirts, and LOTS o’ people. About halfway up the boulevard is a large marketplace that was so crowded it was hard just to get into, with tons of stalls, fresh fruit, meat, cheese. We managed to squeeze in to get some things for lunch. This was a big hit with Lydia, Isabelle, and Liam, especially the fresh juices.
From Nerja to Barcelona was about a 10 hour drive with more citrus trees than I have ever seen. Citrus came to Al Andalus from the Moors, and then was brought to California. Car trips have been a prime time for ipods, books, fighting, and of course our favorite game, “Name something different between Spain and the U.S”
Today we spent our time in Barcelona exploring the world of Antoni Gaudí, the architect of the Sagrada Familia (Holy Famly) church (see link). There is a slight irony to this since we belong to Holy Family Parish at home. We did not go to mass here, since although the church was started in 1882, the first mass will probably not occur until 2008 or so, and of course the church will take years beyond that to complete. After that, we visited Parc Guell, Gaudi’s prior project of a housing community high above Barcelona.
We also visited the Picasso Museum, which has a large collection of Picasso’s pre-abstract artwork. The Picasso Museum and Sagrada Familia are a contrast between two geniuses of art; one who devoted himself to explore the world of humanism, and one who devoted himself to architecture through his spirituality.
We did manage to make it to Easter mass (this for the benefit of a certain mother). The masses in Barcelona are said in Catalán and Castellano (Spanish). We have not made much of an attempt to learn Catalán since everyone speaks Spanish anyway and Catalán sounds like a lot of Portuguese anyway.
In each locale, we usually find a small cafeteria (coffee shop) for breakfast of pastry and café con leche. In Barcelona, the staff of the cafeteria were extremely nice and took a liking to the kids, throwing in some chocolates with breakfast. Last night Chris and Isabelle used the apartment kitchen to make a pasta dinner which (If I say so myself) was not too bad.
Tomorrow is time to head back to Madrid and then back to estados unidos.