It's May, it's 2009, it's another Formula One season, must be time to visit Mecca, or rather the Catalunya Circuit in Barcelona, but more of that later.
It's always nice to be somewhere where you don't have to worry about the weather, and always nice to be there with friends, so it's more than fortunate to have a friend who lives in Spain, and always welcomes a visitor from England. This trip I would be traveling very light, due to the fact that the cost of placing my case in the hold is £20, so hand luggage only. It's just getting there that could be a nightmare.
Todays nightmare came in the guise of an overly officious boarding person, who took it upon themselves to screen the size of peoples hand luggage, despite the fact that we had already had had our luggage checked when we checked in. Some people were being asked to resize, and the guide that was being used did look a little smaller than the one we had to use at check in (call me paranoid). This caused a few passengers a little anguish when their bag would not fit or got caught on the guide, and then being informed that they would have to place their bag in the hold at some ridiculous surcharge. Fortunately I was never asked, but left a rather crimson woman arguing with the officious person over a matter of a few millimeters, size does matter.
Goodbye England, hello Spain. A couple of trains and a taxi later and I am enjoying a beer on the terrace at Michelle's place of work. There I was forced to sit in the sun, bottle of San Miguel by my side, waiting for Michelle to finish. It's a hard life, but someone has to do it. So here I am again, Spain, bit of shopping then back to Michelle's for a bite to eat (pizza, fingernail free) and a few drinkies. On the way to the supermarket we happened upon a most spectacular sight, a field full of blood red poppies, so obviously we stopped for a photo or two. A most spendid start to my visit.
Friday was quite a busy day, up relatively early, shower, walk to Masquefa, get train to Barcelona. I am finally going to venture inside the Sagrada Familia. The trains here are so different from back home in England, yet they do run on tracks, but they are clean, punctual, informative and cheap. Ok you need to know a few words of Spanish, as the digital displays tell you where you are, where you are going to be, and where it will finally be. Not some dodgy Dalek impersonator based tannoy system that no-one can understand.
So here I am, outside the Sagrada Familia, about to pay my Euro's and venture inside. This has to be one of the most amazing buildings ever constructed, and the work still continues. The building itself has two faces, old and new, both complement each other, yet are distinctly different. For the first time I am able to see all of this close up and in my face, its simply breathtaking. Where do you start. Entering on the newer side, under 'The Passion' with its angular scultures, depicting the last days of Christ, you enter the Cathedral through huge inlayed doors. Words cannot describe fully what I am seeing, even with photographs, the sheer scale is unprecidented.
Inside it is simply vast, your eyes are cast upward into the grand ceiling, what was Gaudi smoking when he designed all of this. Round and through to the older side and outside to the classic face of the Sagrada Familia. Here is the nativity, with scenes depicting Mary and Josephs journey, Herod and his soldiers seeking the infant child and many more with angels, kings etc. Striking representations sculpted in a more classical style than the angular Passion. From here I ventured down into the museum, to see how and why all of this was constructed, I simply cannot put into words how impressive all of this is, bizarre models of how Gaudi calculated the loads and stresses each arch would be able to take.
Now I must join an orderly queue to travel upwards into the towers, a further fee is required to do this, but of course it is all worth it. Within 30mins I am exiting the elevator and beginning to explore the towers, spiral staircases twist up and down, with little room for passing, so decorum must be obayed, with a little patience. Some towers you can only ascend, and others decend, but you can get around all four towers, and with a few balconies you are able to see some most extraordinary sights, and see Barcelona from a most interesting vantage point.
After spending as much time as is possible in the towers, I re-emerge back inside the central cathedral, and wander a little more, got to make the most of my visit here. Back down into the museum, few more photographs, all the way around the outside, yet more picture taken. Eventually I must leave this place of wonderment, but not before purchasing a few souveneirs, fridge magnet representations of Gaudi's number square. Alas it is time to go, catch my train, meet Michelle back at her workplace, and get something to eat before heading off to see The Adicts at The Faktoria.
(read about it here)
Saturday brought a day of firsts, the first first was to finally eat paella in Spain, I have been here so many times, but never eaten paella. So here we were, me and Michelle, Saturday afternoon, sitting in the sun, tucking into a huge dish of mixed paella. Mixed means mixed, rabbit, chicken, mussles, prawns, fish, you name it, it is in this dish, and it was delicious. Ok we are in the touristy bit of the sea front, but hey, it was still good.
The next first and last first, was to indulge my inner (or not so inner, eh Gill) geek, and go see the new Star Trek movie. Obviously it's not the first Trek film I have ever seen, but it's the first time I have been to the movies in Spain. No it was not in Spanish, my Spanish is in no way good enough for that, it was in the only language I am able to speak fluently, English, but with Spanish subtitles.
What of the film itself. Well it's like what they have done with the new Bond films, it's familiar, yet new, reinvented and revised for a new generation of movie go-ers. For followers of Trek the makers of the new film have included a clever little plot device so that they can make sequels to this one, without polluting the existing Trek timeline, oops my innner geek is spilling out. Anyway it's a good film for Trekkies and non Trekkies, funnier if you are familiar with the concept, but a good sci-fi adventure movie. Two things are remarkable, one being how full the cinema was and secondly how dark the room was, once the film got underway. There was a false start with the film, as someone had set the picture size incorrectly, but that was soon sorted and the film restarted. Despite that, the film received a nice round of applause at the end.
to be continued............................
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