Category: Travel

I have been meaning to write this for a while, but since Brian and Louise are coming over in a few months I’m spurred to get it done. This semi-structured rant is a keyboard-dump of some of the things I’ve learned since being here in the mother country.

Continue reading “Australians in London, A Guide For The Bewildered.”

There’s really something quite odd, if you consider it, about watching movies while flying. Hurtling half-way around the globe at something like 900 kms/hour, something on the order of 14 or 15 km above the surface, eyes glued to a small screen in the back of the seat before you.

I did not sleep at all on the trip from London to Brisbane. 11 hours Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur, 8 hours to Brisbane. Which gave me the opportunity to catch up on quite a number of the movies I missed through 2013:

• Wolverine
• Pacific Rim
• Kick Ass 2
• Elysium
• RED 2
• Avengers
• Despicable Me 2

Just in case you were wondering.

A pause for breath…

And at this point I descend into a list of things to remind me of what we did. Photos will, in time, show up: I am writing this on an iPad and so far have not found a convenient way of selecting certain photos for publication and excluding others. Also, some are on here, some on my phone, and some on my camera.

So! Sunday we went to the Picasso Museum, which took some finding because its tucked in the Barri Gòtic, and our maps (including the iOS 6 apple maps) are not much use in there. We continued wandering the Gòtic – something we have gotten in the habit of already – and found a nice little square (Fossar de les Moreres) with a great café and a nice monument to the defenders of the city in 1714. It turns out to be pretty well ground zero for the nationalist movement, and the plaza is built over the resting place of the defenders.

It’s well worth seeking out Bastaix – it’s not on the tourist road map, and the food is superb.

Monday we figured out the Metro. The system is clean, efficient, fast and most of all sane and reasonable. The tickets are simple to get from the ticket machines, and the best bet for a few days stay is the T-10 – for about 10€ you get 10 trips. That might be 10 trips for one person, 5 for two, or 1 for a group of 10 – they don’t care. While it’s only a half hour walk from Casa de Billy and the Gòtic, we’ve tended to take the metro back in the evening when we are … Tired…

Emerging from the Metro to La Sagrada Familia was jaw dropping. We spent a few hours in the church just enjoying the light, although the attached museum is good, and a trip up the towers worth while for a close up view of some of the decorative detail on the exterior. Don’t attempt that though if you are bad with heights or stairs, as it is very high up and feels precarious, followed by long very tight spiral stair cases down.

I am hoping that the photos and videos will give some approximate idea of the place, because words are insufficient. Inside is like being an ant in a late afternoon forest of plane trees, with the light filtering through the leaves. The Nativity facade is a right of laughter and song, and the Passion facade is bleak and austere and extraordinarily moving.

If you do just one thing on a Europe trip, go to La Sagrada Familia.

We needed a stiff drink after our visit, and finally made it to Ciudad Condal. This tapas place is firmly on the tourist map, but deservedly so. It’s got an up-market feel, rather than being a real tapas place (ie a pub with food), but the service, tapas and cava-based sangria is amazing. Our experience with the waiter we had is typical of the experience we’ve had so far: by trying to use what piddling bit of Spanish we have, begging forgiveness for our crap Spanish, and welcoming their advice and suggestions, we have found waiters and so forth very willing to help out explaining the food and custom, and steering us to what they think is good rather than what the tourists are looking for. I’m hoping that the smiles we have gotten have been of relief at finding us not to be more arrogant pain in the arse tourists.

Inside La Sagrada Familia. More to follow when I sort out photos.

Another day characterised by walking and food. We tried to go to the really good, and the really really good tapas places that we keep getting recommended, but they were impossibly packed out. Instead we wound up at Matamala, which was pretty up market and does Catalan slow food. A bit pricey for what we wanted, but stupidly delicious.

Today we tried to be more Barcelonan, and slept late, ate breakfast late, and strolled out late. The entertainment in Barcelona on Sunday seems to be strolling, because everyone was doing it, the whole city on foot with dogs and prams beneath the autumn plane trees. We intended to find coffee and a pastry, without much luck: I have an unerring ability to not find what I am looking for, although there was ok coffee and a reasonable pastry at La Taverna de Barcelona

Each time we have walked out we have rambled off in different directions to see what turns up, but this time we were sort of rambling with purpose: on Sundays after 15:00 entry to the Pablo Picasso Museum is free, so we were aiming for a late lunch, the museum, and then early tapas.

We found the local Arc de Triomphe, although it’s not particularly clear what the triumph was, the down into the botanic gardens, turned right for the museum and then got lost in the Barri Götic again. We settled for an overpriced and somewhat bland tourist tapas in the square near an old market building at Casa Delfã­n, got lat again and finally joined the queue at the museum. It was worth getting turned round and wandering though, the area near the museum is amazingly lovely.

The museum was pretty cool, being in a damned old building whose story I need to dig into, and the collection interesting. Of course, because most of the big known paintings and other works are held in other collections, it’s dominated by his early work, although there is a large section dedicated to showing his various interpretations of Velasquez’s Las Meninas that really shows how careful and intelligent his work is.

The other tapas place we were seeking, which apparently has life changing ham, was just beside the museum, and closed. Because the signs were in Catalan, we guessed they meant it reopened at 19:00, so we wandered off for churros and chocolate and a drink first. I found Barcelona’s first and probably only Brazilian cocktail bar where we had some pricey and dangerous cocktails, then went back to our original destination. Having lubricated our brains and consulted the Internet we worked out it was closed until Tuesday. Sigh.

Still, we accidentally found a seriously awesome small non-tourist tapas bar, Bastaix and stuffed ourselves with cheese and olives, and learned how to make tomato bread.

Toast paninis or similar. Rub it with a clove of garlic. Rub it with a tomato that’s been partly roasted or grilled. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Serve it forth.

Tomorrow, the big fancy famous catherdral.

Addendum

It turns out when I looked it up that my suspicions were correct: the Picasso museum is made from a row of 5 adjacent 14th and 15th century houses, that had been reworked in the 18th century, then turned into the museum from the 1960s onward. One thing that was amazing was some 14th century painted roof beams… We stood and watched for a while, and virtually none of the museum visitors looked up to see them.

Right now it is close to sunset at the end of our first full day in Barcelona. I’m lying on the couch of the charmingly twee Casa de Billy, while the roar of traffic comes up from the Gran Via. It has a more elaborate name, but all the signs just say Gran Via, one of several wide boulevards cutting pencil-scratch straight across the whole city. We are two blocks from Plaça Espanya, and about 10 blocks from Las Ramblas.

Today was about walking, and to a lesser extent about food. Since it is the Done Thing, we strolled up to Plaça Catalunya and then down to Las Ramblas and thence down to the marina. Which was on the whole underwhelming. It’s a nice enough boulevard, but purely lined with all the “hey, this is where the tourists come” shops. It’s there, we’ve done it, but a definite “meh”. On the other hand, the adjacent Barri Gòtic was great. It’s the oldest part of town, a medieval maze of tiny streets and alleys, with the cathedral and several churches tucked in, punctuated by gorgeous Plaça. We started from the port end, and everything was closed up – it appears to be wall-to-wall clubs and bars that only open at night. A little further on from there we passed into the hipster zone, and then further into a patch of nice boutiques and small galleries.

Near the cathedral was an art market, and in one of the loveliest squares – Plaça de Sant Felip Neri – was Museu Del Calçat. Which is the guild hall and museum for the shoemakers guild, apparently being on this site since the Middle Ages, and manned by an attendant from the Confraria de Sant Marc Evangelista who had also been there since 1202. For €5 it’s a great little museum.

Lunch was tapas, of course, at La Alcoba Azul, tucked away near Plaça Sant Jaume. Awesome food, cool and dark, with a great relaxing (and hippy) vibe.

Some things we noticed today:

1) There are a lot of dogs about (although not in the bars and shops like in London), of a startling variety of breeds and sizes. We’ve seen three cats. One fat and possibly feral strolling the boulevard. One going for a walk on a leash in Barri Gòtic. And one peering down from a third floor window box.

2) there is some sort of election or referendum campaign in progress, with some theme around Catalonian independence, and there are Catalan flags everywhere. I would not be surprised if the province split from Spain qua Spain.

3) we bought a Spanish phrase book, and some language guides. Which turn out to be distinctly Castillian. Which is slightly problematic as the region is Bilingual, with Catalan quite different to Castillian, and the Castillian spoken here with a different accent.

4) there are a lot of vacant offices and shop fronts, a stark indication of how deep in the poo the economy is here

5) while the roads a busy, and full of taxis, there are a lot of mopeds, scooters and small motor bikes around. There are also a lot of cyclists, but I suspect that’s because we are in the tourist area more or less – I must have seen a dozen different bike hire places in the small area we traversed, including some nifty electric bikes. Fortunately not the Segways we saw American tourists getting around on though.

Right now we shall have a late Siesta, then head out in search of more food. Touch wood better than what we found last night, chosen randomly and found to be pretty ordinary. I doubt I will be disappointed. Tomorrow, probably the Picasso museum.

We are off again! I could grow to like this traveling stuff. But airport food…