Barcelona during the Catalan protests

We have been in Barcelona for several days now, since November 6.  What a lovely city!  I've taken lots of photos, but the wifi in this AirBnb (along with a few other things) is not good.  It's only a place to sleep, after all. So, I will have to upload photos when we get to our Other AirBnb reservation on Nov. 11.

Our AirBnb flat is only a couple streets away from La Rambla, the huge pedestrian centered street with shopping and kiosks that starts at Plaza de la Catalunya and goes all the way down to the sea and the beautiful port.  We have spent a great deal of time walking the Rambla in between our sightseeing.  (In fact, I did a little bit of shopping off the Rambla at the only full department store that I have seen in all of Spain, and we have been to quite a few cities in Spain now.  It is called El Corte Ingles and it is not just one store in a large city like Madrid or Barcelona.  There are specialty El Corte Ingles stores: sports, furniture and appliances, clothing/shoes/cosmetics, etc.  For your information, I am now decked out like every Spanish or French woman and girl (tall, short, old, young, large, small).  I now have 3 pairs of skinny jeggings and they are So comfortable!  I had to get advice from my far away daughter on the subject.  She says they are like wearing your pajamas out in public, very comfortable.  I was very surprised to discover that is true and that the store had my size. Photo to come.)

So, back to the sightseeing.  When we arrive in a new city in Europe, we have developed a routine.  We start by taking the Hop On Hop Off City Tour (HOHO, the double-decker Red bus - accept no substitutes!).  This has been a great time saver because we can get an overview of the things to see and decide where we want to go and explore more.  We have used this method in: London, Madrid, Cadiz, and Barcelona.  Unfortunately, the smaller cities often do not have these tours.  Avignon and Arles did not, probably because both cities are so much smaller and walkable, and there were fewer sites of interest to tourists.

The Barcelona HOHO tour has two routes.  We started, on November 7, with the Orange route first, this was mostly the modern city of Barcelona.  As we passed one of the many parks that ended in a huge plaza, we noticed a march proceeding up the wide central walkway.  Then, we realized that everyone in the march was wearing 19th century dress, including a group of military men with horses.  I'm still not sure what that was.

We were impressed with the seaport, its docked cruise liners and huge number of pleasure boats of every kind.  Montjoic, a fortified mountain that was named after the Jews who occupied it hundreds of years ago, overlooks Barcelona and is the site of some former Olympic events - swimming and track, I believe.  It also has a few museums and an escalator (!) down to Plaza de Espanya where the Magical Fountain resides.  We started with the National Art Museum of Catalunya, a very beautiful converted palace.  The tour also took us to the Avenue Diagonal to see several examples of Antoni Gaudi's architectural work.  These are the buildings, mostly residential, that have the natural shaping and fantasy decoration that you just have to see to believe.

The next day, there was to be a general strike due to the unrest in Catalonia.  The protests have been very peaceful so far and the Spanish government has called elections for December 21 to allow the citizens to elect a new government (after Spain deposed the original government for declaring independence).  Many of the Catalonia people are showing their displeasure by striking and protesting; democracy at its messiest.  November 8 was to be a union transportation strike and coordinated demonstration.  Fortunately for us, the HOHO buses were still running and we were able to use our 2-day pass.  The Green route was the one I especially wanted to see.

We took the Green tour the night before in case the strike made it impossible for us to do the next day.  You can't really see much in the dark, though.  My two favourites on the route were: Sagrada Familia, the cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi that is still under construction, and Park Guell, the residential community that Gaudi designed.

When we arrived at Sagrada Familia in the daylight, though, we discovered that the stop right in front of the cathedral was not in use that day due to the demonstrations.  We literally had to get off at the next stop and take a 10 minute walk/run back to the cathedral in order to get there in time for the tickets that we purchased online.  Unfortunately, the demonstrators (mostly students by my observation) had blocked every public entrance to the cathedral and no one was able to enter.  Protesters were seated in front of each entrance at least 5 deep and a few police were milling around.

We grabbed some lunch across the street (yes, Subway in Barcelona; don't judge), waited, and got some great photos of the outside of the building with the protesters.  Eventually, we watched many of the protesters gather and march away with banners, leaving many still blocking the cathedral entrances.  The protesters were doing exactly what they should in order to get the necessary attention.  Sagrada Familia is an icon of Catalonian culture.  They had every right to deny entry to that icon in order to publicize their democratic protest.  But, now we have 30E worth of tickets that we could not use.  So, today we will be going back to Sagrada Familia to see if we can wangle our way inside with said tickets.

After that debacle, we headed to Park Guell on the HOHO bus.  It was a long uphill walk/climb to the Park, but well worth the energy.  Park Guell was designed by Gaudi, but was never completed.  Apparently the economy of the day and lack of interest from buyers left it less than a quarter finished, but there are still 4 residences and some glorious parks and walkways.  These houses are uniquely Gaudi and a delight to see and enter.  Of course, only three buildings remain for the public to enter as part of the Park.  Two are at the entrance to the Park; these are rather small buildings, one is a bookstore and the other can be toured.  The other two buildings are outside the "Monumental area" that the ticket covers.  These are Gaudi's residence, which is now the Gaudi Museum, and a building that was initially on the land purchased for Park Guell, which Gaudi remodelled slightly to give it matching touches.  This last building is used as a school now and is off limits for touring, but it too is unique.  What lucky students to be able to go to school in that building and play on that playground!

All in all, Steve and I set a new travel record on November 8th.  We walked almost 9 miles (19, 045 steps) and climbed the equivalent of 22 floors, according to my iPhone health app.  We were totally wiped out and crashed early that night.

Yesterday, of necessity, was a day of rest.  We wandered and shopped a little and, eventually, took a taxi to the Picasso Museum.  It was remarkable, even for me who is burned out on art museums.  I love Picasso's challenge and humour.  My particular favourite is La Meninas.  He copied Velasquez' La Meninas that we saw at the Prado in Madrid, but as Picasso said "in my own way".  His way is delightfully true to the original and yet very Addams Family and humorous, in my estimation.  You have to see it to get the joke.  You can see, from the walk through his periods, that Picasso was a very skilled and talented artist.  He could paint and draw beautifully in any style he chose.  He chose, eventually, to take his art to very basic distortion of the subjects.  To me, it seemed as if Picasso was trying to make us look at things differently and at least try to see the humour in life and art.

Today, the inside of Sagrada Familia and tomorrow we leave for another 3 days in Barcelona, hopefully in a better accommodation than we have had for the last 4 days.  We need a place to relax and enjoy the view.  So, we are paying a little more for 3 days of relative "luxury".  At least, I hope it will be luxury.  At this point,  it shouldn't be hard to improve on what we have.  An upper story apartment with decent wifi,  a shower that doesn't require mopping the floor afterward, and an elevator would be a very good start.  Anything else will be gravy.

Where we go after Barcelona we don't know right now.  During these next couple days a decision will need to be made.  I, personally, am for tropical weather right now.  Fall in this part of Europe is getting a little too cold for me, as is Tacoma, friends.  For the moment, my vote is for Malta.  Yes, the home of the Knights of Malta and thousands of years of European habitation and history, with Mediterranean beaches, sun (between lightening storms), much warmer temps, and relaxation.

Photos to follow.

The Mistral of Provence

Walking to the Arles train station along the Rhone river walkway this morning, wearing my backpack and dragging my suitcase behind me, I battled 50-60 mph winds and gusts. I was bundled up in my sweater jacket, hooded windbreaker and baseball hat (under the hood). Yet, I felt like I could lean into that headwind and just hang suspended there.  All I could do was literally put "one foot in front of the other" and watch Steve's back waaay, way ahead of me to make sure I was still following him. And, while I walked, I comtemplated the wind - the Mistral, as the locals call it.

Now, I remember:

1. All the ancient fairytales that I read as a child.  The cruel, cold North wind, the competition between the East and the West winds. Wind is a protagonist in some of these tales and now I know why.  This wind is all consuming, an obstacle when leaving your doorway and a threat inside your house. This wind is something to fear.
2. Movies, like Chocolat and A Year in Provence, point out that the Provencal winds start in the Fall and blow for months. As I walked, I envisioned myself as Vianne, walking uphill with her daughter, their red-hooded cloaks flapping wildly in the extreme wind. The Mistral can make people crazy - it is howling day and night, buffeting you like a doll, banging shutters, day after day after day. It's like Chinese water torture, I imagine, to live each day in these Autumn winds.
3. Van Gogh's painting Starry Night - I read recently that an astrophysicist theorized that Van Gogh had an understanding of the currents of light rays long before science discovered them and the scientist used Starry Night as his evidence. However, after experiencing Provence in November, I'm sure Van Gogh was painting the Mistral winds that howl and swirl in Avignon and Arles, where he could have been painting on a clear Fall or Winter night in the heart of Provence.

Fortunately, we made it to the train station in time for our - Bus.  It was a long trip - Bus to Tarragona, French train to Nimes, Spanish train from Nimes to Barcelona, subway train from the Station to the Raval neighbourhood near the Plaza de Catalunya and the Ramblas, then walking to the Plaza de Raval to meet our next host.  Five long hours; but, it was worth it and, best of all, there is NO WIND!  We are in beautiful Barcelona, it's at least 4 degrees F warmer, and we have already eaten our dinner from a restaurant stall at the huge local marketplace - delicious broiled chicken breast and very tasty seasoned potatoes and peppers.  The market seems to be bordered on both sides with large Roman-style columns.  We'll get a closer look at them tomorrow to see if they really are Roman.

Arles - Romans in Provence

We arrived in Arles, France on October 31, Halloween.  The sun was shining on the Rhone as we walked from the train station to our AirBnb apartment.  

Here is what awaited us.  If you look closely, you'll see my boots in the lower left hand corner of this photo.  These are the cut-stone stairs to our second floor apartment (there's ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor, in France).  We carried our luggage up these steps and back down when we left 2 days later. (Fortunately, the first story had a handrail.  But, I felt a little awkward with no handrail.)

This was our neighbourhood. Arles is not a very large city.  After dark, we noticed that there were lots of Halloween decorations and even a few kids in costume trick-or-treating in the streets, going from shop to shop.  Most people live in apartments, so I imagine that shop-to-shop is the traditional thing here.  It turns out that what they celebrate here is Tousaint (which I think started as Toute Saints), All Saints Day on November 1.

I only photograph the backs of children.  It just seems rude and creepy to show their faces, but some of those costumes were really cute.  One older girl even tried to scare us (with a smile on her face).  It was fun.

Although that first apartment was very nice and modern, we moved to another apartment (on the ground floor, thank you very much) after a couple days.  That is the way we planned it from the beginning because the second one wasn't available until then and, now, we have been here for 4 days.

What we discovered over these 6 days is that Arles is an extremely old site.  There are buildings and ruins that date back to the Roman Empire, over 2000 years old.  (Note: We went to the local tourist information office and bought a pass that gets us into all the ancient sites to walk around and into 3 of the 4 available museums.  It is common, I think for these passes to be available; we had a similar pass in Madrid for their 3 big art museums.  This time, we got a discount on the pass by showing our local housing reservation and a discount at the museum that was not included, the Van Gogh Foundation, because we had the pass. Win-win!)

The Roman Arena in Arles seated about 20,000 people.  It is estimated that the arena was as tall at that tower.  Roman society was separated from each other in the seating; you were seated by status.  The usual entertainments were races, hunts for wild animals, gladiator competitions, etc.  

Now, we have to see the Roman arena in Orange, France.  It is considered the best example in the world of a Roman coliseum.

One of the views from the top of the Arena tower. (Yes, I climbed it and I'm proud.)

I prefer the Roman theatre in Arles.  I think it would have been more interesting entertainment.  This one only seated about 15,000 people, though.  I wonder where all those people came from?  I thought it was a fairly small town.

Saint Trophime's Church

Entrance to St. Trophime's Church

Saint Trophime's cloisters

The Place de la République - St. Trophime's cloister and church on the right, Hotel de Ville (City Hall) in the centre behind the obelisk fountain, and Chapelle Saint Anne on the left.  

Obelisque fountain in Place de la République

I don't know what this place is, but it has a great, very old door.

The Baths of Constantine - we had a pass for this but could never find the entrance.  In fact, it took us two days, off and on, to actually find it.  There is no signage.

We were unable (or unwilling) to see the Alscamps (Roman and medieval graveyard) and the Cryptoportico (the underground corridors that formed the foundation for the 1st century BC Roman forum complex that is now gone).  All that remains of the Forum is one column and a section of wall that was incorporated into a building in the Place du Forum.

And then, there are the Mediatheque (Library) and the Libraries (bookstores), which as my friend Mary pointed out, I can not ignore.

Note the very old wall incorporated into a very modern library.

This, on the other hand, is a librarie (a bookstore).

And, this librarie.

Last, there are the museums: Musee Reattu, Musee de la Camargue, Museun (sic) Arlaten, Musee departmental Arles Antique, and the Foundation Van Gogh.  We were not able to go to the Carmargue because it was way outside of town in a nature reserve or the Arlaten because it is under construction until 2019 (convenient excuse :).

The Musee Reattu primarily houses the work of Jacques Reattu, a neo-classical painter.  The Picasso drawings that we were looking forward to apparently are no longer there.  However, the thing that most interested me was that this building was the site of the Grand Priory of the Knights of Malta.  (Yes, I still have my romantic images of the Templars and the Knights of Malta, Ivanhoe and the romantic crusades; tempered with the reality of what a savage, corrupt and elitist era that was.)

This was a rather Picasso-esque sculpture.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

Fireplace in the Grand Priory, heck with the art

View of the Rhone from the building. (Can you tell I'm a little burned out on art?"

The security guard pointed out that ladies of this period were sewn into their dresses.  There are no closures.

The Foundation Van Gogh museum was not as impressive to me.  It had a lot of contemporary art mixed with old black and white prints of peasants in the fields and a huge collection of photographs.

This is the one Van Gogh in the museum.  The rest apparently are in Amsterdam.  It's photographed at an angle because of the glare off the piece.

I liked this Japanese print, but know nothing about it. :(

Beautiful old room with a fully erected double tent inside.  There is no entrance to the tent and it is patched together with black duct tape.  Curious, and reminds me of my daughter's tent installation at one of her art exhibitions.  However, hers was much more beautiful and you could crawl inside and play SuperMario sitting on pillows.

Such a beautiful photograph of a bouquet of irises

This was painted directly on the wall, as were at least 6 others.  This was my favourite. (Yes, my autocorrect is British.  What can I do?"

Here I am on the very interesting roof of the Van Gogh.

The rooftops of Arles from the Van Gogh

Finally, my favourite museum, Musee departmental Arles Antique.  I cannot pass up a museum of antiquities or archaeology and this is a really good one, if rather small.  The building is new and there is a lot of room for more exhibits.  Currently, the museum is literally centered around a Roman barge that was discovered in 2013 in the Rhone River.

The head of Mithra

From Constantine's Baths

This was probably a funerary piece.  There are many coffins, sarcophagi, and headstones here.

The Romans had some rather beautiful jewellery.  In Cadiz, there were even more beautiful pieces excavated from the much older sites - Roman and Phoenician jewellery.

Okay, now I know where I got these feet - wherever this guy got his.

This is what the Roman plumbing looked like - rather ingenious.

Gaius Cesar, may I say, was a bit of a hottie, as opposed to these guys. (Pardon my superficiality.)

Hadrian

Tiberius

Lucius Cesar

The huge barge that was excavated from the bottom of the Rhone 4 years ago.  It was apparently carrying rocks .

These are amphori that were used as shipping containers.  The shape of each amphora told you what was inside - fish, wine, etc. - no label needed.

There were many of these mosaic jigsaw puzzles.

So, tomorrow, we hop on the train to Barcelona.  Things seem to have settle down there, so we pored over the AirBnb listings and chose an apartment to stay in for 5 nights.  I'm SO excited.  We thought we might not be able to go there at all and it is one of our dream destinations.  Besides, it's getting pretty darn cold here in France and Steve and I are both sensitive to cold now.  Heading South!