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Showing posts from June, 2009

Library Cantina

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I know he already talked about it last year, but this is the library where Rob researches his favorite topics on german-speaking culture: obscure women writers and composers, Red Vienna and the civilizing of the urban poor, and perceptions of America in the 1920's. I think I'd be able to study even the most boring or disgusting topics in a library with rolling staircases -- the climbing of ladders to retrieve books is just so civilized! Here is the outside of the library -- it's a wing of the Hofburg (the Emperor's in-town palace) overlooking Heldenplatz, which is a very historyful piece of dirt. It has statues of Prince Eugene who lived in the Belvedere palace, and Archduke Charles, the guy who took Barcelona because they're military heroes who fought for Vienna and the empire. It is most well-known for Hitler's speech here just before Austria was annexed to Germany. This is more context than you need, because in the basement of said library is a cantina wher

Barcelona, the Last Word

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[click to enlarge] A couple of last things about our visit to Barcelona. First, our apartment: It was a sort of U-shaped apartment with a bedroom at each end and two in the hallways in a building from the 18th or 19th century. We noticed that our streets were as narrow as anything in the Gothic district, but we still had cars and butano trucks going up and down them. We loved our wee balconies -- no one more than Joss, who played as much as we'd let him in the potting soil of the flower pots. I don't think we had a minute of direct sunlight anywhere in the apartment, and I think most of the apartments in our neighborhood were the same. It was sort of seedy; had a New Orleans dilapidated vibe. And it was typical of most vacation apartment rentals in that it had castoff furniture and a poorly-stocked kitchen made mainly for weekends of drinking. Twelve hours after our arrival the kids were drinking their breakfast juice out of shot glasses. But it had a washing machine and a d

Miramar on Montjuic

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Rob expressed a wish to ride in the cable cars from the beach to Montjuic. I was surprised, because frankly, that has never registered on my radar before, and this was coming from Mr. Why-should-we-go-to-Disneyland-I-want-to-go-to-the-Getty-instead. But whatever. We decided to try to leave from Montjuic because it would be less crowded there; then we had to find a way up that would work for the stroller. We ended up walking all the way up in the heat. The poor kids were so tired already. Sebi in particular would give me periodic updates on how much walking power he had left. He'd start the day with arms wide open, but by the time we were hoofing it up Montjuic, he was perilously close to the end of his power. We made it to the station only to find that they had just closed down because of strong winds. We were sad. (Sebi is better than just about anyone at that Charlie Brown-style dejection; so much so that we often start singing the theme music when he does this) We decided to d

Parc Guell

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[warning: another post with a whole slew of collages. only parents/grandparents are obligated to click on them] After the Ramblas we caught the metro to go to Parc Guell. I'd been here two or three times on my mission and I loved it. But we got off the metro and I didn't recognize anything. We came to a set of a dozen escalators and I was certain I'd never been there. It was quite a hill and we were deeply grateful for the escalators -- about like climbing up to Coit Tower only somewhat longer, I think (maybe my perception was skewed by the stroller). It turned out well because we came in at the top of the park and had an amazing view of the entire city. We were able to point out several places we'd already visited (the beach, cathedral, sagrada familia, etc.) and the three towers of Badalona where I served. Badalona had very similar hills, only without the escalators, and instead of a great park at the top, we had only our ramshackle cinderblock hut at the end of an a

The Ramblas

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On Wednesday morning, I made the family walk through the Ramblas one more time. It was a little quieter, being a holiday and a weekday morning, but there were still plenty of people. I was so sad that the Boqueria was closed, because Rob would have loved it. I remembered taking my parents there and watching a lobster try to climb off the ice at my father. Instead Rob looked at the interesting seed packets at the flower stalls. We were up much too far, but we were very fortunate and there was one stall selling small animals (most of them are closer to the beach) that the kids had a good time looking at. In addition to the usual birds, gerbils and hamsters, these people sold guinea pigs, bunnies, turtles as big as your thumb, and even chipmunks! I was glad we came again because I just hadn't had quite enough Ramblas.

Ciutadella

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[ click to enlarge ] Maddie and I took an hour to run over to the Ciutadella park and look around. I learned a lot of history. Namely, in the War of Spanish Succession, Barcelona fell to the Archduke Charles of Austria in 1705; then they supported him. Felipe V's forces were finally able to win the city back after a long siege which ended in 1714. In order to keep the Barcelonese in line, Felipe V built a large Citadel here. It was never used to keep soldiers and arms, but became a notorious prison during the Napoleonic occupation. The citadel was torn down in the 19th century and was given to the city as a park. Now it houses the parliament, the zoo, some museums, and has fountains and a boating lake. It is big and it feels like the Golden Gate Park only with palm trees and good weather. In the collage you can see the men playing boulles , the fountain which a young Gaudi helped to design, Maddie in front of the Three Dragons natural history museum, and Maddie having a granizado

Spaineyland

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[click collage to enlarge] These are at the Placa Espanya looking up the Palau National and back down to the twin towers at the plaza. And here are a couple of shots of people lighting off firecrackers. Rob said that while at the Mies van der Rohe pavilion one went into the bushes and all the guards ran over to make certain the whole place didn't go up in flames. Later when we were out in the Gothic Quarter, I watched a grandpa or yayo light a firecracker with his grandson that must have been loud enough to burst their eardrums. In Catalunya the grandparents are yayo and yaya which I think are the most delightful names ever; to see a toddler lift up his arms and squeal "Yaya!" is a heartmelter. I tried to get Madeline to call my parents yaya and yayo when she was little, but it didn't stick. Rob wants to be called Big Daddy by his grandchildren the way that African Americans do. There is no way my grandkids will call me Big Mama. I don't want them calling me

Mies van der Rohe Pavilion

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Rob ran out to the Placa Espanya to see the German Pavilion designed by Mies van der Rohe. It was meant to be temporary for the 1929 Exposition and you can imagine how groundbreaking it was then. They had begun to dismantle it afterward when two architects began to collect donations to keep it in Barcelona. So of course Germany+Modernism+Architecture = Rob and he had to visit it while in town. Most amazingly, he managed to get several pictures making the place look empty instead of full of tourists and students all making drawings of the place.

Born With Two Boys

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(click collage to enlarge) Rob and I took Will and Sebastian to explore the neighborhood just under ours, called Born. This is where the Picasso and other museums are, and a bunch of boutiques and hip restaurants have sprung up around them. We visited the church of Maria del Mar and lit candles there (a longtime tradition for the kids), bought drinks, wandered the streets and took pictures. The t-shirt above shows a three-headed catalan dragon because this year the soccer team, FC Barca won three championships: the Real, the league and the World Cup. It was made all the sweeter for the fans here because Madrid won nothing. Rob wanted me to buy him some chocolate from a fancy schmancy shop, and when I went inside, the shopkeeper and I looked out the window to see one of our boys beating up on the other, who was wailing in his turn as they are wont to do. The shopkeeper gave Sebi a shi-shi lollipop, and his assistant gave another to Will, which was so kind of them. So having explored an

Palau de la Musica Catalana

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Next Rob and I took a tour of the Palau. I'd seen pictures of it from my mission, but I had no idea where it was. It was down the street from us, and we could see a sliver of it from our window! It was built for an amateur choir, not unlike the MSingers, and I kept thinking what it would be like to have one's own hall like this. The tour was good for the footweary, with lots of sitting down in nice chairs. The building was absolutely stunning. The only mar on it for me was that you are not permitted to take photos of it inside. Forgive me, but that seems so passe in a day and age of camera phones, great photos without flash, and most especially the internet. So this is cobbled together of photos we could take outside, and bootlegged images from the website. If you have a moment, you should see the virtual tour there, which shows more of the incredible details in the hall. On the way home, Rob stopped in and bought a Coca de San Juan, or a cake for St. John's day, which is

Passeig de Gracia

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We stopped next door and had a break to reload on carbs. The Casa Amatller is under scaffolding right now, which is a shame, because it's amazing in its own decorative way. Then I sent Rob off to keep exploring the Eixample district, because I knew he'd want to see it, and I could tell after walking just around the corner to see the 'wig' on the Tapies house that the kids did not. I took the kids home and they were wonderful, so we stopped at a candy store. I had always thought that being "like a kid in a candy store" was describing excitement, but my kids seemed to experience paralyzing indecision. They finally chose something and we made it home. In the meantime Rob made it to another Gaudi building: Casa Mila. It's also known as La Pedrera (the Stone Quarry). It provoked strong sentiment when it was built. Then he visited the market in the Eixample district and made it back just before the two of us had to leave for our next tour.

Casa Batllo

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[warning: there are tons and tons of pictures for this post. you're not obligated to click on any of the collages unless you're a parent/grandparent] Tuesday morning we got out bright and early to see Casa Batllo, my number one priority. This is a house that Gaudi remodeled for some textile barons about the same time that my parents' house was built. The interior wasn't open to the public when I was on my mission, though we managed to see the stairwell once. I love this house more than any other Gaudi, and I have a picture of it hanging in our hall at home. The patron saint of Catalunya is St. Jordi (St. George) and he slays a dragon. So if you look up on the right, the roofline is supposed to look like a dragon, with scales for tiles. The tower is the hilt of Jordi's sword. The balconies are like skulls of the dragon's victims. It's also been called the "house of bones" because of the skulls and the pillars in front. Or, it can also all be seen

Barceloneta

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Our children only agreed to visit the Sagrada Familia on condition that we took them to the beach afterward. Accordingly, they had worn bathing suits under their clothes, and we schlepped out to the beach next to the Vila Olympica and Frank Gehry's giant fish sculpture. This was not a beach until the olympics in 1992, when they razed the area and imported tons and tons of sand. Even now, in certain storms, much of it washes away and has to be replaced, but it is still seen as a success and it is certainly used and appreciated by locals and tourists alike. The kids had a ball. They are all three such fish that I didn't worry too much about them swimming even in the sea. Joss took as much as he could, and when the wind kicked up around six, he fell asleep for an hour or so. We rode the U-bahn home, had dinner and washed the sand off in the tub, and went to bed.

Sagrada Familia

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We deemed the kids ready to go after we returned and fed them all lunch. I'd wanted to see Casa Batllo first, but Rob insisted that we see the Sagrada Familia, ticking off the most important sites first. He was right. Five minutes after we walked in, I was going to check the stroller, and ran into Jeff and Susan from Provo, who had just finished up the Madrid program and were visiting friends. Incredible! It was so good to see them and they look wonderful, though they said it had been tough traveling every weekend (the Spain program is really good about taking their students everywhere in the country -- we do one big schlepp near the end, and we don't cover nearly everything). We wandered around with them, being amazed at the changes they've made since we'd last seen it (I was there in 1994 and Jeff had been in 1999). I remembered it as mostly roofless, and the construction was more theoretical than actual. This time they've made big strides (see the roof and stai

Monday Morning in San Pere

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Monday morning all of our children were begging for mercy. We put Joss down for a nap and plugged the other three into the laptop and two video iPods (thank you, apple, for providing entertainment on this trip), and went on an Expotition around the neighborhood. It turns out that we were staying in San Pere mes Baix, which is catalan for Lower St. Peter street. There is also an upper- middle- plaza and church of the same name. It was a fantastic location -- a geographical wonder -- a ten minute walk from the Gothic quarter, the Ramblas, Plaza Catalunya, Passeig de Gracia, the Ciutadella, and Born district. It wasn't hip like Born, with boutiques and museums, and it wasn't as touristy as the Gothic Quarter, it was more authentic, with working class types and a lot of small stores. We went to the market and bought fuet (small salamis) and jamon serrano and fruit and bread and lots of fun stuff. We wandered the neighborhood and visited the church. We meandered over to the Arc d