26 April: Carcassonne, France
Drove to Carcassone and tried to get a hotel. Everything was pretty much booked so we ended up at a Premiere Classe (the step up from the Nuit d'Hotel). Then we drove into Carcassone itself. A fully restored medieval city. It looks like something out of Camelot with lots of turrets and two levels of walls. The inside is touristy to the hilt, but still beautiful. Made a few interesting phone calls and then my contact started to act up.
So we drove to a point to take a picture of the old town and while there two guys came up to the car and started hassling me. Turns out they wanted to know how much the car cost and to complement me on it, but my lack of French and Stacey's unfamiliarity with that kind of thing (which has happened about 7 times on the trip) made her a little scared. Since they seemed to linger too long I didn't want to spend too much time away from the car. And my nose was running, so we hurried back to the car and drove to the hotel and crashed.
27 April: Perpignan, France
Drove from Carcassone to Perpignan. First to Narbonne then along the coast. This part of the coast seems to be a gigantic sandbar for the harbor at Sete. At one point along the drive we got out and walked along the beach for an hour or so. Relatively deserted but beautiful. 30km of free unspoilt beach. No tacky stands selling overpriced food. No hotels. Just beach.
Then off again to the Castles of the Cathars. I can't say much more than these are the most dramatically situated castles possible. They are about 1500+ high on top of rock spurs. The first was the Castle Queribus. Famous as the last Cathar castle to fall, it was erected by Aragon to defend its border with France. When the border was moved to the High Pyrennees in 1659, all these castles became useless. Now there all parks with ridiculous climbs.
The climb to Queribus was a normal climb, followed by some stairs. This was a terraced castle with a three story Donjon at the top. Very cool with amazing views of the Pyrennees and the Roussilon valleys. I couldn't imagine this being topped, however Rick Steves book said that Castle Peyrepteruse was more impressive. And he was right. But mostly because this was even harder to get to, and included two keeps. Two of these castles on one spur, each quite impressive with great views. While the keep of Queribus was better, Peyrepteruse is very much worth the effort. And the climb to it was increadible, starting with overgrown jungle to windblown rocky steppe, to what seems like permafrost.
After all this castle hiking we were done. We made it to Perpignan and got a room as soon as possible at another Premiere Classe. Tomorrow, the laundry
28 April: Perpignan, France
Got a room for another night because we had to do laundry here and wanted to repack the car to optimize the space. On the next roundabout toward the city from our Hotel is the gigantic Auchen supermarket. It's a Super Wal-Mart inside a store. Here's where we stopped at a "5 a sec" to launder our clothes. 150F for both of our clothes and I got to show off my Spanish. It's kind of amazing how much of it is coming back. I understood everything she said. Cool. Then off to a beach. Near here is a large lake with a beach surrounded by the Pyrrennes.
Only problem with this beach is that no one pays attention to the signs that ban dogs. Two dogs started fighting within 3 feet of me whilst we were getting some food (after I got a little upset at the number of ants around). This made me really jumpy and quite agitated. For those of you who don't know, I'm very scared of dogs. Stacey was at the car getting something. Then after eating, I went to the car whilst Stacey finished her food. As I got in the car a dog left the car next to mine and started licking my bare shin. I was totally freaked at this point and just sat in the car with the air conditioning on whilst my phobia got in check. I hate irrational fear.
Then back to the supermarket to get some more despendible clothes and random supplies (like a beach towel). Figuring out European sizes was fun-filled! Then back to the hotel to repack everything. It's quite tiring work and with the cold starting to leave me I was totally beat.
29 April: Barcelona, España (Catalunya)
Packed the car and called 7 hotels before we got one in Barcelona. Turns out there's some Catalunyan fair which sucks up hotel rooms like a trade fair. Oh well. $180 for a 4 star business hotel with a great location. After 2.5 weeks of $30/night hotels for two people it's high time to splurge.
Joy of joys, it looks like Stacey caught my cold. Oh well. Time has to march on and so do we. We take the scenic N-114 drive to Spain along the coast. Very cool, but no comparison to N-98. We stopped a few times to get some cool views of cliffs. This road is very windy and changes altitude often. Hit spain after about 40 minutes. It had the first manned border control I'd seen on the trip. It was a wave through and we headed through Spain. BTW, Andorra might be a stop on the way back but I didn't feel the need to aimlessly increase my country count.
¡Forgot this cool part! On the way into spain the CD changer switched over to playing a Classical Guitar by Andres Segovia just as the sign for "España" appeared on the horizon. It was the second time of most fortuitous timing of music (the other being the Airbag/Radiohead episode early in the trip)
The road in Spain was distinctly worse. Often there were patches that turned into dirt. And it wasn't wide enough for me to be super comfortable. But it was pleasant nonetheless. We drove to Figures for the Dalí museum. When we got there the place there was a festival going on, of the Large Figures. All over the main square were people on stilts with large characters. Dali, Ferdinand and Isabella, a clown, a big pig, a dragon. We parked safely underground and headed towards the museum.
Spain is decidedly different. As soon as we crossed the border things were different. A little more dusty and a little less clean. However things got a lot more surreal. The Dali Museum was designed by the man himself and defies description. This was the main sight in Spain listed in the Wierd Europe book. I really don't know where to begin.
So I'll start with the fact that he really loves his wife. Realist painting of her naked, surrealist paintings of her naked, paintings of her balancing chops on her shoulders, paintings of him painting her in a mirror. Add to that the Gonzo Christmas cards, a centerpiece with a 57 Studebaker filled with manequins and topped with a boat and for 100 pts. you can get a rain shower to start inside the car. Or the room with a gigantic pair of lips with a large line waiting to see a perpective shifting mirror that causes it to look like a Dalí painting of Mae West. Or the millions of stereograms that litter the place. The entryway that's made up to look like a mouth (with seashells for front-teeth). Or the room devoted to an artist who paints rocks (and occasionally some water). You have to really see it to even approach how completely nuts it is. If you come anywhere close to Barcelona or southern France, this is a must see.
Then off to Barcelona. After some nifty driving, we navagated right to the hotel but were in the wrong right lane (we were in the express lane on Passeig de Gracia). Made it to the hotel and checked in. Stacey's cold hit her all at once and she stayed in the hotel whilst I updated the last three weeks of the website.
30 April: Barcelona, España (Catalunya)
Today was a rather unpleasant day weatherwise. Everytime we tried to leave the hotel, it was raining. Stacey felt like splurging, so we took advantage of each of those four stars and got room service and opened up the mini-bar. This may be one of the most expensive hotels around, but for two nights with all the works, it was $520. They gave you robes, all sorts of toiletries, three english language channels on the TV, interesting parking garage, and a staff that was far too eager to help.
We walked around the Plaça de Catalunya for a bit and headed on the Ramblas until the rain became too much. We headed back to the hotel. We got on the metro, and evidently this was the kamikaze train. Stacey got through the doors and I was right behind but the doors closed right behind. I got my hand into the door but there was no joy. I slowly waved a "Charlie Brown" goodbye as she (in the train) left me behind. Many of the people around me started laughing and I just sat forlorn. The next train arrived in about a minute and we met up two stops ahead. Turns out at that stop, two guys also got stranded by the same train leaving their girlfriends' behind. So finally back to the hotel, we convalesced a little more. A four star hotel was very much in order after all the sniffling and sneezing.
1 Mayo: Barcelona, España (Catalunya)
Switched hotels down to three stars and half the price. Getting out of the garage and into another was complicated by a Mayday parade near the main square. After a little jockeying and a few wrong turns, we found a parking garage and checked into the hotel.
Then we headed out on the Ramblas. This is the coolest boulevard I've been on. At the top there are a bunch of human statues: a roman soldier, a royal couple, and a monk with a broom who randomly swats the behinds of passers-by. Moving on, there was a gigantic outdoor petstore with all varieties of birds, including peacocks and roosters. A couple pigeons were pertched on the birdcage to mock their imprisoned compatriots. [or perhaps they were showing solidarity for their flightless brethren. --sg] A guy trying to sell the ubiquitous dancing cartoon characters, but this was Homer and Bart Simpson and the music was very cool. Avoiding for now the Museum of Erotica, we saw some guys were trying to sell handpuppet ducks with tongue and sound effects. Further on were some cool squares with Gaudí lampposts with helmets and some funky goings on. We stopped into the other easyEverything to update the website and check some email.
Then we headed toward to the Plaça Reial. Cute little square with lots of bars (including the infamous Cruzcampo that I remembered from my brother's travels to Spain about 12 years ago). Then past the end to the large Christopher Columbus monument. It's about 50m tall and has Columbus looking over the harbor pointing toward the sea. You can take an elevator up to the top but we were looking to take the harbor cable car (which turns out was closed). We followed the Ramblas del Mar, which is this really cool bridge over to the Maremagnum. It was described as souless in the Rick Steves' book, but I thought it was cuter than that. Stacey describes it as sterile and modern, but not really American, and symbolic that it's separated from the rest of the city by water. I'd have to agree.
We got some food there at a restaurant called "Mandongo" specializing in Asian-Catalán fusion cuisine. Funny thing is that the chef is advertised as being from San Francisco. I started off with this great Three Rice Custard and Stacey had the Mandongo Salad, which was an awesome fruit/lettuce-based salad with a creamy sauce. Then we split the paella which was great, but far too much food. We waddled back to the hotel and got an extra night. Soon after we zonked.
2 May: Barcelona, España (Catalunya)
Did I mention that I love this town? This is the first town where I feel quite at ease with everything [and he's so cute when he gets giddy after successfully navigating a transaction en español --sg]. My spanish is coming back quite nicely and I even got the room in Madrid for tomorrow in a solely spanish transaction (except for a little bit about faxing which made no sense in English, let alone spanish...)
The morning didn't go smoothly as I was out of sorts. After 25 straight days together, anyone would get a little nervy. But since I tend to be grandiose about things, I would describe myself as one giant neuron. But after a little talking and (my evidently newfound ability to) compromise, things got back on track [and my words on it: considering that, even with our varied pasts, neither one of us has *ever* spent this much time (600 straight hours, give or take) within a ten foot radius of another human, i think we are doing amazingly well. and i'm not ready to come home yet... --sg]. So off to the Sagrada Familia cathedral on the metro...
¡WOW! Words fail to come close to describing this colossal acheivement. La Sagrada Familia is a cathedral that was started in 1882, and taken over in 1883 by Gaudí. A devout catholic and catalán, when he took it over they switched from calling it a church to calling it a cathedral. For many years Gaudí lived on sight. He died in 1926, trampeled by a tram as he left the work sight. When he died, only 4 of the 12 planned spires (80m tall) were finished. Each spire represented an apostle, with a giantic spire planned for the middle to represent J.C.
Starting after the end of the Spanish Civil War, in which the church was descrated and destroyed, work has progresed slowly but steadily. Since the mid 80's, the work evidently has gone on at a torrid pace with the completion of the nave and trancept. But enough about the history, let me try and explain the crazy crap!
Rick Steves said that if there is one building on this earth he would want to see, it would be La Sagrada Familia... finished. I have to agree. The architectural style is unmistakably gaudi with the bulging lines and organic treatments. This cathedral, unlike most others, is organic, geometrical, and spiritual all at the same time. The eight completed gigantic spires are filled with symbolism. I highly suggest looking at the image gallery on the above website to see a bit of what is going on, but the amount of detail requires a visit.
The first thing we did was climb up one of the spires to get a breathtaking view of the city and at the ongoing construction. We burned about a roll of film between the climb up and the climb down. As you go along the preset route you have a multitude of cubbyholes to look out of. However, it is accompanied by quite disgraceful graffiti. My favorite part of it was the construction of the nave with columns that look remarkably like palm trees and gothic at the same time. Here is a photo of the columns in a half finished state. With the addition of the choir areas, and even considering the fact that the nave is currently used to finish plaster casts, it is overwhelming. The splitting of the tops of the columns into four let the walls of the nave to be less load-bearing. This allows all the walls of the church to have a multitude of windows. Gaudí designed a large number of stained glass windows, very few of which are in the actual building.
Stacey's favorite was the Facade of the Passion sculpted by Josep Maria Subirachs, a Catalan sculptor who created a work that fits in perfectly with the Gaudi designed surroundings yet is quite original. The style really brings on a sense of despair and pain with symbolism seemingly carved into each geometric line. This is, yet again, something that has to be seen in real life to get the whole impression. However the picture above shows one of the more impressive parts, the negative portrait of Jesus in the dress of Mary. Each of the scenes seems to be a master work with years of effort put into expressing the correct emotion. The doors also contain an increadibly detailed work describing parts of the passion. For the geeks out there, he included a labyrinth and a 4x4 square of numbers that includes 310 combinations that add up to 33 (the age of Jesus at the time of the passion). Here's a picture that includes it. Stacey bought a book written by the sculptor about this work, in addition to a book about the whole Church. Even in this less-than-half-finished state, this work, by itself, is a reason to come to Barcelona (and Stacey agrees).
After that, we went to Pizza Hut. Had to keep the surrealism going. Then after a complication where fresh tomatoes were converted into green peppers, we went to the Barri Gotic. We entered the quite large cathedral near closing time. We didn't get even close to enough time to enjoy the amazingly ornate chapels, the high altar, or the stained glass. After being shooed away we went over to the remains of a roman temple which stood here when this site was called "Barcino." We were shooed away from there also. Then, I went to the phone to get a hotel room in Madrid for tomorrow. After two no-goes, I found a place where they didn't speak english, but we got two nights anyway. [let me just reiterate how frickin' cute he is cuando él habla en español --sg] Then we walked back to Plaça Catalunya and after a two store search, found another electronic translator to replace the one I lost. Then back to easyEverything to update the website and deal with money.
