Tag: Spain

The Sunday porch: Barri Gòtic

Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

Balconies in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, Spain, earlier this week.

The Quarter is the oldest part of Barcelona, with foundations in the Roman and medieval periods.  However, many of its current structures were built or significantly reconstructed in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its streets, however, remain narrow and winding, sometimes opening up to small squares.

We spent five days in the city, after almost two weeks in Toulouse, France. Toulouse is all about the 13th to 15th centuries, while Barcelona glories in the late 19th and the 20th, so it was an interesting shift after a three hour train ride. As tourists, our energy levels were winding down, however. We rode the hop-on hop-off bus (without hopping off) and toured Gaudi’s Basilica Sagrada Familia (reserve tickets in advance; it’s remarkable) and Casa Amatller (they give you good hot chocolate and bread at the end), and watched the red rose and book selling of Sant Jordi’s Day on April 23. But mainly we just walked around and soaked up the perfect spring weather.

We stayed at Hotel AC Irla (a Marriott affiliate) in an upscale section of the Eixample district with easy public bus connection to and from (the V11 and V13, respectively) the waterfront and the Gothic Quarter (buy a T10 ticket from a magazine/newspaper stand; it will give you 10 rides* for about one euro each).

My only food tip: if you tour Sagrada Familia on a Wednesday to Sunday, book the 11:30 a.m. time slot and then have lunch at Arepamundi, a small Venezuelan arepa place a couple blocks south of the basilica. Order the small size arepas so you can enjoy more than one filling (get the Venezulana and the one with shredded meat, beans, fresh cheese, and fried bananas). Barcelona brought back some memories of living in Caracas in the 80s.

*Validate it each time you enter a bus, subway, or tram. If two people are using the same card, punch it twice each time. If transferring within an hour and a half from subway to bus (or bus to bus), punch it, but it won’t count as a new trip.

Life in gardens: travelers

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Alahambra, Spain, 1878, Swedish Natl Heritage BoardThe Alhambra, Granada, Spain, 1878, by Carl Curman, via Swedish National Heritage Board Commons on flickr.

The cyanotype shows the photographer’s wife, Calla, either sketching or reading during a visit to the Court of the Lions.  She was 28 at the time and just married to Curman. This may have been their honeymoon trip.

The Alhambra fortress/palace was built primarily in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Muslim Nasrid dynasty of southern Spain. After the Christian Conquest in 1492, it became the royal residence of Ferdinand and Isabella and, later, their grandson, Charles V. However, by the 18th century the site was derelict and largely abandoned.

In 1829, the American writer Washington Irving stayed in the Alhambra for three months and then turned his impressions into the romantic Tales of the Alhambra.

“The peculiar charm of this old dreamy palace,” he wrote, “is its power of calling up vague reveries and picturings of the past, and thus clothing naked realities with the illusions of the memory and the imagination.”

The book was popular, “the exotic was in vogue,” and cultured travelers — Calla was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist — began to visit the ruins in increasing numbers. Restoration work — often controversial — soon followed.  Today, the old complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

About 30 years after Carl and Calla’s trip, their son also visited the Court of the Lions and took the picture below.Alhambra, 1910, Tekniska museetGroup of tourists in the Court of the Lions,  ca. 1910, by Sigurd Curman, via Tekniska museet (Stockholm) Commons on flickr.

In the 14th century, the area around the fountain was a little lower than the walkways and planted in flowers, giving a tapestry or carpet effect.  Today, as in the photo above, the space is entirely covered in dry pebbles to preserve the building’s foundation.

I am the garden appearing every morning with adorned beauty; contemplate my beauty and you will be penetrated with understanding.

— Ibn Zamrak, from a poem on the wall of the Hall of the Two Sisters in the Alhambra.