Barcelona - City of Modernismo

This was the third time that I visited Barcelona, and it was my favorite time even though I revisited some places I already knew. That's the wonderful part about Barcelona though, it's spectacular enough that you don't mind seeing things a second time.

Here's a sample of some pinchos we ate at a local restaurant near our hotel on the ultra chique street Passeig De Gracia, just above the Plaza Catalunya in the center of the city and Las Ramblas.

The Barceloneta: the beach and surrounding neighborhood where tourists and natives alike flock to take a dip in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. I remember that we didn't swim that day, and that it was windy and sand blew all over us. Some days you just gotta go to the beach though.

The coast of Barcelona is packed with piers, parks, boardwalks, shopping centers, etc. Just past the statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) and the famous Ramblas streets is this pier called La Rambla del Mar.

I'm standing at the base of the Columbus' statue.

Here the girls are in front of Antoni Gaudi's unfinished master work: La Sagrada Familia (Temple of the Holy Family).

Gaudi was a Catalan architect who was extremely influential in the Modernist/Art Nouveau movement. His style in many occasions mimics patterns found in nature, like the winding spiral staircase in the Sagrada Familia.

In the north of Barcelona is Gaudi's famous park, Parque Guell, where there are a collection of interesting architectural designs and creations. The park was originally designed to be a housing site, though it failed, and today there are only two houses there. The park serves as an important tourist attraction, however, and millions of people go there every year to see great views over Barcelona and to explore the wonders of Gaudi's curious and naturalistic designs.

Another picture of Parque Guell: I'm sitting on a mosaic tiled bench with some cavern like walkway in the background.



Gaudi designed a great deal of buildings in his native Catalunya, and in Barcelona. This house is called the Casa Batllo.


Here we can see a close view of the scaled roof and cross turret. It looks like the back of a dinosaur or dragon. I have many pictures of the inside of the house as well, which was equally impressive and filled with unique angles and geometric designs. I didn't add these photos to my blog because many of them didn't turn out as well due to lack of lighting. The Casa Batllo is an expensive tourist attraction (12 - 15 Euros), but I think my mom, sister, and I would all agree that it's one of the most enchanting houses we've ever visited. Well worth it.

Another jewel of Barcelona's collection of modern architectural marvels is the Palau de de la Musica Catalana (Palace of Catalan Music). My mom invited us to go to a Spanish guitar concert at this concert hall that dates back to 1908.

The Catalan architect, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, created a space that could be entirely illuminated by natural light during the day, much of which comes in through the stained glass skylight 'sun' in the center.


Here's a view of some of the pillars that line the outside of the concert hall. The colors and lighting of the building are beautiful, and I would recommend a tour if you're ever in Barca, or definitely whatever concert you can get tickets to; the building alone is worth it.

Big Vacation with Mom and Rae!

Oh man, it's time to write about pictures... here we go.

This was the first part of my big nearly four week long vacation with my mom and sister Rachel. They came into Spain via Madrid and managed to catch the bus up north to Logroño. Since both of them had been in Logroño before, we took advantage of the first part of the vacation to visit some places in the northern autonomous community of the Basque Country. The Basque Country, or Pais Vasco, is divided into three provinces known in English as Biscay, Guipuscoa, and Alava.

The Basque Country has a different climate than La Rioja, as the latter where I live is much drier and hotter in summer. The Basque Country gets quite a lot of precipitation as it borders the sea to the north. It's a fairly mountainness or hilly region with a lot of vegetation and forests in the north. There are also a lot of nice beaches along the coast that are completely different from the more famous Spanish beaches on the Mediterranean. The northern beaches are more natural, with hills, trees, rocks, and a more temperate climate, than those more well known beaches like around Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, Cadiz, etc. that tend to be flatter, larger, and more artificial.

This is Mundaka; it's not too far from Bilbao in the province of Biscay, or Vizcaya. The tide goes up, creating a river running inland, and down, revealing an expansive beach for surfers, sailboats, and suntanners alike.

This is a church outside of Mundaka called San Juan. It can only be accessed through the skinny stairwell that winds out from the shore to its peninsula location. The tide comes up and the stairs go away.

This is the castle of Butron located in Gatica of the Biscay province. The fairytale like castle dates back to the Middle Ages.

We owe many thanks to my flatmate Juan for taking us in his car to the many places we visited in the Basque Country. Here we are on the beach of Bakio, very near Bilbao in Biscay. Its close location to the metropolitan city leads it to be a very fashionable place for people to relax and catch a tan.


Here we are in front of the monumental vineyard hotel Marques de Riscal in Elciego of southern Basque Country in the province of Alava. The architect is Frank Gehry, the same man who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and the similarity between the two buildings is quite clear.

My mom is eating a pincho in Logroño with our friend Tony.

Laguardia: medieval village just north of Logroño in Alava, known for its hilltop location, vineyards, wineries, and beautiful narrow stonepaved streets.


Juan and the girls in the main square of Laguardia.


Lastly, here's Juan strolling through a portal in the center of lovely Gernika in the Biscay province. Gernika is most famous for being bombed by the Nazi Germany during the Spanish Civil War in an effort to overthrow the Basque and Spanish Republican governments. Pablo Picasso painted perhaps his most famous painting 'Guernica' in commemoration to the bombing.

Gijon and Oviedo, Asturias

Hola. Welcome to Gijon, northern coastal city of the Spanish autonomous community Asturias. It's about a six-hour train ride from Logrono, and worth the trip for the long, beautiful uncrowded beaches. The weather was fairly calm when we were there, although it rained a little bit one afternoon and was cloudy for a two days out of our three-day stay.

We camped out on the beach, walked around the long boardwalks bordering the sea, and wandered around the old parts of the city searching for good cheap restaurants, nice things to take pictures of, and basically to get a feel for the place. It was a little past the major tourist season, and so the hot summer weather didn't pack the city with too many surfers, sunbathers, or spectators; it was a good time to visit, really.

The sea is the Bay of Biscay, although in Spanish it is called the Cantabrian Sea.


Here's an old church that was located near the beach. There was a mix of old and new buildings in Gijon, which is a historic port city and also popular tourist destination, which allows a lot of commericial investment there as well.

Gijon is the largest city in Asturias, though Oviedo is its capital. We went on train thirty minutes south of Gijon to visit Oviedo for the afternoon. It was a lovely city with many large streets, a tall gothic style cathedral, lots of shops and parks, and also some interesting architecture. *Sidenote: Woody Allen came to Oviedo for some reason or another, liked it, wrote about it or spoke about it, and the people of Oviedo made of statue of him. Oh! He included Oviedo in his newest movie about Spain: Vicki Christina Barcelona.

A statue in Oviedo with the cathedral some blocks in the distance.

Here is some of the old style architecture that I saw in Oviedo and that I've seen in other areas of Spain as well. I especially liked the color combinations of these apartments.

Back to Gijon now, here I am standing on the boardwalk looking over the sea and the coast.

Asturias is known for its sidra (hard apple cider) among other things. You can see the traditional way to pour the sidra here in this photo. Our waiter is demonstrating us how it's done. He reaches as far as he can with the bottle and with the glass and pours a five or so ounces into a glass without spilling any. It's fun to do.

Gijon is on the sea, and the sea provides food. I ate the food. This was my favorite at a seafood restaurant we went to. It's a shrimp cocktail--the best I've ever had--made with crab and fish and rice and some good sauce.



Fishing is important there, and we could see many big fishing boats and cruising along the vast harbors of the coastline. There were also a lot of sailboats and other recreational boats at the ports. We didn't see many of the rec boats out on the water, so maybe it was a little late in the year.

Here's a fun little photo opp we took advantage of at the docks: the front tip of a ship welded onto the side of the pier.