From the billowy and rolling hills of Ireland we took a much-too-early flight to old Barcelona. I thought my grasp of Mexican Spanish and my extensive knowledge of Central and South American cuisine would help me get around; alas, to no avail for it was all in Catalan and what Spanish there was was distinctly un-cholo, my dialect of choice.
An hour's train ride north of Barcelona is the impressive Benedictine monastery Montserrat (not to be confused with the island by the same name), or "serrated mountain" or "the spork" (I lie not), begun in 880. We reached it via that yellow funicular (and took a second one even higher for a more astounding view). It really is an entire city (my photos don't do it justice) and a place where you could spend some quality time just hanging out.
In the basilica (the building with all those saints) people come to visit "The Black Virgin" which is a statue of Mary that's turned black over time. In her outstretched hand is a little ball that everybody touches and says a little prayer to. We paid our respects but surely did not touched the ball (cue Jimmy Fallon saying "Ew!") and being LDS and not Catholic didn't say a little prayer - just looked.
Back in Barcelona it was basically an architecture tour. Barcelona was, like most European cities, of a specified size so that the city could be protected. At the turn of the last century that was no longer working for the bulging Barcelona and so new settlements were made, called the Eixample (pronounced "Eye-shahmp-la"). Pictured above, the Church of the Holy Conception was originally built in the 13th century but during the expansion was moved brick by brick to the Eixample. Explain that logic.
The architect of the Eixample and my heart was the Moderisma (aka Art Nouveau) patron saint Antoni Gaudi. The above is an amazing family home, called Casa Battlo, he designed for the Battlo (pronounced "Bye-yoh") family built from 1904-1906 which was innovative in the technologies of the actual house and in the amazing beauty of the place. It's whimsical and lovely, full of mosaic and fancy, and much cooler than my photos can show.
Gaudi was not just a Catholic, but a pretty amazing one. He planned out the indescribable Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family) which is unlike any cathedral I've seen. It has the basic shape and idea of a cathedral but is white and bright and ornate in a totally new way. Google it. By far the best cathedral I've ever been to and I've been to a couple few (this post contains at least four!). So, work began on this building over a hundred years ago and it's still not completed - that's how massive and intense this is. Gaudi never intended to finish it during his lifetime (actually not planning out certain parts in order to make room for new artists), saying, "My Client is not in a hurry." If you can only see one thing in Barcelona, this is your one thing.
Gaudi's vision expanded to housing developments. His failed project in the hills of Barcelona created a fantastic view of the city, but no one wanted to live so far out. Still it gave us Park Guell which was awesome and again my photos don't do it credit. The neatest part of the park cost more than we were willing to spend so I have no photos of that. The park continued in the Modernisma style of innovation and curves.
We were rather obsessed with our hotel. It had a tiny little elevator and, with our large backpacking backpacks we got in but we could not get out so much well. Also, it had a neat little window. I love European windows that really open.
And before we knew it we were ready to set sail on our 12-day Mediterranean Cruise.
First excursions - Aix de Provence and Marseille, France.
Our port was (hey) Marseille but we took a bus ride past Cezanne's mountains to Aix de Provence, as in Herbs de Provence. It's basically a cute French town overrun by tourists (read: expensive shops and not much else) so we just ate a lot of pastries, wandered the streets, and got some herbs (not those kind!) at the market. You might notices that the city flag of Aix (that's its nickname and I'll use it to show I'm cool) and the city flag of Barcelona (never pictured) are the same because the same people founded the cities. Also, notice the bust above the city buildings. It was once Louis the XIV but after that relationship didn't work out a bust of Marie, the symbol of the revolution, replaced the ousted king. She is, I'm told, on all the city buildings. Oui, Oui,
In Aix is a church that's basically an add-on-to-an-add-on-to-an-add-on - but, like, the neatest crappy additions ever. You can see the three distinct building materials in the photos (top right). The Cathedrale de San Sauveur was originally built in the 5th century and featured a baptistery - which caused Jessica and I to do a lot of ho-humming about the LDS belief of baptism by immersion. A few hundred years later some more was added and then finally the last bit in the 18th century.
We headed back to (hey) Marseille to tour another, but grander, edifice - the Basilque Notre-Dame de la Garde - Our Lady of the Guard. It's situated high on a big hill (on top of the former fortress) giving a good work out to get there and a fantastic view as a reward.
The cathedral features (and is kind of famous for) an intense amount of ex-votos, tokens of gratitude for blessings received from prayer and as testimonies to others. These tokens include pictures and little ships (this is a coastal city after all), jerseys from matches won - any little symbol of the miracle. The ex-votos are all around the church, on walls and hanging from the ceiling.
Oh, look, there is the Chateau D'If.
France was quite lovely but mostly tasty. Barcelona was quite hot but mostly artsy.
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