Spain

[Drunk Monk]

Today is our last full day and much of it will be travel back to Madrid. I am sad to leave.

Madrid > Toledo > Barcelona > figueres > cadaques > Sevilla > Granada > Madrid.

Travel log soon to follow.

[Drunk Monk]

I returned in good order with my family and we are struggling to readjust to the states.  Stacy has had the hardest time.  It was really challenging for her to eat out there as they put gluten in everything.  Plus Jingles, who survived quite well at my mom's, has kept us up all night with his death-rattle coughing. My mom said that he wasn't coughing very much by the end of his stay, but we suspect she just couldn't hear it.  We are so poor after Spain, which wound up costing a lot more in food that we expected because the euro vs. the usd wasn't too our favor, and tapas can be deceptively expensive.  

But that being said, all the woes of coming back pale in comparison to the amazing time we had in Spain.  Our itinerary went as so: Madrid > Toledo (day trip) > Barcelona > Figueres (day trips) > Cadaques > Sevilla > Granada (day trip).  We stayed at AirBnB's which were strategically located in the heart of towns, and a hotel in Granada which was more like a hostel because we were trying to do it all on the cheap.  I will recount the adventures to the best of my abilities and try not to bore you with descriptions of the indescribable, as their was much profound beauty there that will surely elude my limited skills with words.  The art, the architecture, the music, the food, it was all impressive.  

Our flight over was rough.  There was a snafu with our seating so we had the worst seats, center aisle and separate, our special meals weren't arranged, and we missed our connecting flight in Heathrow.  But it was British Airways, which is very civilized and offered lots of free booze. We had a rushed layover in Heathrow on stand-by, just enough to tease my with the World of Whiskeys store in the terminal.  Where Heathrow was insanely mobbed and chaotic, Madrid was a ghost town. We almost had to wake up our customs agent, who stamped our passports sleepily with bare a glance. We took the Metro to our AirBnB, which is a sprawling maze of connections akin to NY's subway, all written in microfilm maps, but we managed.  It was the first time I felt underdressed for the subway.  Spanish people got style.  After a hectic sardine-can ride and a few transfers, we made it to our AirBnB, which was a tiny Euro-(ikea)-style apartment above the Rock and Roll Burger joint, which was a bar that had all night drunk cavorting, singing and banging of trash bins.  But the location was perfect, two blocks from Plaza Mayor, and a short walk from the Royal Palace and the museums.  

The next morning began with a strung out search for breakfast, which was harder than we first imagined because we had not adjusted to the time or the Spanish language, which is quite different than Mexican Spanish.  I stepped in dogshit straight away, something I haven't done in years, and I took it as an ambiguous omen.  

Day 1 was the Royal Palace, which was magnificent.  We started with the Royal Armoury, two stories of well preserved arms and armor, mostly regal, parade and pageantry stuff, top of the line craftsmanship.  It was the finest collection I've seen in one place, so detailed and extensive.  The Palace was stunning too, the crown, the royal cathedral...it's good to be king and Spain has one of the hottest queens in the world now, not that we saw them.  A street busker was playing some John Lennon on the accordian outside, which I took as a good omen.  Tara embarked on a photo hunt for #distressedlions - an quest so amusing that I almost poached it off her - there are so many lion statues that have distressed expressions in Spain.  She collected several dozen over the trip, but only instagramed a few.  

Ok, more to come later, as time permits.  Forgive me as a babble on about this trip.  Writing it all out helps me process it more.  

[Drunk Monk]

I'm still a little travel sick, but I'm only got thru Day 1 of Spain.  The next day was the Prado, one of the world's greatest art museums.  We spent all day there and I'm not sure we saw it all.  It was unbelievable.  A staggering collection of ancient roman, medieval and Renaissance art housed in a magnificent labyrinth of a building.  So much ART!  Goya's black period, which occupies a full room in the back, was hauntingly dark and morbid and took my breath away.  Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, a painting I've studied since high school - in person, it was all about processing being forcibly sodomized. I made a study of Art Brut in college - art by the clinically insane - and the message is so clear.  Even the central figure on the hell side, the broken half body self portrait, has that telling look.  Why didn't I see that before?  Seeing it in person took it from hysterical to utterly horrifying. So El Greco, a personal fav, who's crucifixions I studied in high school.  Titian, Durer, Tintoretto, Rafael, Rubens, even a Rembrandt.  So many masters I'd only read about, so moving.  And of course, Velazquez's Las Meninas, enshrined in a central hall with all the reverence she deserves - what a masterpiece.  We had a splendid time getting lost there, making discoveries, and just adoring the astounding collection.  That was a full day.  

But the next day was even fuller.  We toured the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which goes from medieval to impressionism.  More El Greco, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, but now add Pissaro, Monet, Renoir, Lautrec, Gauguin, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and the two masters I really came to Spain to see - Picasso and my personal favorite, Dali.  In fact, Spain was a Dali pilgrimage for me, a major check off the bucket list, as I've worshiped his work since high school, back when I fancied myself an artist.  Tara ruined still life paintings for me by commenting that those were the first food selfies.  What is really nice about the Thyssen is that if you start at the top and work your way down, it's chronological, so you can see the progression.  The renn painters and their scientific realism, such craftsmanship, and then along comes Van Gogh to blow the doors off it all with such color.  Standing in front of such masterpieces, it's like compressing an epic novel or a major film into one comprehensive snapshot.  I get chills sometimes as my eyes cross the canvas.  It's ecstatic.  After that, we made it to the Reina Sofia, a museum of modern art (all three museums are right next to each other) - Man Ray, Magritte, Ernst, Klee, Rivera - some serious Picasso and Dali.  This houses Guernica as it's centerpiece.  I must say the Guernica was a lot more faded in person, not as moving as I expected.  It's really a dull grey.  However the preliminary works and development documented alongside it were really interesting.  I never realized before how Ralph Steadman was really just bad Picasso.  Picasso had those strokes going on long before Steadman.  And the Bauhaus stuff was really amusing, rekindling my interest in that odd genre.  But here's where Dali started to really emerge.  Where the Thyssen had a major piece, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, it's a small one.  The Sofia had several larger pieces like the Great Masturbator and the Enigma of Hitler.  So awesome.  Then, after gorging ourselves on two solid days of art, we went to see Despartar De La Fuerza - Star Wars.  It was in English with Spanish subtitles.  It was like going from the richest cultural treasures to the epitome of pop culture.  What an incredible first three days in Madrid.

[cranefly]

Nice.  Sounds like you flirted with Stendhal Syndrome.

[Drunk Monk]

Dang, cf, I had to look that one up.  Leave it to psych to diagnose it as such.

Madrid was great fun, largely due to our AirBnB, which was just two blocks from Plaza Mayor, a major hub of activities surrounded by great restaurants.  We gorged ourselves at the Mercado there, which had all manner of delicious delicacies, served up as tapas.  The food was really salty, and we were challenged to find gluten-free veg food for Stacy (an inherited malady has forced her into gluten-freeness, which is really tough for vegetarians anywhere).  Those who told me that it would be all about the vino were incorrect as the vast variety of cana (short beers) was a wonderful selection of German, Austrian, and other Euro brews, all served in their classy little brand glasses.  Even the Spanish Estrella was enjoyable.  Arriving on the weekend made for some rough nights; even though we were lodged in an alley away from Plaza Mayor, noisy drunks would come singing at the top of their lungs, down the street at all hours, no bueno for jet lag.  Nevertheless, it was a short walk to the museums, the palace, and Puerta el Sol, Madrid's other major plaza, so we were in the thick of it.

Another major issue was laundry.  All the AirBnBs said they had laundry, but that only meant a tiny washing machine and no dryer.  The rest of the time, Spain is hot enough to line dry everything.  But in Dec-Jan, the off season when we were there, nothing dries.  And there are no dryers anywhere.  I should have packed more drip dry stuff.  

On our last day, we opted for a day trip to Toledo, catching a commuter train there and back again.  I was tentative about it, as our trip was making this major trip to Figueres and Cadaques, just because I wanted to see all the Dali stuff, and I didn't want my desires to dominate our itinerary.  Stacy just wanted to hear some Spanish guitar and see some Flamenco.  Tara just wanted to shop.  Toledo, of course, is the home of Toledo swords, so clearly it was my desire to go there, and it cost one more day in wonderful Madrid - we sacrificed a day in Madrid's famed park, El Retiro, for it.  

But as it turned out, Toledo was one of our favorite cities...

[Drunk Monk]

BTW, I have been posting Spain pix on my facebook, but apparently they cannot be found on my fb page.  Stupid fb.  Once you get over 2K friends, it gets all squirrelly.  

Here's a direct link - https://www.facebook.com/gene.ching/medi...720&type=3.  There are even direct shout outs to Greg (caganers) & PPFY (toledo).

[Drunk Monk]

I just realized I had my Spain album set to 'only me'.  Oops. Didn't even know you could do that.



It's public now.

[Greg]

Did you miss Sagrada Familia when you were in Barcelona?

[Drunk Monk]

Not even. I just posted Sangrada Familia pix just now.  I'm only part way through my Barcelona pix on fb.  

But on to Toledo.

If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would spend more time in Toledo.  What a wonderful place.  It's a walled city, surrounded by a river that makes for a natural moat, a labyrinthian maze of medieval alleys.  We only had a short day until we had to catch the commuter train back so we hopped one of those tourist buses, the double-decker open-roofed kind, and it took us for a spectacular ride around the city until dropping us off right in the heart of it.  Every store window was filled with swords.  Tara and Stacy raised their eyebrows at me, but were soon enchanted by the architecture as well.  Toledo is a magical place - quixotic comes to mind as this is the land of Don Quixote, and El Greco.  We visited the Gothic Cathedral, our first in Spain, and were blown away by the art and architecture - so inspirational that it almost made me want to take communion, to go to Catholic school, to wear one of those cute little Catholic school skirts...no wait, not even.  Don't get your hopes up.  Toledo's cathedral has an art gallery that holds Goya's masterpiece, El Expolio (the disrobing of Christ), which is arguably his greatest work.  The color of Christ's red robe in contrast to the rest of the composition just glows.  I kept looking at the Cathedral's pipe organ longingly.  The pipe organ is my favorite instrument - built into the building, you just can't get that sound any other way.  But there was not service and we were just tourists.  

Now 99% of the swords of Toledo are wallhangers, the kind of faux crap sold everywhere, in cigar shops and head shops and curio stores.   Most of it is Marto forge, which is crap. But there are a few swordmakers that maintain Toledo's grand tradition that dates back to 500 BCE.  Muella forge is known for their huge knives of pattern-welded steel.  Then there's Mariano Zamorano, Toledo's certified living treasure.  We found his shop, but it was closed.  I never made an appointment like it said to do on his website, so we headed off to find lunch (found this crazy Euro place with nomalicious salad, salmon and pizza).  When we swung back, Zamorano's was open!  Master Zamorano must have recognized a kindred spirit, despite my crummy Spanish, as he personally took me on a tour of his shopand let me shoot pix where photography was forbidden.  He is the 4th generation of swordmakers in his family and the shop has stood in that location for over a century and a half. And it looks just like the Armoury used to - piles of dusty blades and sword parts on cluttered workbenches, one huge dirty grinder room, a wall of magnificent blades displayed somewhat haphazardly. I was honored to meet Zamorano and I wish my Spanish was stronger so we could have really talked. Toledo gift stores are filled with treasures, not just swords, but signature Damascened metal work, particularly jewelry and small boxes, gorgeous stuff in their detail. We all wished we had bought souvenirs there (later both Stacy and Tara got Toledo jewelry which was available all over Spain). The best part was many of these gift stores had salas de armas - rooms dedicated to swords. Sadly, they never permitted photography. I was in this one that was a basement hall that was easily 40 feet long, with walls packed full of sword racks - hundreds if not over a thousand blades. I would have loved to take a selfie in there. 90% was crap, but I could sniff out that top shelf 10% quickly. Unfortunately I spent my time unwisely and didn't manage to get to the military museum until after it closed (although I'm told it's mostly modern stuff in there - I'm consoling myself with that thought, although surely there must be examples of Toledo swords there too).

Watching the sunset from the city walls, we are all sad to leave. It ranked up in the top three experiences for all of us. If you go to Madrid, don't miss the museums and don't miss Toledo.

From there, we went to Barcelona...

[Drunk Monk]

The train to Barcelona was fraught with hassles at first.  We couldn't get meal changes and there was a mad dash for seating, even though it was all reserved.  But once on, the Renfro was smooth, comfortable and quiet.  It was a scenic ride, lots of quality graffiti which I attributed to the inundation of great art in every day life in Spain.  The train food was excellent - I would have been delighted to get such a meal in a restaurant in the States.  The Spanish eat well.  In fact, the whole rest of the world seems to eat better than the U.S.  Our food sucks.  We've sacrificed quality for quantity sadly.  Spain wrecked me for food.  Even now, three weeks after returning, American food still tastes like crap.  

Our new digs was an AirBnB right next to the Santa Maria del Pi cathedral and a short stroll to the La Seu cathedral in the heart of the the Barrio Gotic.  It was tight, on top of 91 steps in a claustrophobically narrow staircase, which grew very tiresome after a day of hiking about Barcelona.  But again, the location was strategic.  It put us at the same level as the cathedral bells.  Now I really enjoy hearing real bells chiming out the hour.  But it does get tiresome during the night hours.  

Before going, everyone I talked to raved about Barcelona, but we found it touristy and tawdry.  It was the only place we encountered anti-tourist sentiment - graffiti saying 'tourist go home', stickers declaring that tourists were the death of Barca (so not true, tourism is the life blood of that place), even the mayor was anti-tourist saying that he didn't want to see Barca spoiled by tourists like Venice.  Everywhere there were tourist hustlers and buskers.  At every square, there were annoying cosplayers trying to get you to take a photo of them for a euro (there was some of that in Madrid, but they weren't nearly as aggressive).  Food was really expensive.  Gaudy gift shops everywhere.  Money changers were all over, with lucrative exchange rates.  There was even a wax museum.  You only see wax museums in tourist locales.  Worthy of note, on top of the museum was Superman and C-3PO.  Who the heck makes C-3PO out of wax?  The whole point of using wax as a media is because it is flesh-like, so that just doesn't work for C-3PO.  I wound up with 4 different tourist maps (including one sponsored by McDonalds, which oddly has a green and yellow logo in Spain - I was told that the red and yellow were too close to Spain's flag) and had to keep all of them because tourist maps really only provide info on their sponsors.  We were there in the off-season and I imagine it's a lot more exciting when it's beach weather, but I live in a tourist beach town, so perhaps I'm hypersensitive to tourist scams.  

All that being said, we would have gladly swapped a day in Barcelona for another day in Toledo or Madrid (or Cadaques, but that gets ahead of my tale).  Barca was our least favorite city, but I'd much rather be there than here in Fremont.

After arriving in Barcelona, getting the feel of La Rambla and the Barrio Gotic, our first full day was actually Xmas eve.  We weren't sure how the holidays were going to affect our trip, but as we pay a huge tuition to have Tara in private school, we scheduled the trip then to save money and so she wouldn't miss school.  As it turned out, Xmas hardly affected us as Barca is so touristy that it doesn't stop.  Quite the opposite, the holidays are a feeding frenzy as it's a dose of tourists during the off season.  

So the first day, we decided to do something really touristy - a segway tour.  We reserved some seqways right down the street from the Palau Guell, not to be confused with the Parc Guell.  The Palau was the home of Gaudi's benefactor, who later sponsored the park.  It was good to see the Palau first because it's one of Gaudi's earlier works. You can see it is still held in the trappings of gothic architecture, but already starting to break out into Gaudi's signature colorful mosaics, melty objects and parabolic masterpieces.  I should say that I've never been a fan of Gaudi.  In fact, in High School, back when I was more focused on art, I thought the origin of the word gaudy came from Gaudi.  Nevertheless, Palau Guell was delightful, full architectural of surprises and offered a commanding view of the city from the rooftop.  It was also not very crowded as it's not considered a major Gaudi work and inexpensive as tours go.  As an extra bonus, the pipe organ plays every hour, and like in the cathedrals, the pipe organ is built into the building acoustics. Just gotta luv that.

The segway tour started out as some fun for Tara because she had grown very weary of crucifixions and was struggling to get through a day without seeing one (she didn't quite succeed as this day she thought she didn't but she just overlooked a few).  We got this cute Spanish tour guide to ourselves and she was great fun leading us and telling us about her city with pride.  We rode the waterfront for a spectacular sunset and the rise of the full moon over the ocean (my first view of the Mediterranean sea and it is as gorgeous and romantic as they say).  Then we made our way around the swanky hotels like the W (where you can drop like half a $K a night to sleep in the bed that Shakira slept in) and made our way to Parc de la Cuitadella, dodging 'little lakes (puddles)' as our guide called them and admiring the mamooooth.  It was a lovely evening and one of all of our fav experiences in Barcelona.  

After that, Stacy turned in for the night leaving Tara and I to do a major Barrio Gotic crawl.  We secured gourmet chocolates and a fresh baguette and found all sorts of magical stores and places, like the artist's hangout the 4 Gats and I should have shot more pix that night - a delightful father-daughter adventure that I will treasure forever. We wound up enjoying opera sung by street performers right outside La Seu, before heading back up those 91 steps to spend a night listening to bell chiming every hour and going nuts at midnight.

[Greg]

When Cindi and I hit town in 2005 before our Cruise, we had a great time. We were messed up due to Jet Lag. This nice old man conned us out of money for a meal and a nonexistent tour. We were both horribly sick. We got sunburned from the open top tour. And I almost missed the cruise launch because I was still in Barcelona trying to get one last photo.

Can't wait to go back.

[Drunk Monk]

Thanks for that Greg.  When I've been telling people that have been to Spain that we found Barcelona to be too touristy, they have been arguing with me.  Of course, most of them have only been to Barcelona.  You are the first among my friends to reaffirm my experience.  Which isn't to say Barca wasn't really fun, it was just less fun than the rest of Spain.

I forgot to mention that on our first night in Barca, we took in a performance of classical Spanish guitar.  It was in a side chamber of the Santa Maria del Pi, which provide excellent acoustics, and was advertised as the guitarist playing some medieval guitars but I was never quite clear on whether they meant that the guitars were actually that old or if they were modern replicas of old guitars. Either way, the performance was great.  I'm always impressed when one person with one instrument can put on a show, and this guitarist had mad chops.  Spanish guitar is so complex and quick.  My preconceived notion of it was that it was all romantic, but now I'd say it's closer to the blues, not in structure - the arrangements are entirely unique - but in the heart of the music, the message it delivers.

I'd also mention that Barca is really stony.  There were head shops everywhere and we stumbled past several private pot clubs.  I caught wind of the herb on several occasions, and Tara said that I have what she calls my 'festival sniff' whenever I catch the whiff.  

We had planned to visit the Sagrada Familia on Xmas, but upon arriving via taxi, we discovered it was sold out.  A lot was closed over the holidays, which left all the tourists going to the same few open sites.  So we hopped the subway and made it for Parc Guell.  That was disappointing.  Many friends raved about it, but it was expensive, crowded and not quite as spectacular as it was touted to be.  Gaudi built the best tourist traps.  We headed back to Barrio Gotic, and strolled the waterfront and mall, which wasn't nearly as spectacular as the day before.  

The next day, we hit the Museo Picasso, which was excellent. Organized by time progression, his development was clear. Picasso came from an artist family and as a teen was already a master of Renaissance portraiture.  He went to art school but left to study at the Prado. Having seen so much Velazquez and Goya, the influence was very evident.  This museum only holds a few of his blue period, but then, after a trip with Cocteau, makes that leap to Cubism.  Picasso's Meninas studies were fantastic - again, good to see after seeing the original at the Prado.  Great museum, very intimate.

After that was the Museo Dali in Barcelona.  After seeing a few select Dalis at the Thyssen Bornemisza and Reina Sofia, I was eager to really start on my Dali pilgrimage, and Barcelona's holdings was the first major place on the itinerary.

[Greg]

Yes, my snark is usually at the forefront, but I actually do want to go back to Barcelona, despite the horrors. I felt like I missed so much. Plus, I need to catch up on Sagrada progress.

[Drunk Monk]

Sagrada is really the only thing that would draw me back to Barca, maybe when it's done, should I live that long.  If I ever return to Spain, it would be all about Toledo and Cadaques.  But there's so many other places on the bucket list (and yes, Ireland is one of them), and given my limited resources, I doubt I'll return.  

[Greg]

Aren't you a wealthy assistant magazine publisher?