For our final day in Barcelona, I had planned some more architectural visits. I had adjusted my planning considering the underground issues the previous day, but it turned out, it had been a Sunday-only thing. We had breakfast and on check-out, the manager asked how the stay had been. To his merit, when we told him about the issue with the air-conditioning, he apologised and offered us free breakfast in compensation. After we declined – timed entry visit – he advised us to write a complaint letter for a discount next time. I didn’t think it was necessary.
Since the station we had to change at was open, there was no issue with the underground, so we were half an hour early. I had booked a locker for the luggage in the centre of town, as the hotel is very convenient for attending a concert at CCIB, but quite far from… everything else, really. The locker system was convenient: you book online and get a code which opens both the place and your assigned locker. I found it more trustworthy than leaving the bags in a random shop which “looks after luggage”. However, about a month later, there was a complete outage in Spain, which made me second-guess the convenience of these things, as I heard about a lady who could not go home because her luggage was inside one of those lockers. We’ll see whether I dare use them again.
We were to continue on my Modernisme route, visiting one of the works of Antoni Gaudí (1852 – 1926), considered the peak representative of the style – to the point that some of his works have been declared Unesco Heritage by themselves as Works of Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí originally found inspiration in orientalism and Neo-Gothic, but as he became more and more established, he turned to nature forms – seeds, branches, bones, catenary shapes… The UNESCO work we wanted to see was Casa Milà, a building commissioned to Gaudí by lawyer Pere Milà in 1906. The building itself was erected between 1906 and 1910, and it was nicknamed “The Quarry” La Pedrera. It is an eight-floor apartment building with a self-supporting façade, electricity, running and hot water. The building was designed around a central patio, and it has a very particular roof-terrace. Some people claim that Casa Milà does not even fit into the Modernisme category, but it should be classified as “organic naturalism”, or even “expressionism” all by itself.
I found the building… underwhelming. We had a combined ticket for Sant Pau and Casa Milà at 39 €, but the normal ticket price for the building is 40 €, and this is only for one of the floors with a “recreated apartment”, the attic, and the terrace. At least you get to see the patio as you have to walk past it so you reach the tiny lift in which they cram you to take you to the 7th floor. The experience felt… like… not enough. I was for sure expecting something more.
Do not get me wrong, the house is extremely cool, but you get to see really little in comparison to how big the place is. So even if it is pretty, it feels crowded and small, with way too many gift shops crammed in. The terrace is fun, with chimneys that look like ancient warriors – some people say they represent chess pieces, others that they hide religious undertones – Gaudí was very spiritual. Reportedly, they also inspired the stormtroopers’ helmets in Star Wars.
Afterwards, we walked to the music hall Palau de la Música Catalana part of the Unesco Heritage Site Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona. The so-called Palace of Music was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner a couple of years after projecting the hospital.
Everything that Casa Milá came short, the Palace passed with full marks. The building has an original entrance designed by Domènech, in dark brick with extensive decoration. The interior is laced with tiles and glass, and tinted-glass windows. The concert hall is amazing. At first, we could not access it, because there was an educative concert for children going on, but we were later allowed to sit at the paradise. There is a huge skylight / lamp in coloured glass, pegasus statues. The concert was incredible too, with four to six musicians playing classical music and… running around the stage too. Lady trotting up the stairs while playing the cello, you have my admiration. I loved everything about the palace, to be honest, except the creaky chairs.
Once we were done in the Palau, we walked to the market Mercat de Sant Josep (St. Joseph’s market), known as La Boquería (The Butcher’s). It used to be a regular marketplace, but now it has turned a touristic attraction. The main entrance is also part of the Modernisme route, designed by architect Antoni de Falguera, who also created the inner metal cover. Though I had half a mind about eating there, the prices were ridiculous, so we ended up at an Asian place a couple of streets down. On the way, I had been excited about the “Barcelona Aqueduct”, but it turns out it’s a modern construction with old ashlars, nothing historical in it at all.
After lunch, we had about an hour to kill, and we decided to try our luck in the hobby-shops area. The Norma Comics shop was open, and we spent a while looking at the books there. Then, we headed back to pick up our luggage and commute to the station.
We had to change trains, and there was an announcement that any passengers with a connection shorter than 30 minutes would be escorted to their train. Of course, that’s only PA, and you’re on your own – I asked a worker, who tried to divert us to the suburban trains, not our connection. From that conversation, I think that we were supposed to go out of the system and get our tickets scanned again, but we found our train before that. There was no one else to consult with, so I decided that we would get on it. My sibling was mortified, but we were not doing anything wrong. If anyone checked on us, we had a valid ticket. They had not lived up to their part of the agreement anyway – and I would have told them exactly that, had anyone even thought of scolding us.
But we made it, as I predicted nobody gave us any grief, and the drive from the train station was uneventful. All in all, it was an intense weekend – though I feel I could have squeezed in a monument or two more had we skipped the sit-down meals, but my sibling can’t handle that. All in all, I think everything worked out rather well.
JBinnacle – A Travel Logbook 