6-23-03 Sitges, Spain
We’ve been in this campground twenty something miles south of Barcelona for four days. There are campgrounds closer to the city, but they are near the airport, and we’ve done that before. Noise, or the lack of it, seems to be a major comfort issue with us. Nice clean bathrooms are another, of course, but after Morocco, just about anything looks good. Bugs are another big one. Especially since that night in Portugal in this lovely little campground with a quaint, but mosquito infested stream wandering through it. In the morning Rhona looked like Jake LaMotta (Raging Bull?) (Boxer, got the crap beat out of him on a regular basis?) This campground is like many Spanish one’s we’ve been in with a high percentage of weekenders. People leave their caravans and tents set up all year, to use on weekends. So, we’ve seen the empty campgrounds, this is the first time we’ve seen the weekend influx… this place just filled up Friday night. Really quite a sight. Obviously there are families that have been coming here for years, there were big gatherings, long lines of tables, lots of sausages being barbequed, little kids running everywhere.
Anyway, Barcelona was a feast for the eyes. Rhona made a list of a half dozen museums and other sights she wanted to visit, and we hit them all. This is the town of Picasso, Miro, and Gaudi… the architect who designed the Cathedral that looks like “someone left the cake out in the rain…” For the most part I did enjoy the galleries, did give me a lot to think about. I guess the guy I had the most trouble with was Tapies… he’s still alive, so how important of an artist can he be? He’s the son of a very wealthy family who decided to be an artist, and everyone seems to have gone along with it. Ah well, Rhona liked him.
The galleries of Miro and Picasso had examples from their early years that showed the development of their craft, and the various directions their art took over the years. My feeling was that both of their buildings were full of work donated by the artist and their families… in other words, this is the stuff that didn’t sell. Most of the important, famous paintings are somewhere else, I think. I did like Miro, very much. Especially the huge tapestry in the entry, and I do mean huge. I’m guessing twenty feet wide, maybe thirty feet tall, hanging in the entry, created for the space. Primary colors of yarns, knotted and woven on a heavy burlap like background. Pretty cool.
I guess I liked the Guell Mansion the best… Mr. Guell was a rich industrialist who was Antonio Gaudi’s patron. Gaudi is the guy who left the cake out in the rain and I don’t think that I can take it cause it took so long to make it… Excuse me. Yeah, that’s the thing about the Cathedral… they’ve been working on it since 18-something and figure that it’s going to take another fifty years to finish. Anyway, the house was an early work and it did get done. Just full of interesting ideas. Many of the rooms had interior windows so that the light from the outside came through the entire house. The ceilings were spectacular, the same kind of detail and craftsmanship that we saw in the Moorish buildings we visited. One of Gaudi’s trademarks was his use of broken tiles to make incredibly mosaic patterns… We went to the roof to see the chimneys – bizarre shapes, colorful swirling patterns of broken tiles. The campground we’re at has several constructions done in the same technique… a large curved bench near the reception, and these hookup points spaced throughout the grounds, all covered with mosaic patterns of broken tiles. How hard can it be? A big hammer, lots of broken tiles from the reject bin of a floor tile company, just keep smashing until you’ve got pieces that fit. I’m thinking about a combination fountain, hot tub and barbeque in the yard at Tahoe, yeah, that could happen. Probably let Rhona handle the putting together part, I’ll take care of the smashing…
Anyway… Two heavy tourist days in the city, art galleries mixed with visits to Irish Pubs. Ireland must be bare of signs and furniture, and it must be impossible to find a bartender. I’m enjoying it, though. Menus are in English, prices are reasonable, beer is cold and served by the pint, bartenders are friendly, and they play good music… what’s not to like? The weather has been hot, but we’ve found that it’s not that bad in the shade. There’s generally a cool breeze off the ocean. I think as long as we can get to the coast, any coast, every few days we’ll be fine.
Yesterday we visited our little local town, Sitges. Walked along a series of beaches, the Mediterranean here is warm and beautiful. They have an annual festival, and yesterday was the day. Kind of like sidewalk chalk drawings, they make designs in the small winding streets in flowers. Use a lot of grass clippings and sawdust for background, but the designs were really very interesting. Some were very flat, made with flower petals; others were more three dimensional, using blossoms. At the end of the day, the barriers were taken down and people were allowed to walk through, destroying the designs…. Yesterday was in celebration of the Catholic holiday of Corpus Cristi… not sure what that’s about, that was not one celebrated in Willow Glen. Tonight and tomorrow is a regional holiday, Saint Joan’s day. We’re not sure what is going on, have to turn ourselves in to the Tourist Office to be educated. One of the interesting things about Spain is that the different regions are very separate, pretty much have their own government, their own history, their own traditions and holidays. The area around Barcelona is Cataluna (tilda on the n). They speak their own dialect, and are very proud of their region’s traditions and heroes. And this Saint Joan, we understand, is the their patron saint. We’ve heard that in Alicante it’s a major festival, where they build large paper mache figures and burn them in the streets at night. Yesterday, while wandering the streets looking at the flower patterns we did see large puppet-like figures in the city hall, so maybe that’s the deal.
Rhona and I are both about done with Spain. I’m really looking forward to Italy. We have to make a shopping expedition today, supplies are low. We’ll either stick around here another evening to see whatever it is that’s going on, or we’ll head north to Figueres to stop in at the Salvador Dali museum. Then it will be up into Southern France, where I want to visit Carcassonne, an amazing walled city I remember from the first trip… then across to Avignon, and on to Italy.
I’m going to hand this to Rhona and go off for a shower. Hopefully she’ll have a more informed report on the galleries of Barcelona.
Larry is right the Picasso museum was a disappointment. It was interesting to see how his style developed but there was very little from his “famous period” in the museum.
The Miro museum was excellent and it did contain many of his major works, plus lots of information about his life and influences. The gallery also contained a contemporary exhibit by a man that was into bugs. Visually very bizarre, but interesting. Most of his work was made with dead bug bodies.
I did like the Tapies Museum very much, both the site and his work. The building was very beautiful and an excellent exhibition site for his works. There was lots of beautiful gray and taupe marble and tall columns with very high ceilings and the obligatory large white walls. I found his work interesting and innovative. I think that possibly his background gave him the opportunity to “do art” but money does not buy talent and creativity. Obviously Larry and I have agreed to disagree on this one, but he was a good sport and even sat through a video about his work. Well maybe I shouldn’t give him too much credit for that as it was air conditioned and had comfy chairs.
Also we visited Guell Park that Gaudi had designed but it will best left to pictures, the guys work is not easy to put into words. Larry also left out the Erotic Museum, the best part of it was hearing the young girls (20 somethings) shrieking “Oh my God”. There will be no pictures from the Erotic Museum but there are a couple from a campground bathroom that had a huge marble statues of Venus. It was hard to get a good picture with without including the “happy campers” but I tried. Seems like our bathrooms just go from one extreme to the other.
My time is up Larry has the van packed and ready for travel mode.
2:11:33 PM 
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