Getting acquainted with Gaudi

Today was the beginning of getting acquainted with the architecture of Gaudi, the Catalonian who created magnificent and very unusual designs from the late 1880’s until he was killed by a tram in 1926. Today we visited the biggest structure he designed, the cathedral called Sagrada Familia, subject of today’s picture. This building was less than 25% completed when Gaudi died, and is still under construction. Touring it, including going up the spires to see the construction going on up high, gives you a real sense of the immense amount of labor and materials it took to build the older cathedrals that you now seen as completed wholes. It is expected to be completed in 2030—don’t think I’ll make that one. There are several more Gaudi buildings to see here—we’ll continue our Gaudi exposure over the next several days.

We have landed in Barcelona at the end of a major festival, and are finding many squares and museums quite crowded. We’re also finding it a major challenge to eat at a reasonable price, with some of the most expensive meals any of us have seen (including Tokyo and London)—with dinner entrees upwards of 20 euros (that’s about $30). All markets are closed on Sunday, so we will have to wait until tomorrow to lay in supplies so we can cook dinner at home. Then we’ll eat out midday, when restaurants feature more reasonably priced meals. We can’t figure out out people who live here can afford to eat out—they must be clever at finding little spots that are reasonable.

Overnight train to Barcelona

Call it functional, but just barely. We shared this small boat-sized space with Fritz & Nancy and our four suitcases—just a bit of a challenge. I’m shooting this picture from my top bunk. The space between the two bunks was about 1 ½ feet—not much room to maneuver. Fortunately in the morning we were able to fold the bunks up and find decent seats underneath.

The train itself left Turin about 40 minutes late and arrived in Barcelona about an hour late. But what difference did it make to us?? A little boring waiting on the platform at 9 pm in the evening in Turin in a station with absolutely no services, and a slightly later start on Saturday in Barcelona getting our bearings.

We’ve settled into our little apartment, and are currently waiting until it’s late enough to go out to dinner (must be at least 9 pm). Americans are not used to having that kind of time to fill in the evening. Fortunately, it also has wireless internet access so I'll be able to post some pictures this week.

Already it appears the challenge in Barcelona is going to be finding places to eat that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Lots of tourists here (as opposed to Turin, which is not so overrun with tourists, so you can find good places that the locals can afford to eat in).

Turin-wide plazas, limited parking

One of the enigmas of Turin is that is has wide boulevards and vast plazas, but it also has more cars than it can fit into the limited parking spaces along the streets.

If I can load two pictures, the first is a picture of one of the large plazas. The second shows one of the more inventive parking solutions—one owner tucked his/her car underneath this construction vehicle for the night.

Touring Torino ((Turin)

We're happily ensconced in Nina Rook's Turin flat, learning our way about this very interesting city. My very basic Italian is getting me what I need--I can mostly make out the price of things when told, and ask where the toilet is. And at times I can understand directions when I ask "dove e museo?" if the answer is accompanied by a sufficient number of hand gestures.

No pictures this post. Nina does not have wireless and we were unable to get my camera pictures to load into her system. So just know that I am capturing lots of images of some very interesting places. Yesterday we visited the Rivoli Castle, which once was a castle but is now an extremely interesting museum which has juxtaposed some very modern architecture with the centuries-old remainders of the castle. Astonishingly, it works very well. And inside they have commissioned artists to create new works in the old, mostly very large, castle halls.

Turin also turns out to have the second largest Egyptian museum outside of Egypt. I visited that today, and enjoyed their very well done displays of statues and sarcophagi complete with mummies. We're enjoying delicious little cappucino's and finding some good restaurants, as well as cooking in.

We also made one journey south of Turin to a small town that still has its medieval buildings intact. There's not much left of medieval Turin--mostly 18th & 19th century, alongside modern. Got a look at the converted former Fiat factory here in the middle of Turin, complete with test track on the roof and the small collection of pictures made available by the Agnellis--owners of the company.

We're here for two more days, then take the overnight train Friday evening to Spain. So will post more from there--hopefully with pictures.

Exploring the splendors of the Lakes District

Nina Rook and I have now done two hikes exploring the beautiful scenery of the Lakes District and pressing our bodies just enough. While we’ve been climbing, the remainder of the group has opted for less strenuous hikes or walks. Group members have been cooking up a storm—we’ve been enjoying a series of English dishes such as Cumberland sausage, lamb chops, shepherd’s pie (with ground lamb), and apple bramble crumble (brambles are blackberries) served with “double cream” – (that’s VERY thick and rich cream). We’ve eaten well, and best of all, after five days of traveling together—sometimes 7 of us in one car—we’re still on good speaking terms.

We’ve also explored nearby towns, twice as the result of flat tires acquired by the confined widths of narrow Lakes District roads and holes/rocks on the edges of the road (there are no shoulders on the roads here). It’s exciting driving here! Not only are you on the “wrong” side (shifting gears with the left hand instead of the right) but frequently on lanes just wide enough for one car, so if you meet someone, somebody gets to back up to a point where there’s a wide spot in the road. I’ve done the driving for Nina and me to enable us to take a separate path from the rest of the group—and I’ll be happy to give that up when we move on to Italy, where we plan to confine ourselves to public transport.

Lake End House at High Nibthwaite, Lake District, England

The white house is our home for the week, situated at the south end of Conistan Water. In the background you can see the lake, where we went rowing this evening. We’ve taken ourselves to a couple of the small villages nearby, including Ambleside and Hawkeshead. Today we visted Beatrix Potter’s Hilltop House in Near Sawrey, then after went to Blackwell House, an “Arts & Crafts” house built around 1900 with incredible detail in its handcrafted friezes, moldings, door handles and downspout decorations. Our eyes are enjoying the landscapes of rolling green hills dotted with sheep and stone houses. The VERY narrow roads continue to take our breath away when we meet other cars, or worse, buses. So far so good—no bumps or scratched car sides.

Sept. 12 2009 - The Book Group Goes to Europe

We are part of a Book Group that has been together in a variety of incarnations for over 30 years. The group has done a few adventures together, but the furthest afield we have traveled is Lopez Island. Last year we decided to undertake a major adventure, driven by opportunities afforded by our members. The first opportunity was a large house in the Lake District in England which belongs to a friend of one of our members, and is rented at a very agreeable price to people they know. Seven of our nine book group members agreed we wanted to travel together there.

Another of our members has an apartment in Turin (aka Torino) Italy. On the premise that “since we’re already in England, Italy’s pretty close), five members of the group decided to continue on to Turin. To finish off the trip, four of us will continue to Barcelona (no book group connection there), and then return to London for a few days.

So here are five of us in front of the ABC Hyde Park Hotel in London, one of a row of little hotels tucked into the Sussex Gardens Street in the Paddington area, close to Hyde Park (left to right, after me and Phil are Steve Frank, Nina Rook and Kay Frank). After an overnight in London, we hooked up with our remaining pair (our Lake District “hosts” Nancy Taylor and Fritz Levy) and came today by train and then car, carefully navigating on the “wrong” side of the road. We’ve just finished off a beautifully English dinner of Cumberland sausage accompanied by “bubble and squeak” (a side-dish mix of mashed potatoes and cabbage). Dessert was sticky toffee pudding. All delicious--we’re carrying on the book group tradition of eating well.

Lucky us—after 10 weeks of rain, the weather has turned beautiful. Today was sunny and warm (in the 60’s). We’ll see how fortunate we remain. No matter—we’ll be out walking around regardless of weather.

I’ll keep up posts every few days so you all can follow our fun!