More From Barcelona

The view of the Barcelona skyline from our hotel room's terrace was, pardon my use of an overused word, awesome. Last night's sky with glints of light from the city proved to be superb. That's Sagrada Familia in the distance behind a domed structure that we never did identify.

Breakfast at Cachitos on Las Ramblas was al fresco and before the first rain of the day hit. I obviously need another cup of coffee, judging from the slack look on my face. My art book is spread out in front of me and my brain is way off somewhere.

Throngs of people crowded the streets in front of the Gaudi designed buildings. I managed to find a good spot to photograph this popular building. Gaudi's inspiration from nature, botany in particular, is apparent in the swirls and curls of the building facade.

We took the high speed train from Barcelona to San Sebastian this afternoon and viewed olive groves from the train through the first half of the trip. At first I thought we were seeing vineyards and then realized from the solid trunks that what we were seeing were olive trees. Lots of them.

We arrived in San Sebastian around 9:30 pm and were greeted at the hotel by several of our Pipedreams friends. How wonderful to have people looking for you and happy to see you. Now, tomorrow, there will be lots of music (we visit four churches) and many conversations. That will be good for my weary soul, a soul that still thinks about my Dad way more often than I ever thought possible.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Barcelona, Day Two

Our Friday adventures in Barcelona took us to Barcelona Sants train station where we spent the better part of midday purchasing two one way tickets to San Sebastian for tomorrow. There was a rather loud labor demonstration going on over the noon hour. One guy was making a statement beyond the labor issue as you can tell from his unconventional clothing.

Our free hotel internet service is limited to 100 megabytes at 128 kb/second. I tend to run over, what with doing the blog and all, so I had hauled my Kindle Fire HD to the train station. Ed snapped this photo of me working on an email to little sis, Martha in Memphis, an email that was a day late for her 39th birthday.

Next we tromped on over to La Sagrada Familia, the Antonini Gaudi designed church that is modernist and organic and totally off the clock by conventional standards. Gaudi used curved lines in his work, as you can see by the undulating walls of this part of the structure. Gaudi's work is unfinished, which means that massive cranes and huge cement transfer devices were cranking away at the site of the church.

Eight of twelve spires are completed. Gaudi began his involvement in the church in 1883 and the work continues to this day. Barcelona is blessed with building after building in the modernist style and we shall have to return to the city again in order to take in the wonder of this magical architecture.

The comfort of a street vendor's flowers brought tears to my eyes late in the afternoon. There were several wonderful specimens of hibiscus, a plant that appeared twice in the funeral flowers for my Dad last week. Their huge, showy blossoms reminded me of another day of great sadness and I bit back the tears again as I thought of Dad's last days of struggle and peaceful going and, then, the moments with family and friends as we said good bye to my father. Tearful, good moments, found here in Barcelona.

Apparently the Aveda footprint covers Barcelona as evidenced by this window sign. Just wanted Peter Eichler and his colleagues at Douglas J to take note of another possible location (ahem!).

And, finally, we salute the couple from Norway who shared a lovely dinner time conversation with us at a tapas restaurant on Las Ramblas this evening. Their friendliness was a light in the day, we learned more about another country, and it was so good to chat comfortably with fellow tourists in a town that knows how to be a tourist town extraordinaire.

I commented to Ed sometime today. "Gee, I wonder if Gaudi ever imagined the long lines of people waiting to get in to the church that he imagined." Really, can any of us imagine the impact that we just might have on some place or some one or some time? We live our lives and never think about where the things we love to do and say might surface some day in the future.

Hats off to Gaudi and Barcelona, a city that knows who it is and loves visitors.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Barcelona, Finally

One of my Spain guidebooks calls this a view of the neo-gothic temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor, from the summit of Tibidabo, on the north side of Barcelona a dominating view. In less than a day, I would agree.

We arrived in Barcelona mid morning after two flights, both delayed, one from Detroit to Atlanta, and then a second flight on to Barcelona. Cramped in little seats, passengers tend to suffer togther on the long cross Atlantic trips in today's airplanes.

So far we have slept a bit, read maps, had a lovely dinner with a bottle of Tempranillo, wandered Las Ramblas, bought a few art supplies, and taken lots of photos. As I write, I have my eyelids propped up with drawing pencils. No, wait, really, I'm just bone tired and still pretty fragile after the last three weeks with my Dad and my family.

We really enjoyed people watching along Las Ramblas, a main street with eating places galore and shops that sold everything from gelato to shoes to tattoos to marijuana seeds. The city policia were out in full force, probably because there were loads of people on the street.

Tomorrow we'll see La Sagrada Familia, the famous Gaudi cathedral, not far from the hotel and take in some other sights as well. Right now, in the words of my Texas friends, "I'm tarred," so I'm headed off to sleep.

Copyright 2013

Wanda Hayes Eichler