Barcelona Because Gaudi

After finding out at the end of January that Michel got funding to work in Toronto (the very best case scenario, we're going home!!!) we had to make a list of things to see before we move home in July, and Spain was on that list.

I spent my March break when I was 15 seeing Paris, Madrid, and Barcelona on a school trip. And I remember nothing about Madrid, but do remember the amazing Gaudi architecture of Barcelona. So since we've already done Paris, Barcelona seemed like the next must-see.

We arrived to sun and palm trees, a feature I had completely forgotten about Barcelona. Our AirBnb was across from a boulevard full of palm trees (Rambla del Raval) and restaurants, so of course our first order of business was to have a drink.

Our first dinner was at El Nacional, a very cool building with 4 restaurants and a bar in one big, open space.

 

Michel was so excited for tapas, so we ate at the tapas restaurant. We were definitely early for dinner, but man do they eat late there! We ate around 8-8:30 and it was obviously still tourist dinner time.

Our first full day was a Gaudi day. For anyone who doesn't know, Antoni Gaudi was an architect with a very unique style and Barcelona is full of his amazing work.

We started with a trip up to Park Guell, which was an estate he built for the Guell family in the early 1900's, but is now a city park. And when I say we went up, I mean up.

The park is gigantic and is mostly a free city park (the above view is from the free zone), but the majority of amazing Gaudi architecture is inside the paid Monumental Zone.

The huge open square you first enter is surrounded by palm trees and then the huge, serpentine, mosaic-covered bench overlooking the city. Gaudi loved his mosaics and smooth curves.

Underneath the square is a column-filled space that was meant as a covered market space.

There's also this very cool covered walkway, which is the thing I remember most from my trip to Barcelona 14 years ago.

  

The architecture is just so different and so very cool to see in person.

We wandered around the rest of the Monumental Zone, then back out into the free zone. We had already done a ton of walking, and we had an appointment to get to, so this was our last Gaudi stop within the park.

 

Knowing how huge it is now, if we ever go back we will take the whole day to see just the park. We suggest this for anyone who likes to wander around and take walks, and who is going to be in Barcelona. Take lots of food so you don't have to go to the one restaurant in the park (no picnics allowed in the monumental zone but go for it in the free zone!).

But, we had to get into the city to see La Sagrada Familia. This is a Cathedral designed by Gaudi. Construction started in 1882 and it's still not done! They aim to finish it by 2026, the centennial of Gaudi's death, but there is still a lot to be built in only 9 years...

Another must see if you're in Barcelona. And do pay to go inside, it is AMAZING. Cathedrals are always beautiful but this one is indescribable.

 

I could go on and on about the light in here. Gaudi designed it so that the East facing stained glass is made up of blues and greens, to capture the coolness of the morning. And the West facing stained glass is made up of yellows, oranges, and reds, to capture the warmth of the afternoon sun. It's just phenomenal.

 

We bought one audio guide to share and did the little tour around inside and outside. Also, money-saving tip: you have to choose an entrance time when you buy your ticket (this means no waiting in line, it's great) and if you're under 30 and go after 4pm it's hugely discounted.

Another very cool thing about the design of this church is that the columns were designed to be like huge tree trunks, and the ceiling was designed to be like a forest canopy, filtering light and sound.

I just cannot say enough about this place, and at the same time I can't possibly describe it. You. Must. Go.






The next day we took the high speed train up to the town of Figueres to see the Dali Museum. We walked from the train to the museum (it's about 20 minutes), which is recognizable as soon as you see it.








It is really a surreal place. Definitely the most interesting and fun museum I've ever been in.

 

I wouldn't recommend doing what we did - taking the trip from Barcelona to Figueres just for the museum - because it was a whole day spent just to see this one museum. I don't regret it, but I think you'd do better to have something else to see or do on that route.

It was a crazy beautiful day though, it was 27 degrees Celcius!!! And we were North of Barcelona!

We walked back to the train station through a pretty park in Figueres, that was also full of palm trees.

We had nothing planned for our last day, so we decided to do a self-guided walking tour to see some more Gaudi buildings. We started with Palau Guell, because it was closest to where we stayed. We admired the iron work (there's a dragon!) and the very typical rounded mosaics on the roof.

 

Next it was off to Placa Reial (a pretty little square), where you can see Gaudi's first commissioned works. And they're not buildings, they're actually iron lamp posts. And each one has an iron dragon on top.

We then hopped on the Metro to Passeig de Gracia (one of Barcelona's main streets) to go see Casa Battlo, probably my favourite Gaudi building.

After that masterpiece, we walked up Passeig de Gracia to Casa Mila (also called La Pedrera). This building is pretty huge and very easy to spot from far away. We had a quick sit where we could admire it from afar.

 

Up close it's also very impressive and very strange, which pretty much describes any Gaudi architecture.

And then we continued up the street to our last Gaudi stop, Casa Vicens. Unfortunately, it was under restoration when we were there, so all we could really see was this very pretty corner.

It's one of Gaudi's first works, so I wish we could have seen more of it. But, we hope to visit again when La Sagrada Familia is finally finished, so we'll see it then.

Our Gaudi stops went quicker than we expected, so we hopped on the Metro again towards the beach, because if there is a beach, I want to see it!

It was very grey when we arrived, but still nice to be by the sea. And, after stopping for the warmth of the heaters and a drink at a small restaurant, the sun came out! So we walked along one of the ports on our way back to the Metro.

We got some tapas after our beach time, which was a huge mistake. We completely failed at Spanish dinner times. We kept getting tapas too late in the day (around 4pm) to be hungry for dinner around 8:30 - yes I know that's still early for Spain, but we just couldn't find the energy to go for dinner after 9pm. We are old at heart...and sometimes in body.

So, our last dinner was actually just the most amazing tapas ever at a restaurant I had really wanted to eat at - Arume Restaurant. It has amazing reviews and sounded delicious, but we didn't make a reservation. So when we showed up at 8:00, planning to start with drinks and order dinner a bit later, we were told we could come in but had to leave by 9:30 (because the reservations started then).



We had a blueberry mojito each and shared some scallops. And now I have to go back to Barcelona just to eat a full dinner here - oh man were those scallops good!




I haven't mentioned yet that the one dinner we managed to eat out was also amazing. We both got seafood paella, and wow. The seafood in Barcelona is reason enough to go. I am dying for seafood paella just thinking about it...

And the next day we were on a plane, saying goodbye to the sun and the palm trees. Actually, we said goodbye to the sun the day before, since it was rainy when we left. The perfect way to send us back to the Netherlands, really.

The moral of this blog post - go to Barcelona to see all of the Gaudi you can and eat all the seafood you can.

Maastricht Carnaval 2017!

This year we got to take part in our second Carnival. With it being our second year, we had a better idea of how we could really have fun at Carnival. It definitely helped that, this year, we hadn't just moved to another continent.

We started with a pretty calm day of seeing the Prince of Carnival arrive at the station and then we went to the Markt to see him arrive there to...well do something with the statue of t'Mooswief, who got all dressed up with vegetables.

 

I can't tell if my memory of it is skewed, because of being generally overwhelmed with everything last year, but I expected a lot more from the Saturday of Carnival weekend. In contrast to what I remember from last year, almost no one was dressed up, there weren't any bands around the city, and I don't remember hearing any partying that night.

But, the Carnival Sunday was more what I was expecting. We got dressed up and headed to the Vrijthof to see them raise t'Mooswief! She signifies the official start of Carnival.

    

We then headed to the St. Servaas bridge and got a spot nearby for the parade.

Of course, we had drinks with us the whole time. And we saw a totally different view of the parade from last year (we watched it near the Station in Wyck last year, on the other side of the river).

Then it was off to the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein to get some food, then hang out and drink (some more)!

Those were the only two days we took part in Carnival this year. Partly because it rained every other day, and partly (okay mostly) because I can't drink for a whole day and function the next day. I spent Carnival Monday in bed. It was worth it though!

Late December in the Hague

We were antsy to get out of the house after a pretty long December hibernation, which was caused by a few things: all of our friends left for home, the university was closed, and it was Christmas!

So we decided to take an easy trip up to the Hague for a couple days.

We stayed very close to the city center, so our first evening there we took a walk around. It was still decorated for Christmas which was nice.

We decided to see the Binnenhof and Ridderzaal (the Inner Court and Knight's Hall) that night. The Ridderzaal is the large building here, and it's surrounded by buildings, forming a courtyard, that are all related to the political history of the Hague.

It was a very foggy night. The fog, combined with the Christmas lights, meant a fantastic night time walk!

The next day we took a walk to the gardens of the Palais Noordeinde (North Palace). It was cold and foggy but still a nice little garden. And there were still flowers in bloom at the end of December!

 

Then we went to see the Panorama Mesdag, which turned out to be our favourite thing in the Hague.

It's a huge panoramic painting from the 1800's, of the seaside neighbourhood called Scheveningen. It's lit from above with natural light coming in from the domed ceiling, and the sand and all of the things on the sand are real. And you view it from a wooden observation deck, so it really feels like you're at the beach. There are also seaside sound effects, which sounds like it would be very cheesy, but it wasn't!










It was so peaceful (and warm), I could have stayed all day. But, instead, we headed back out to the cold to see the Peace Palace.

It's the International Court of Justice. No tours on the weekdays, so we (and the travel buddies) just admired it from outside.

Then we took a walk through the nearby park, the Scheveningse Bosjes. It's huge and we only saw a little of it. But what we did see, even though it was grey and foggy and December, was pretty.

And then we took the tram to the actual seaside to see Scheveningen and the North Sea!

It was SO cold and windy on the beach, but I loved listening to the waves and watching them roll in. There is nothing like being at a beach, even on December 29th.

  

Unfortunately, a nerve in my foot acted up our whole trip, so walking around was painful. This meant that we did not venture out onto the pier, I prioritized walking on the beach :) But we had a good view of the pier.

We ended up skipping one of the museums we had wanted to see. The Mauritshaus Museum houses a large selection of Dutch Masters paintings, so if we're ever in the Hague again, we'll visit.



And this trip wrapped up 2016 for us. We started by arriving in the Netherlands, and ended exploring one of its cities.