Barcelona, part one: The first three days

I’ve been in Barcelona for three-and-a-half days so far, with two-and-a-half more to go. Here is a rundown of my experiences and impressions so far.

I’ll be adding more photos in the days ahead, but here is my Barcelona album so far. I’ve separated out photos from museums into a separate album.

Weather

I’ve had so much good weather on this trip so far. But I guess my luck was bound to change. Thursday, the day I arrived, it was cloudy. It rained pretty steadily all day Friday. Saturday was beautiful, as was Sunday morning, but rain came back in the afternoon.

It’s also been chilly. I don’t know if this is typical for Barcelona for the middle of March, but it’s been barely above 50^o F (10^o C) since I got here. And mornings are particularly cold. I much prefer this to the alternative, but I am surprised that it hasn’t been warmer.

Geography

Northern Spain on the southern coast

I have never been anywhere that I felt so discombobulated as I do here. Let’s start with the fact that, although I’m on the Mediterranean coast, this is considered northern Spain. For some reason, I want to think of the part of Spain that runs along the Atlantic Ocean, starting at the French border and heading west as “northern Spain.” I just can’t wrap my brain about the border between Spain and France running more east-west than north-south. I feel like the Mediterranean should be the southern coast, and the Atlantic should be the northern.

But that’s not the worst of it.

The Grid

Barcelona’s street layout is largely built on a grid. This should make it very easy to navigate. But no.

So this aerial photograph is completely inaccurate. North is not at the top. It’s also not at the sides or at the bottom. North is toward the lower left corner. If you put north at the top, you’d see that the grid is on a diagonal, with the streets running from northeast to southwest and northwest to southeast.

When I’m walking on a grid, I expect to be walking north-south or east-west. So when I’m walking on this grid, I’m never sure what direction I’m going.

My apartment where I’m staying happens to be on a street called Avinguda (or Avenida) Diagonal. You can probably tell which street on the grid is Avinguda Diagonal. But if the grid is on a 45^o angle, you would think the Diagonal would go either north-south or east-west.

But no!

The Diagonal cuts across two blocks one way for every one block the other way. 

I’ve been walking through these streets for three days and I still get disoriented.

Octagonal Intersections

To make things even more fun, notice that the grid intersections form octagons. This is a lovely feature. It gives the buildings at the corners a great open view.

Here’s an example of one of those corner buildings.

When you’re walking, this has another effect.

Tomorrow I am visiting Casa Battló, one of Antoni Gaudí’s famous houses, in the morning. Here’s the map showing where I’m staying (the blue dot), and where the house is.

Looks pretty much like a straight shot. Right?

Wrong.

Here’s a detail from the walking directions from Google Maps.

At every intersection, I have to detour to the crosswalks and wait for the lights. 

It’s really fun if I’m heading somewhere that isn’t a straight shot. Imagine the fun I had last night walking to the Palau del la Música Catalan, where I went to see Verdi’s Nabucco.

Where should I zig? And where should I zag? Where should I cross the street? If the light is green, I cross now; otherwise, I go one more block. Imagine how many times Google Maps had to recalculate the directions. And how many alternatives they would give me with approximately the same travel time.

All that said, the architecture of Barcelona is so incredible, whatever route I travel is a visual delight!

So let me give a quick rundown of what I’ve done so far.

Eixample Walking Tour

On Thursday afternoon I headed out on a walking tour of the Eixample neighborhood using Rick Steves’ Audio Europe. “Eixample” is the Catalan word for “expansion” or “extension.” This neighborhood sprang up in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries because the city was badly overcrowded.

The grid pattern I described was designed by Ildefons Cerdà, who is considered the founder of modern town planning and who coined the term “urbanization.” His octagonal blocks provided greater visibility, better ventilation, and a place for horse-drawn carriages and wagons to turn around. Cerdà had planned a second diagonal street. Maybe if they hadn’t ignored that part of his plan, I’d have gotten a straight shot to the Palau de la Música…

In any case, the walk was awesome, and my phone’s camera got a great workout. The highlights were the many houses by Modernista architects like Gaudí and many of his contemporaries who, while not as well-known, contributed in much greater numbers to the beauty of the Eixample. They include include Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Josep Domènech i Estapà, Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas and Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia, together responsible for a total of over 500 buildings in the Eixample and other parts of Barcelona.

Lots more from my Eixample walk in my photo album.

Friday

I’m too tired to write a lot about anything else. I’ll just sum up and send you to my photo albums.

On Friday morning I had an excellent food tour in the rain. We hit four places in Mercat Santa Caterina, the oldest bakery in Barcelona, and a few other stops, ending with a paella lunch. Since I never got around to having paella in Valencia (where authentic paella really comes from), I was glad to have it here. But to be honest, I prefer fried rice from a halfway decent Chinese restaurant. 

Then I went to the Picasso Museum. I saved more walking around until another day.

Saturday

Since it was a beautiful day, I did a lot of walking. I started with another Rick Steves audio tour, this one of a more historic nature, into some of the oldest parts of the city.

Then, since it was still a beautiful day, I walked all the way to Montjuic to visit the Fundació Joan Miró. And on the way back I stopped at Mercat Sant Antoni and applied what I learned on the food tour to get some lunch.

And then I stopped at another museum, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, and then my phone died and I had to guess which way to walk back to my apartment. 

I did 30,000 steps for the day.

Sunday (today)

I had a light day today. I started out at another museum. Actually, the museum I went to calls itself an “Off-Museum.” It’s called the White Rabbit. I have no idea how to describe it, other than to say it is nothing like any other museum I’ve ever been to. There are photos in my museum album, but I’m not sure they capture it.

After lunch, it started raining, so I decided to call it a day. I came back and relaxed in the apartment.

Meals

I should mention that eating meals in Barcelona follows a schedule I’m completely incompatible with. The tour guide from the food tour the other day explained it.

Locals start the morning with a very light breakfast, including coffee and a sweet pastry. Then they have second breakfast around 10am. This is normally a sandwich. Lunch is between 2pm and 4pm, and this is the biggest meal of the day. Most restaurants close at 4pm and don’t reopen until after 8pm. If they get hungry, they’ll go out for tapas, or they’ll have a sweet dessert in the late afternoon or early evening. Then comes dinner, usually at 9:30 or later. And this is a lighter meal.

I have been adapting pretty well. I am learning to have a bigger meal in the middle of the afternoon and a light dinner in the apartment at night.

I’ll write more about Barcelona in a few days. For now, enjoy the photos of the city and the museums.