Madrid...

In Spain when you order a gin and tonic the waiter will bring the gin bottle to the table and just pour and pour it. So the first time I ordered a gin and tonic I was too scared to drink it (don’t worry, I got over that). It was quite staggering how strong the drinks were. The wine was good too. We ate very well all over Spain, but I think we put in an extra special effort in Madrid.

We were there at the same time as The World Gay Pride Festival so the city was wonderfully colourful and vibrant. We ate out a lot, found favourite restaurants, drank fish-bowl sized gin and tonics and walked and walked.

Madrid is a beautiful city, and apart from a day at the Prado (where they wont let you take photos – boo hiss!) and an afternoon at the Reina Sofia, we were pretty unscheduled and just wandered. It’s an excellent city for that, and since we were staying in Barrio de las Letras it was easy to walk to everything. From the moment we arrived we started walking - from the train station to our airbnb, then around the narrow and interesting streets. We walked to the Galleries, and to churches and squares – everything was easy to get to and I don’t think we used any transport at all the whole time we were there. Luke liked Madrid so much he decided to learn Spanish, and I would love to come back to see the Prado again.

Barcelona (part 2)...

Gaudi and the modernists really gave Barcelona it's individuality. Their architecture is sublime. Nothing really prepares you for the quirkiness of it, or the way it's been embraced by the city – so that the organic, colourful, tiled and patterned structures pop up all over the place.

Gaudi was an interesting man, very religious, very egalitarian, and seemingly very kind. He built his most famous cathedral La Sagrada Familia where the workers of the city could worship. He famously walked around looking like a tramp, concerned only for his work, and the glorification of God. His attention to detail was staggering, and it’s easy to see how all-consuming his work must have been to him. And it’s so joyful. Happy architecture. I really wish there was more of it.

Park Güell and La Sagrada Familia are both wonderful and it took us most of the day to see both. I particularly liked the park with its beautiful views over the city. It’s such a playful place, and bigger than I’d expected. As usual, it made me want to transplant some of the ideas to my own home – a mosaic-covered home with turrets? Why not?

 

 

Barcelona (part 1)...

“Let’s catch the train to Barcelona,” I said. “It will be fun,” I said.

I love train travel because a) you see so much more than in a plane, b) it’s not as stressful as driving, and c) train stations are usually centrally located so you arrive close to where you want to be.

It was a good decision for the most part, but changing trains in Paris was a bit stressful, since you have to travel across the city and change stations as well as trains. That would have been ok (I’d allowed time for it), but our train out of London left late (the reason given over the loud speaker was that the carriages hadn’t arrived from the depot. What? Why not? Did someone sleep in?).

We made it to our connection (just) but honestly it was trickier than it should have been for such a well-travelled route. Even getting from the underground to the over ground train was confusing so it was such a relief to be on the correct train for Barcelona.

We arrived around dusk, settled into our airbnb, and went for a walk. Barcelona really is as beautiful as I imagined it would be. It’s a city that seems to take great pride in its history and architecture. By some good fortune it turned out to be the feast of St Joan, which was an amazing night to turn up in the city. (In Catalunya they celebrate the Summer Solstice, also known as the feast of St Joan, with a public holiday and a wonderful party atmosphere, bonfires in the streets and fireworks everywhere.) Kids in the local park were having so much fun lighting fireworks (that would never be allowed in safety-conscious Australia) and the whole place was alive with late evening fun. It was such a good introduction to the city.

London - touristy things...

The British Museum: 

Just wow. I love the British Museum. It’s so big and there’s so much to see that it’s easy to get tired and overwhelmed, there is just so much to take in. One of the reasons I would love to live in London is so I could go to the museums and galleries all the time and spread the experience out. It’s impossible to see everything or even enjoy everything in a short amount of time. So we rushed through, trying to get the flavour of the place.

There’s a new building in the middle of the museum, (well, new to me, I think it was built in 2000) – excellent architecture. It’s called the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court (not the most imaginative name) and it’s made the Museum’s inner courtyard into a large covered public square. It is a two-acre space enclosed by a glass roof with the famous Reading Room at its centre.

Tate Modern:
There was some wonderful work here. I’m more a Renaissance person when it comes to art, and often Contemporary Art leaves me cold with it’s obscure, often difficult, self-referential navel gazing. But when it’s good, it’s very good. I did find the temporary exhibition much more interesting than the general collection though.

The National Gallery:
The best, best place to go in London. It has some of my all time favourite works. I also spent quite a bit of time photographing gilt frames which I think will become a new obsession of mine. This is a truly wonderful place.

Afternoon Tea at the Ritz:
A super touristy thing to do, I know. It was fun though. There was far more food than we could eat – I don’t know how other people do it. I’ve read that there are better places to go in London for afternoon tea, but I’d never been to the Ritz, so that’s where we went. To be fair to the whole of the UK though, everywhere we went served excellent tea and scones (I tried them absolutely everywhere we stopped for a snack). Maybe it’s one of those cultural things, where the local standard is so high, there is just no place for terrible tea and scones, a bit like being in Rome (where there is no decent tea at all) but the coffee and the pastries are fabulous practically anywhere.