This is one hell of a well designed city. Well, the modern part of the city. The old town (Ciutat Vella) including the Barri Gòtic is anything but designed. Of course it has its own charms. Assume I'm talking about the modern zone for the rest of this.
The buildings have chopped corners at intersections, so each one is a
little public square. Some have things like fountains in the middle.
Crossings are offset a bit from the intersections, too, so turning
traffic has some time to see conflicts on the destination street. There
are well-used special bus/taxi/scooter/bike lanes too. (Lots of
scooters!)
The streets are laid out on a pretty strict grid. In addition to more typical bus lines, there are numbered H and V lines (Horizontal and Vertical?) to help you navigate by coordinate if you're into that sort of thing. (You know I am.) The Metro has a lot of well-connected lines, but the stations are so HOT. Wow. The T never gets this bad in the middle of August - and the outside air has generally been reasonably pleasant here. What's the deal?
Expanding out from the Metro to media distancia, things get more complicated. The Rodalies network is a system of commuter trains to suburbs and more distant destinations. Ferrocarrils is another such network. I could not figure out how exactly they differed. There's also a "Tram" which I never saw in action - possibly a third such system?
The national Spanish railway company Renfe operates the larga distancia trains. Sigh. Maybe Germany spoiled me, but in 2000 I could book a trip from any X to any Y in any small town train station, even including local buses, and even if the trip was outside Germany. In Spain, you apparently can't even get a ticket leaving from the main station in town at the #4-ish station. You have to actually go there. (I'd buy online instead, but that just wasn't working at all.) When I got to the station, the machine wouldn't let me buy the ticket I wanted, so I was afraid they'd sold out! I would have to (shudder) talk to a human. I found that they weren't serving after-today long-distance trains yet, which works on the take-a-number system. And there was a line waiting for the number dispenser to activate for the day. Oy. While I'm waiting for my number to be called, I sketch out alternate plans for the rest of my trip in case I couldn't get to Córdoba on Weds. Eventually I'm called to the window and my train is sold out at the low price (aha) but I can book Turista Plus (like airline "Economy Plus" ?) for 50 additional euros. I'm kicking myself for not booking earlier, but it's worth it at this point.
Actually boarding this train, however, was a dream. The 300 km/h (186 MPH) AVE is the equal of Germany's ICE or France's TGV. Flying across the Spanish countryside (again, I'm thinking of Utah or Nevada) was so smooth that it was actually disorienting to disembark in a different city. How was it possible I had actually traveled somewhere?
Monday, October 20, 2014
Late Afternoon at Park Güell
[standard picture disclaimer]
Back to the hostel to rest a bit an then I'm off to spend my remaining daylight at Park Güell. Gaudí designed a planned community on a hill outside the downtown area. As I understand it, the planned community failed but the city kept some of the plans to make it into a park. There are trails, outlooks, and playful structures like fantasy-inspired stairways. There's a paid central Monuments Area but the rest of it is free. I assumed I wouldn't have time for the paid part so I didn't buy a ticket.
No importa: the free portion was a joy. Lovely paths and gorgeous views, though a lot of it was in pretty bad disrepair. Frequent ¡Peligro! signs and closed paths. As I'm about to call it a day, I come across the Tower of Three Crosses, with a lot of people lounging on top. Climbing up to join them was a little hair-raising with the hand rail stopping before the top, but I'm glad I did. I was treated to the best view of the city I'd seen yet, and right at sunset too. I'd been considering skipping the park in favor of rest - so glad I didn't! It helped turned a meh day (that began with train frustrations and Picasso) into a great one.
In desperate need of rest for my feet and phone (I am abusing all of these) I return to my hostel for a shower and laundry. While waiting for my clothes, I found a hammock on the roofdeck so I literally hung out there for a while, gazing upon Casa Batlló. When I'm finally ready to go out for dinner, it's late even for Spain. I have to try a few bars to see if they're still open, but I eventually find a nice spot in the Barri to eat a ridiculous amount of cheese and peppers. On the way I saw a Dunkin' Coffee shop but sadly I didn't have a camera.
Back to the hostel to rest a bit an then I'm off to spend my remaining daylight at Park Güell. Gaudí designed a planned community on a hill outside the downtown area. As I understand it, the planned community failed but the city kept some of the plans to make it into a park. There are trails, outlooks, and playful structures like fantasy-inspired stairways. There's a paid central Monuments Area but the rest of it is free. I assumed I wouldn't have time for the paid part so I didn't buy a ticket.
No importa: the free portion was a joy. Lovely paths and gorgeous views, though a lot of it was in pretty bad disrepair. Frequent ¡Peligro! signs and closed paths. As I'm about to call it a day, I come across the Tower of Three Crosses, with a lot of people lounging on top. Climbing up to join them was a little hair-raising with the hand rail stopping before the top, but I'm glad I did. I was treated to the best view of the city I'd seen yet, and right at sunset too. I'd been considering skipping the park in favor of rest - so glad I didn't! It helped turned a meh day (that began with train frustrations and Picasso) into a great one.
In desperate need of rest for my feet and phone (I am abusing all of these) I return to my hostel for a shower and laundry. While waiting for my clothes, I found a hammock on the roofdeck so I literally hung out there for a while, gazing upon Casa Batlló. When I'm finally ready to go out for dinner, it's late even for Spain. I have to try a few bars to see if they're still open, but I eventually find a nice spot in the Barri to eat a ridiculous amount of cheese and peppers. On the way I saw a Dunkin' Coffee shop but sadly I didn't have a camera.
The Boqueria Market
The Boqueria (butcher?) Market is one of those big halls full of vendors selling meats, fish, produce, candy, pastries, and other goodies, similar to those I went to in Montreal and Cleveland earlier this year. Unlike these, the Boqueria has a serious ham focus. This makes sense considering the Spanish jamón obsession. (Should I write a whole post on ham, or is that not meaty enough?) Various bars at the market too, with assuredly fresh ingredients. I picked one and plopped down next to an amusing Swiss family, choosing a zarzuela, a traditional seafood stew. There was a bit of a challenge prying open the creatures, but it was worth the effort. Add a little pan and an Estrella Damm and I'm a happy man.
On my way out, I'm thinking dessert. Nougat sounded like the thing but the free sample wasn't to my liking. I passed a cafe and realized I hadn't tried a Xocolata amb Xurros yet. Bingo! The chocolate was so rich and thick, and coated the churros nicely. Mmm!
On my way out, I'm thinking dessert. Nougat sounded like the thing but the free sample wasn't to my liking. I passed a cafe and realized I hadn't tried a Xocolata amb Xurros yet. Bingo! The chocolate was so rich and thick, and coated the churros nicely. Mmm!
I still don't like Picasso
Barcelona loves its artists, especially Antoni Gaudí and Pablo Picasso. The former is showcased by his houses like the Casa Batlló and grander projects like the Sagrada Familia and Park Güell, and the latter at the Picasso Museum. Assuming the ticket line would look similar to Sunday's, I bought in advance. A quick Metro trip and I'm in, easy as paella*.
The museum houses the collection of Jaume Sabartés, Barcelonan and Picasso's BFF whenever he was in town. Indeed many of the paintings and sketches feature him as a subject. We start with the early years. Traditional styles, formal training, school assignments. The kid had talent, which I knew because of the awards he won.
Let me digress for a moment. Recently I attended an Aphex Twin listening party. Before putting the records on (yeah actual records) the host read a review of the album by someone who clearly has no business reviewing electronic music, as they don't even like the genre. This is roughly how seriously you should take my art criticism.
Anyway, I rather liked the young stuff. My favorite was called Science and Charity, or something like that. Moving on to a more impressionistic style, I enjoyed these works too. Sketches and x-ray videos helped bring the process of creation to life. But here comes the blue period and cubism, where Picasso becomes PICASSO, and now you've lost me. See, I've never liked Picasso. I feel his work is the kind of thing you need an art degree to appreciate, like a Frank Gehry building. To the uninitiated, it's just an ugly mess. My hope is that I would be able to educate myself a bit, but the museum was of no help here. Alas. Time to seek out lunch.
* I have no idea how easy/hard it is to make paella ↩
The museum houses the collection of Jaume Sabartés, Barcelonan and Picasso's BFF whenever he was in town. Indeed many of the paintings and sketches feature him as a subject. We start with the early years. Traditional styles, formal training, school assignments. The kid had talent, which I knew because of the awards he won.
Let me digress for a moment. Recently I attended an Aphex Twin listening party. Before putting the records on (yeah actual records) the host read a review of the album by someone who clearly has no business reviewing electronic music, as they don't even like the genre. This is roughly how seriously you should take my art criticism.
Anyway, I rather liked the young stuff. My favorite was called Science and Charity, or something like that. Moving on to a more impressionistic style, I enjoyed these works too. Sketches and x-ray videos helped bring the process of creation to life. But here comes the blue period and cubism, where Picasso becomes PICASSO, and now you've lost me. See, I've never liked Picasso. I feel his work is the kind of thing you need an art degree to appreciate, like a Frank Gehry building. To the uninitiated, it's just an ugly mess. My hope is that I would be able to educate myself a bit, but the museum was of no help here. Alas. Time to seek out lunch.
* I have no idea how easy/hard it is to make paella ↩
HDR Bleg
Photographers! This noob needs your help.
I'm taking a huge number of photos, and I would like to post-process many of them in HDR. Can you recommend software for this task? Optimize for ease of use here. Or maybe there's a better choice of processing I'm not aware of?
The reason I'm thinking HDR is that I'm often facing this situation: the sky is very bright and my subject is also bright (white or yellow) partially in shadow. Since it's super easy to do so on my phone (HTC One M8) I repeat most of my shots 3x, with appropriate light levels for sky, subject, and shadow. Or maybe these shots will work on their own - I haven't reviewed them yet.
I'm taking a huge number of photos, and I would like to post-process many of them in HDR. Can you recommend software for this task? Optimize for ease of use here. Or maybe there's a better choice of processing I'm not aware of?
The reason I'm thinking HDR is that I'm often facing this situation: the sky is very bright and my subject is also bright (white or yellow) partially in shadow. Since it's super easy to do so on my phone (HTC One M8) I repeat most of my shots 3x, with appropriate light levels for sky, subject, and shadow. Or maybe these shots will work on their own - I haven't reviewed them yet.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Montserrat
[Yes, this is another one that would be greatly enhanced by pictures.]
The serrated mountain has a distinctive look, pointy yet rounded, like termite mounds, a grey mass rising up unexpectedly from its red-green-brown surroundings. So I was pretty sure that's what I saw out the airplane window. I was able to confirm that suspicion with a closer peek. Boarding the train at Estació Plaça Espanya, I was surprised to see my train wouldn't be the refined European rail experience I was hoping for, but the Ferrocarrils commuter service. Packed tight with no seats available, like a Big Red on the T (though the train car itself was much nicer, of course). So: an hour of standing. But my excitement built as we rode over the Barcelona basin hills and into the country. Around a bend the mountain arose, and a substantial fraction of us disembarked at the Aeri (cable car) base station.
With a chill in the air, the cable car took us up into and through the clouds, by way of a cleft in the mountain to the monastery. Impressive that it was built at these great heights, and then the access road, train, and cable car. The complex contains a basilica, residences, (I think) a hotel, a cafe, a bar, a museum, and various viewing points. Funiculars too - one up to the summit ridge and one down to a cave, and a network of trails to connect their endpoints to religious sites and other views. I bet you can guess my primary motivation for this trip! Up the funicular and a beeline for the highest peak. I figured I had just about enough time to get there and down to be at the Sagrada Familia at my reserved time - which I had timed to take a decent look at it before it closed.
What a gorgeous hike this was! Some in light forest, but much in the open on a ridge of the weird rock Montserrat is made of. Close up, it was revealed to be a conglomerate (yes, geologists?) of small rocks cemented together, kind of a natural concrete. It wasn't always obvious whether a trail feature was man-made concrete or if I was just walking on a piece of the mountain that was already present. There were helpful "time to X" signs" every 10 minutes or so, but after a few of these I could tell I was falling behind. At the final junction, I knew I wouldn't be able to make my destination, and I was even concerned about getting down in time via the cut-out trail. That brings us to the moral of our story: oh no, it's not that I shouldn't pack in so many things on my itinerary that I drive myself crazy trying to do it all. I'll never learn that lesson. It's that the point of a hike is not the destination. The hike was already pretty great as it was, and I was seeing most of what the highest peak would give me on the ridge. Views all around, up to the peaks of my mountain, across to others, and down to the countryside.
The hike down was interesting too, with views back across the other side of the valley made by the "Torrent de Santa Maria" - dry btw - which I followed all the way down. I bet the cable car cleft was also formed by the Torrent. The trail occasionally took me back into forest to reach the valley floor, and sometimes the trail was the Torrent. The rocky parts were scary at times! Steps cut into the mountain quite close to a dropoff. Also challenging, which I guess makes sense as I was dropping the altitude I had achieved by funicular in addition to my hike up.
Spoiler: I did make it down on time! Even had a chance to make a quick sweaty tour of the basilica, though I didn't wait in line to get close to the featured attraction, the Black Madonna. Leave that to those who can really appreciate it. Cable and train back to Barcelona - standing only again, but at least this time there was floor space to collapse my butt down onto. A good thing, because I needed to rest up for my tour of the Sagrada Familia!
The serrated mountain has a distinctive look, pointy yet rounded, like termite mounds, a grey mass rising up unexpectedly from its red-green-brown surroundings. So I was pretty sure that's what I saw out the airplane window. I was able to confirm that suspicion with a closer peek. Boarding the train at Estació Plaça Espanya, I was surprised to see my train wouldn't be the refined European rail experience I was hoping for, but the Ferrocarrils commuter service. Packed tight with no seats available, like a Big Red on the T (though the train car itself was much nicer, of course). So: an hour of standing. But my excitement built as we rode over the Barcelona basin hills and into the country. Around a bend the mountain arose, and a substantial fraction of us disembarked at the Aeri (cable car) base station.
With a chill in the air, the cable car took us up into and through the clouds, by way of a cleft in the mountain to the monastery. Impressive that it was built at these great heights, and then the access road, train, and cable car. The complex contains a basilica, residences, (I think) a hotel, a cafe, a bar, a museum, and various viewing points. Funiculars too - one up to the summit ridge and one down to a cave, and a network of trails to connect their endpoints to religious sites and other views. I bet you can guess my primary motivation for this trip! Up the funicular and a beeline for the highest peak. I figured I had just about enough time to get there and down to be at the Sagrada Familia at my reserved time - which I had timed to take a decent look at it before it closed.
What a gorgeous hike this was! Some in light forest, but much in the open on a ridge of the weird rock Montserrat is made of. Close up, it was revealed to be a conglomerate (yes, geologists?) of small rocks cemented together, kind of a natural concrete. It wasn't always obvious whether a trail feature was man-made concrete or if I was just walking on a piece of the mountain that was already present. There were helpful "time to X" signs" every 10 minutes or so, but after a few of these I could tell I was falling behind. At the final junction, I knew I wouldn't be able to make my destination, and I was even concerned about getting down in time via the cut-out trail. That brings us to the moral of our story: oh no, it's not that I shouldn't pack in so many things on my itinerary that I drive myself crazy trying to do it all. I'll never learn that lesson. It's that the point of a hike is not the destination. The hike was already pretty great as it was, and I was seeing most of what the highest peak would give me on the ridge. Views all around, up to the peaks of my mountain, across to others, and down to the countryside.
The hike down was interesting too, with views back across the other side of the valley made by the "Torrent de Santa Maria" - dry btw - which I followed all the way down. I bet the cable car cleft was also formed by the Torrent. The trail occasionally took me back into forest to reach the valley floor, and sometimes the trail was the Torrent. The rocky parts were scary at times! Steps cut into the mountain quite close to a dropoff. Also challenging, which I guess makes sense as I was dropping the altitude I had achieved by funicular in addition to my hike up.
Spoiler: I did make it down on time! Even had a chance to make a quick sweaty tour of the basilica, though I didn't wait in line to get close to the featured attraction, the Black Madonna. Leave that to those who can really appreciate it. Cable and train back to Barcelona - standing only again, but at least this time there was floor space to collapse my butt down onto. A good thing, because I needed to rest up for my tour of the Sagrada Familia!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)