I still have my lovely room at Agora BCN which is some kind of a campus way up towards the hills away from downtown. I thought an American who is on the panel for the retreat was coming from Washington Thursday but so far no one. after breakfast and sending off my blog and emails, I headed on the metro to rent a bike. turns out I was just in time for the 11 o'clock tour so I joined up.
There were eight of us plus Moritz (like the local beer, he said) and Fleur, a Dutch woman living here and in training to lead the bike tours. There was a Dutch couple and a Norwegian/American couple. Kim and her husband, who have two boys 17 and 14, who is a physical therapist! live north of Oslo. she moved to Norway with her parents when she was 19 and just stayed, although they
frequently go back to California to see relatives. A couple of young Swiss girls on holiday rounded of out our group.
We rode out to el Raval, a former working class and immigrant area of BCN. During the Olympic renovations, which changed BCN from an industrial city to one more attractive to tourists and cosmopolitan, this area was unsafe and inhabited by drugs and prostitutes. But since 92 it has been given a face lift and the area now has it's own Ramblas for people to gather and socialize. many of the surrounding restaurants are Indonesian, Pakistani, and other drinks like middle eastern cuisines.
We also passed the newly built Contemporary Art museum where the architect Meier a bent mirrored wall that reflects the rest of the city when you look up. Kind of cool! just north of this area is the large building with a gorgeous courtyard where I'm now typing where the retreat will be held this weekend. Doug is around here somewhere working .
We headed out cross to Plaza Real, a big plaza in the old Gothic part of the city. This used to be a monastery but earlier the people revolted because the Church owned so much land I and burned it down. They made an elegant place with a fountain in the middle. We biked the very narrow streets out of the Gothic down to the beach area. This was completely renovated for the Olympics and all the port and industry moved out of sight. Now there are wonderful wide boardwalks, restaurants and a harbor for private yachts. We biked a ways north to see the public beaches where Sand was brought in from Egypt and they were being well used by blathers today? this is where we took our break and stopped for a drink and a chance to visit.
We headed north to a park where a World Exposition was held in 1899, the year before the big Paris one, for which the Eiffel Tower was built. There is a beautiful Arch de Triumph, and one building that now houses natural history museum. Our guide said they tore it all down but learned better after the Olympics and saved the buildings for other uses. he showed us two huge towers, one that held all the press and the other the officials for the games. they are now very exclusive and expensive hotels. The low rise apartments had been where the athletes stayed. Even though I know the Olympics are very expensive for a city to host, I think BCN made good use of the whole experience.
We headed up toward the Sagrada Familia and it's hoarders of tourists waiting in lines! We only briefly stopped on the outside and then rode down to stop at two of Gaudi's buildings that he was hired to renovate. One that was covered up except for the top terrace was covered for renovations. It has a nautical theme with seaweed balconies and wavy lines. It's called La Pedrera which means stone quarry! Most people don't like it!
Further down the street was another of his called Casa Batilo that has water features like bubbles, bone structures like joints, a dragon for St. George kind of patron saint of Catalonia. Down in the same block are several other beautiful buildings by other architects. the one on the corner won a prize over Gaudi's for best design. He's the same architect who designed the beautiful Palau de la Musique Catalana. I went to a gorgeous classical guitar concert there four years ago when I was here, mainly just to go in the building, but the music was pretty amazing, too!
We finally back to the bike shop. It was a really enjoyable tour but I was tired and still had to go to the beginning of the retreat this evening!
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