And it was a perfect day to bike in Barcelona. And there were bikes available.
And people biking.
I couldn't figure out how to do the bike rental thing, because while it was in two languages, the languages were Catalan and Spanish, and I read neither. We had really done a great job of getting around Italy, and although I had an Italian-English phrasebook, we never used it. But Spanish, particularly Barcelona Spanish, which is really Catalan, which is not really Spanish, completely escapes me. Plus, Marjorie was with me, and she wasn't biking and although we had originally agreed this would be a day apart (since she obviously wasn't doing the bike tour had it occurred) by this time, it made no sense to separate. We were having too good a time in Barcelona together.
Barcelona on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We were led to believe that the streets might be empty and the stores all closed. Instead, the streets were crowded and everything was open. Plus, everyone was in a good mood. Later, today (which is Sunday), we ran into a woman who started on about how the people of Barcelona (what Diane Keaton in Love & Death calls the Barceloniacs) were hated by all the other people of Spain (like the Madridniks). I gave her a look and she said, "I guess you don't need to hear that, if you had a good time in Barcelona." We had a good time in Barcelona.
The main reason for our mood was the Best Christmas Fair Ever, the Fiera de Santa Liucia. I suppose it is possible that Seville could beat it on Tuesday, but I doubt it. This fair was simply amazing. There were six rows of shops, right next to the Cathedral, and they were organized into themes, such as Christmas Logs, Creche Materials and Artisans. The Christmas logs, or whatever they're called in Barcelona, were simply amazing.
Basically, they're little faces with elf hats (this one has a pipe, too) stuck on the end of a log with two twigs for legs, of every size or shape. They are so cute. If we did Christmas stuff, we'd have bought the place out.
The creche materials were pretty amazing, too. You had your basic creche.
Then you had your people to put in the creche.
Then you had your cute little furniture and stuff to add to the creche.
As I told Marjorie, if she'd have had this fair as a child, she would have spent all her money there on dollhouse furniture. The artisans had some really creative stuff, too, like this, which looks like the first day of Quidditch practice at Hogwarts.
Some of the figurines were memorable.
I have another five or so pictures of equally creative shops. It was all families, and although it was crowded, it felt entirely safe. It was a beautiful day, everyone was off work, it was nearly Christmas and people were just happy.
And that was pretty much how the day went. Yes, we saw the Cathedral, but they had scaffolding up on it.
And we saw the Gaudi.
Including La Sacrada Familia.
They're not fixing it, they're building it. It is scheduled finally to be completed for the hundredth anniversary of Gaudi's death, in 2026. I'll be 70, thanks.
Non-Gaudi buildings in Barcelona were pretty amazing, too.
But we were more interested in other things. Like this busker as he headed to work (La Ramblas, the main strolling street, was just waking up for the morning when we got there).
Or this statue of Woody Allen for sale, from the earlier, funnier era.
Or the streetlamps. My God, they had gorgeous streetlamps.
Barcelona had the first Dunkin Donuts we'd seen in Europe, the first Starbucks we'd seen on this trip, and a Kentucky Fried Chicken with the line out the door at 2pm. And a Burger King featuring a "Sandy", which had a very nice bathroom, featuring boys and girls playing baseball on the doors (no, I didn't photograph the bathroom).
Unusually for Europe, Barcelona had its own fast food.
We found a lot of nice souvenirs in Barcelona, and for four euros, lovely earrings for Marjorie.
We got back to the ship and it was formal night, so we had to put on our formalware, but first we watched the best sunset I've ever seen in my life.
It might tell us a bit about how the Barceloniacs got so creative, huh?
Bottom line for Barcelona, the first place we'd been where the feeling was, we really should come back for a real vacation. Even in Rome and Florence, our sense was that we had seen enough so that if we didn't return, we wouldn't be entirely unhappy with life. But we really felt we had barely touched the surface of Barcelona, and what we saw made us want to return. Will we? Who knows?
We had dinner with another couple we had seen at dinner a few times, and it was really nice. I was exhausted from not biking, I suppose, so Marjorie accompanied them alone to the ship's big production show. But it was all in all a lovely day.
If only they hadn't cancelled that damn bike tour!
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