Fain in Spain, Stay Mainly In... Biking

Barcelona is very biker-friendly city; there are designated biker lanes for most of the major roads in the city. Even for those without, bikers often received priority over car drivers



Bicing, a bike renting chain store, is available all over the city. What's more it is semi-automated. The instruction is in Spanish and Catalan only but from observation, it seems the chain provides a Octopus(八達通)-like pass that allows bikers to load/unloaded rental bike wherever they want.



Bike parks are also available for the socialists who prefer not to slave to big corporate but you will need to have you own lock.



After two pleasantly warm but cloudy days, my third and final day in Barcelona was blessed with some sunny weather



I decided to rent a bike to take advantage of the sun and the biker-friendliness of the city. However, as my part of the anti-globalization effort, I bypassed the big corporate Bicing and rented instead from a small business, which charged me only six Euros for two hours, beating the price in my guide book.





And the six Euros rental fee came with a lock too!



For the city-slickers who found biking in downtown too daunting or GPS-challenged, you won't go wrong by taking the beach route along the Waterfront.



Besides, you'll get the chance to visit Port Olímpic, built specifically for the 92 Barcelona Olympic Games



But if you prefer to see something more lighthearted, Sand art could be your thing




Did the pigeon mistake the sandcastle as its birdhouse?




三匹の猿, the Japanese proverb for "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"

The gambler in me take up the challenge of the city and do a little people watching with my bike. One thing I noticed is that in Spain you often see post-middle age couples holding hands in public. Of course in Hong Kong being affectionate has long been a sole privilege for the young but even in America it actually is not as common as you might expect

Fain In Spain, Stay Mainly In...La Sagrada Familia

The premier attraction bar none in Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia (Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia in full, meaning the Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is the epic Modernista church designed by Antoni Gaudí. It is easily accessible by the Metro (station Sagrada Familia). As soon as you get out of the station, you will be treated with the mammoth presence of the church.

















Actually the entrance to the church is to other side from where you get out of the metro station, with the slanted columns and cubically sculpted Biblical figures in the façade



















The construction of La Sagrada Familia is over a hundred years in the making with the work still in progress. Gaudí began the design as early as 1883 and dedicated the rest of his life (exclusively for a substantial period) to the completion of the project. Unfortunately Gaudí was struck down by a tram in 1926 and died. Thus the work had to be continued by various architects over the year. Today the project had endured two World Wars, a Civil war and almost forty years of dictatorship and is still not expected to be completed until at least 2020. Its construction period had dragged on for so long that it must be one of the few landmarks in the world that has become a tourist attraction even when it was still being built.

Because of its fame understandably La Sagrada Familia has attracted pilgrims in thousands each day but their admission booths at the entrance manage to keep the line moving rather smoothly and promptly. The admission, however, doesn't include the show-stopper of the church, the spindle-shaped tower.





The tower to Barcelona is what the Eiffel tower is to Paris. To get to the top you have to pay an extra two Euros and the elevator is the only way to go up but you have the option to go down by the stairs or the elevator, obviously because the elevator is where they charge you for that extra fee. Because there are only two elevators and each can contain twenty people at most in one time, it'll take much longer waiting time (about forty-five minutes) to get to the tower. Fortunately the line is just to the side of the church's nave, so you can appreciate the magnificent interior while you are waiting.





Truth to be told, because of all the contruction going on, the above picture is the best view you can get of the interior. If I zoom out just a little you will see all the scaffoldings there.

I must admit the long waiting line is worth it not so much for the view at the top but for the views, both internal and external, as you walk down the stairs (Needless to say I would highly recommend you NOT to take the elevator down)







高處不勝寒?


Looking down inside the spindle


Looking up inside the spindle

As breathtaking an experience as the trip to the tower is, if I could do it again, I would visit Schools building of the church before going up the tower because there is a reconstruction of Gaudí's workplace and an exhibitation focusing on the geometry he used for the church. That way you can appreciate all the symbolism and inspiration he adopted in his design



The above is the picture I am most proud of during the entire trip. It was a shot I took looking down from the spiral staircase at the bottom of the tower. After I took this picture I saw an exact same image in the Schools building. The reason is to showcase Gaudí’s idea of modeling the spiral staircase after the spiral pattern of how plants grow, a common motif of Modernisme to reference Nature. So turn out I do have a little bit artistic eye :)


The same shot but looking up this time, stalling the descending line by the way

Fain In Spain, Stay Mainly In...Alley

My visit to Barcelona focused mainly on the Southern part of the city that leads up to the Waterfront. Among the attractions is the Barri Gotic district, also known as the Gothic Quarter and is the area in which the old town of Barcelona is situated. In a lot of way this reminds me of the Macau when I was a kid, with a lot of small (irregular) back alleys that you are stunned to found out cars are allowed to drive through









Even some of the most famous and breathtaking landmarks in Barcelona are located in some back alley, such as El Palau de la Música Catalana.



El Palau de la Música Catalana is a Modernista style concert hall built in the beginning of last century. The early twentieth century saw the rise of Modernisme movement in Spain, or in specific among the Catalans in Spain. For those who are unfamiliar with Spanish history like me, Catalonia is one of the seventeen Autonomous Communities of Spain. The Modernisme movement is an expression of the Catalan nationalism where the Catalans strived to establish themselves as a culture and even nation apart from the Spanish. Even to these days there are two separate languages spoken in Barcelona, Catalan and Spanish, and Modernisme the word itself is Catalan for Modernism.



Modernista style architecture often references to the Medieval Age, the time when the Catalan culture started to develop its own identity.



The interior of El Palau de la Música Catalana is equally out of this world in particular the Stained-glass skylight of the stage. Unfortunately there is no photograph allowed in the interior but you can find its photo from the net.



One regret I had for this trip was that I didn't get the ticket to La traviata, which was being performed in El Palau de la Música Catalana that Sunday during my stay. It is particularly unfortunate because being a Catholic country, most shops are closed on Sunday in Barcelona anyway. What better way to spend a Sunday with a night at the opera?

For a spectacular construction, El Palau de la Música Catalana is difficult to frame due to its location. There isn't too much room on these alleys for you to capture the structure in its entire glory.



That actually is a common problem for many of the tourist attractions in Spain, such as La Seu Cathedral



or Museu Picasso de Barcelona





These alleys are so spatially challenged that often I had to crawl on the floor in order to take the picture. In this particular alley the building on the left is so tilted that it even looks like what we used to find in Kowloon Walled City (九龍城寨) in Hong Kong



The picture doesn't quite do the tilt of the building justice but neither does the video


Unlike Macau or Kowloon Walled City, if you made a turn in one of these back alleys, very often it would lead you to a separate court. That kind of looks like the Siheyuan (四合院) in Beijing







One difficulty of traveling by yourself is to take photo of yourself. I was playing with the timer of my digital camera when I took the above picture. The couple in the lower left corner offered to take a picture of me after they saw me keep running around. So the picture below is about the only decent picture of me in this trip