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Barcelona / Italy sketchbook

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011
Rooftop of Palau Güell, one of Antoni Gaudi's early commissions

Last week I returned from a couple of weeks traveling in Spain and Italy.   These are some pages from my sketchbook.   The occasion was my 40th birthday.  A few years ago someone asked me what I was going to do on my 40th.  I hadn't thought about it much, but my first thought was that I wanted to spend the day in Barcelona.  Of all the places I've traveled it's my favorite city.   I love the mix of architectural styles, the street life, the food, and the beach there.  I like that I can get around easily since I speak the language.  The layout of the city also reminds me of Havana, as do it's people.   I always meet people there that somehow remind me of my grandparents.  This was the first time I took my kids there, so it was fun to see things through their eyes.   After a week in Barcelona, we boarded a ship and headed towards Italy, stopped in Florence, Rome, Naples and Mallorca.  Sorrento, near Naples, was a highlight, as was Mallorca, which I'd never been to.

Barcelona is my favorite soccer team, they happened to be playing a game against Naples on my birthday so we headed there that evening.  The energy in the stadium is wonderful with the crowd chanting and singing anthems throughout the entire game.  Barcelona won 5-0, Messi scored twice.
Rooftop of Gaudi's Casa Pedrera

The next morning we headed out to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia and Casa Pedrera, I was curious to see how much the cathedral had changed since I last saw it about 14 years ago.   We found a metro station nearby and headed down the stairs.  When we got to the bottom of the stairs my wife yelled out "my purse is missing!".  I looked up the stairs and saw three people on the opposite side heading up an escalator, everyone was pointing at them.   I ran up the stairs and reached the top before they did.   I stood in front of them and yelled every damn Spanish obscenity I could think of at them.  I'm usually fairly quiet but get really angry about things like that.  They had stolen my wife's credit cards, license, keys, etc., and I didn't want to spend days on the phone dealing with b.s.  So I just kept yelling at them.   One of them just handed over the purse and said that everything inside was still intact.   I handed it over to my wife and just kept yelling at them and calling for the police.   Anyways, this went on for about 5 or 10 minutes with them walking briskly out of the subway and down the street.  Eventually the police van rushed by and the crowd waved it over to us.  The police took over from there and we went on with our day.  I think the thieves were surprised to hear someone shaming them in Spanish and were taken aback by it all.   I've seen this happen often in Seville and Madrid but never in Barcelona so it surprised me.  Fortunately it all worked out.
My daughter at the Picasso Museum, in the Gothic Quarter of the city. Large collection of paintings and drawings from Picasso's teen years.

The Sagrada Familia has changed a lot over the last decade.   The interior is mostly finished and they installed elevators to go up the towers.   Last time I was there it was mostly a construction zone and I just wondered around up and down the tower steps.  Here are a couple of pictures I took, they hope to be finished by 2026 I think, the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death:

Harbor promenade

Parc Güell


Joan Miro Foundation/Museum at the top of Montjuic



From where we were staying in the Gothic Quarter, we could walk over to the beach, Barceloneta.  I did a lot of sketching there.  Frank Gehry has a beautiful large sculpture that resembles a fish installed there, seen in the sketch above.  It serves as a shade roof for a number of restaurants.
Barceloneta











The week in Barcelona ended with a concert at the Palau de La Musica Catalana, a lavishly decorated turn of the century concert hall.  We then headed to Italy, great food and crazy traffic, some of those sketches are below.
Rome

Rome

Rome

Rome

Sorrento

Sorrento

Sorrento

Pompeii

Pompeii

© 2024 Edel Rodriguez