Mike Jones
<font color=993300>....nothing clever to say... ju
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2003
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Day 2 Monday 9th October 2006.
We awake at 6.00 very refreshed after an unbroken nights sleep. The room is air-conditioned, but we hadnt needed it, and the quadruple glazing (to prevent the late night Ramblas revellers from intruding) did its job admirably! We take our showers and attempt to check the weather, but its still dark at 7.30 and all we can tell is that it is warm and not raining!
We leave the hotel at 7.50, as it gets light, and walk the short distance to Placa Catalunya before heading left a hundred yards or so to our nearest Starbucks for croissants and coffee. The local rush hour is building up outside as we eat, with scooters zipping in and out of the relatively free- moving car traffic at seemingly suicidal speeds we notice that, unlike the UK, where anyone on a motorbike or scooter is likely to be wearing leathers or waterproofs, most of their counterparts here are dressed for the office, with jacket and ties, or skirts, as appropriate, their only concession to the mode of conveyance being a helmet!
It seems a good idea to continue our breakfast outside, and we take our coffees to the Placa to keep the pigeons and street cleaners company for a while. After finishing them we start our Modernista tour by heading north, back up the Passeig de Gracia, past a variety of quality and designer shops, to the Casa Batllo, a 100 year old Gaudi creation that we saw on leaving the Metro yesterday. This is a beautiful building, designed for an industrialist, Josep Batllo, and completed in 1907, effectively a facelift of an existing apartment building. The façade is undulating with parts appearing to hang like folds of skin. The upper section of the construction is more decorative with mosaic tiling and ceramic motifs, the whole topped by a large cross.
The building is open to visitors, but not yet, at 8.40 am, and we are more interested in covering the ground today, with several sites on our hitlist.
The adjacent building, Casa Amatller is worth a mention dating from 1900, it was designed by Puig I Cadafalch, another celebrated, Modernista activist, for Antoni Amatller, a (yum!) Catalan chocolate manufacturer. Like its neighbour it was a reworking of an existing building. The façade rises in a series of steps to a central point and is studded with tiled decorative and heraldic features over the doors and windows.
Although our main objective along Passeig de Gracia is the stunning Casa Mila a few blocks north we take a small detour onto Carrer Arago in order to view one of the areas earliest modernista structures, the Fundacio Antoni Tapies. This is Domenech I Montaners first important building, dating from 1880. Compared to the later efforts by Gaudi & Co it is almost bland, rising only to two storeys, but was considered radical in its day. It has been embellished in recent times by the addition of a maze of twisted wire, metal and glass including an enormous chair!
Returning to the Passeig de Gracia, we continue north to the incredible Casa Mila, more commonly known as La Pedrera (The Stone Quarry).
We do intend to visit the interior of this unique building, but as it is not yet 9.30am and does not open until 10.00am we head off east into the Eixample, in search of coffee (and toilets!).
(The Eixample (Catalan for extension or widening) is a modern (19th century) new-town district north of Placa de Catalunya. It covers a vast area, comprising the citys main shopping and business district, and is laid out in a strict grid fashion. The original design intended a mixed residential and business environment for essentially working classes, including many open spaces. However it rapidly became a fashionable area in which to live, and as wealthier occupants moved in from their previously cramped accommodations around the port and old town, speculators developed more buildings on the proposed open spaces. As the wealth moved north, so did a new class of Modernista architects who began to create striking examples of their work, which were eagerly commissioned by status-conscious merchants and businessmen.)
We find a pleasant café on a busy corner before returning to the Casa Mila at 9.50am. The morning is turning warmer and the skies well broken when we join the lengthy queue for admission. Many nationalities are represented, including Spaniards, Germans and Americans.
The line is dealt with efficiently and we enter the stunning (possibly overused but perfectly accurate adjective today) atrium in the centre of the building.
Leaving our backpack in the cloakroom, as they are considered potentially dangerous up on the minimally guarded roof terrace, we take the lift up to a restored, show apartment.
(Casa Mila/ La Pedrera was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Built by Antoni Gaudi between 1905 and 1911 as a high status apartment block, its curving, rippled, stone façade includes balconies of tangled metal vaguely resembling cave dwellings. Theres barely a straight line in the place!)
Day 2 Monday 9th October 2006.
We awake at 6.00 very refreshed after an unbroken nights sleep. The room is air-conditioned, but we hadnt needed it, and the quadruple glazing (to prevent the late night Ramblas revellers from intruding) did its job admirably! We take our showers and attempt to check the weather, but its still dark at 7.30 and all we can tell is that it is warm and not raining!
We leave the hotel at 7.50, as it gets light, and walk the short distance to Placa Catalunya before heading left a hundred yards or so to our nearest Starbucks for croissants and coffee. The local rush hour is building up outside as we eat, with scooters zipping in and out of the relatively free- moving car traffic at seemingly suicidal speeds we notice that, unlike the UK, where anyone on a motorbike or scooter is likely to be wearing leathers or waterproofs, most of their counterparts here are dressed for the office, with jacket and ties, or skirts, as appropriate, their only concession to the mode of conveyance being a helmet!
It seems a good idea to continue our breakfast outside, and we take our coffees to the Placa to keep the pigeons and street cleaners company for a while. After finishing them we start our Modernista tour by heading north, back up the Passeig de Gracia, past a variety of quality and designer shops, to the Casa Batllo, a 100 year old Gaudi creation that we saw on leaving the Metro yesterday. This is a beautiful building, designed for an industrialist, Josep Batllo, and completed in 1907, effectively a facelift of an existing apartment building. The façade is undulating with parts appearing to hang like folds of skin. The upper section of the construction is more decorative with mosaic tiling and ceramic motifs, the whole topped by a large cross.
The building is open to visitors, but not yet, at 8.40 am, and we are more interested in covering the ground today, with several sites on our hitlist.
The adjacent building, Casa Amatller is worth a mention dating from 1900, it was designed by Puig I Cadafalch, another celebrated, Modernista activist, for Antoni Amatller, a (yum!) Catalan chocolate manufacturer. Like its neighbour it was a reworking of an existing building. The façade rises in a series of steps to a central point and is studded with tiled decorative and heraldic features over the doors and windows.
Although our main objective along Passeig de Gracia is the stunning Casa Mila a few blocks north we take a small detour onto Carrer Arago in order to view one of the areas earliest modernista structures, the Fundacio Antoni Tapies. This is Domenech I Montaners first important building, dating from 1880. Compared to the later efforts by Gaudi & Co it is almost bland, rising only to two storeys, but was considered radical in its day. It has been embellished in recent times by the addition of a maze of twisted wire, metal and glass including an enormous chair!
Returning to the Passeig de Gracia, we continue north to the incredible Casa Mila, more commonly known as La Pedrera (The Stone Quarry).
We do intend to visit the interior of this unique building, but as it is not yet 9.30am and does not open until 10.00am we head off east into the Eixample, in search of coffee (and toilets!).
(The Eixample (Catalan for extension or widening) is a modern (19th century) new-town district north of Placa de Catalunya. It covers a vast area, comprising the citys main shopping and business district, and is laid out in a strict grid fashion. The original design intended a mixed residential and business environment for essentially working classes, including many open spaces. However it rapidly became a fashionable area in which to live, and as wealthier occupants moved in from their previously cramped accommodations around the port and old town, speculators developed more buildings on the proposed open spaces. As the wealth moved north, so did a new class of Modernista architects who began to create striking examples of their work, which were eagerly commissioned by status-conscious merchants and businessmen.)
We find a pleasant café on a busy corner before returning to the Casa Mila at 9.50am. The morning is turning warmer and the skies well broken when we join the lengthy queue for admission. Many nationalities are represented, including Spaniards, Germans and Americans.
The line is dealt with efficiently and we enter the stunning (possibly overused but perfectly accurate adjective today) atrium in the centre of the building.
Leaving our backpack in the cloakroom, as they are considered potentially dangerous up on the minimally guarded roof terrace, we take the lift up to a restored, show apartment.
(Casa Mila/ La Pedrera was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Built by Antoni Gaudi between 1905 and 1911 as a high status apartment block, its curving, rippled, stone façade includes balconies of tangled metal vaguely resembling cave dwellings. Theres barely a straight line in the place!)
Amanda's hair colour is a bit like the weather - rather changeable! In the last 12 months it has been long, dark brown, dark brown with blonde streaks, short & 
