Barcelona, Spain - Las Ramblas

A gremlin of some sort

Las Ramblas is a kilometer-long pedestrian mall in the center of Barcelona. It forms a divide between the Gothic Quarter to the east and the El Raval Quarter to the west. It extends from Plaza Catalunya on the north end to the Christopher Columbus statue on the south end near the harbor. It's full of cafés, merchant kiosks, artists and street performers.

The street performers usually have some sort of elaborate costume along with a lot of body paint. They stand still and silent until change is thrown in the container at their feet. When the coins hit the container, they begin some sort of routine, usually pretty lame, based on their character. One of our favorites is the Che Guevara character, but he wasn't performing the day I took these pictures.

Ronaldinho - Barcelona soccer star

A ferry princess

Something out of a Terry Gilliam movie

A young boy tempts Death

Your guess is as good as mine

A young girl poses with Indian warrior

A little person doing card tricks (tee hee)

Edward Scissorhands

Leaving Barcelona Like the Colts Left Baltimore

The story you are about to hear is true. No names have been changed to protect anyone.

Eduardo can't leave the dining room without straightening all eight chairs

Cast of Characters:

Giovani - Owns two apartments; ours and another one upstairs. Currently in Brazil.

Eduardo - Minion of Giovani. Lives in upstairs apartment. Overseeing our apartment.

Angelo - Former apartment mate. Now lives upstairs.

Matt and I signed a lease with Gio to live in his apartment through the end of May. Part of the lease was that we agreed to a set of House Rules; which are, basically, to clean up after ourselves, keep the noise down in the late hours and take turns cleaning the common areas of the apartment once a week. Fair enough. There are 9 people living here, so you want to keep things tidy.

Well, Eduardo, who is an obsessive/compulsive, likes to leave notes on the whiteboard in the kitchen when he feels the place isn't up to his cleanliness standards. Here are a few instances of what he considers dirty. Someone left a bottle of water on the coffetable overnight - note on the board. Someone left a couple dirty dishes in the sink and went to work - note on the board. We had a party on a Saturday night where people brought snacks and drinks. The leftover stuff was left on the dining room table on Sunday for anyone to help themselves to - note on the board. Then a reminder was put on the whiteboard that we all agreed to the House Rules and that we need to follow them. This pissed everyone off, because no one saw these as problems. Now, everyone is pissed at Eduardo, becuase he's being a busybody. A busybody who DOESN'T live here. The atmosphere in the apartment was getting pretty bad, so Matt and I decided to send an email to the owner asking him to help resolve some issues.

Eduardo can't leave the living room without symmetrically straightening the pillows on the couch. The pillows, as they are in this picture, would kill him.

In addition to asking Gio to have Eduardo back off of his cleanliness crusade, we also had a problem with Angelo, the former apartment mate. When he moved upstairs, he found a friend to take over his old room. For some reason, Gio allowed Angelo to keep his key to OUR apartment so he could visit his friend whenever he wanted. We didn't think this was right and we said so.

We got an email reply from the owner. It basically said that Eduardo was acting as his agent while he was in Brazil and that he had free access to our apartment to enforce the House Rules. In addition, he told us that Angelo was a "trusted friend" and that he could keep the key to OUR apartment. Needless to say, we weren't happy. Then, Eduardo paid us a visit to discuss the email we sent. I won't get into the whole argument, but it ended with Matt calling him a liar and kicking him out of our room. He had it coming. This happened last Saturday.

This pain-in-the-ass living situation, in addition to some other factors, has lead to our decision to cut our Spain adventure a little short. We're coming back to the States at the end of February.

Barcelona, Spain - Park Güell

Mysterious walkway

Earlier, we had a couple posts highlighting the architecture of Antoni Gaudí. In the late 1800s, he was commissioned by a wealthy Frenchman, Count Eusebi de Güell, to design his housing site in the manner of an English garden.

Construction took place from 1900 to 1914. The commercial housing project was unsuccessful and the site was converted into a municipal gardens. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Entrance with stairs leading to the terrace

One of many walking paths

Curved, elevated walkway

Another elevated walkway

Indescribable

A building within the park

Overhead view of terrace

Doric columns supporting terrace

View of house from portico

The curl of a stone wave

The terrace and Doric columns from afar

Barcelona, Spain - Montjuïc

One of the many statues within Montjuïc

From Wikipedia...

Barcelona's Montjuïc is a broad shallow hill with a relatively flat top overlooking the harbour to the southeast of the city center. The eastern side of the hill is almost a sheer cliff, giving it a commanding view over the city's harbour immediately below...

Naturally wooded, the slopes of the Montjuïc were traditionally used to grow food and graze animals by the people of the neighboring Ciutat Vella. In the 1890s the forests were partially cleared, opening space for parklands. The site was selected to host the 1929 International Exposition (a World's Fair), for which the first large-scale construction on the hill was begun. The surviving buildings from this effort include the grand Palau Nacional, the Estadi Olímpic (the Olympic stadium), the ornate Font Màgica fountains, and a grand staircase leading up from the foot of the Montjuïc at the south end of the Avenida de la Reina Maria Cristina, past the Font Màgica and through the Plaça del Marquès de Foronda and the Plaça de les Cascades to the Palau Nacional.

Inside the Olympic Stadium

Fortress wall

The fortress atop Montjuïc

View from the top

Overlooking the harbor

Palau Nacional from a distance

View up the staircase...

...and down the staircase

Hidden passages

Casablanca

A nice looking building

View from afar

From the shadows

Shrubbery

Barcelona, Spain - The Statues of Montjuïc

The woman in the grove

While sightseeing through Park Montjuïc, we came across quite a few statues that are located in small gardens, groves and grottos of the park.

A traditional Catalan folk dance

The iron cross

A rather frightening looking flamenco dancer

Moon over Barcelona

Dante Alighieri

A shepherd of some sort

Barcelona, Spain - Magic Fountain

Magic Fountain

In the southwest part of Barcelona is a park called Montjuïc. It is situated on a big hill. Looking from Plaza de España, you can see the Palau Nacional. (National Palace) A series of fountains and cascades flow downward from the Palau, through a series of plazas, to the Magic Fountain at the bottom. During the day, the fountains lie dormant, but they come to life at night. The flow out of the Magic Fountain is synchronized with classical music and colored lights to create and ever-morphing water and light show. In summer, this display attracts thousands of people. You'll definitely want to click on these pics to enlarge them.

Daytime view from the top towards Plaza de España

Top fountain and cascade just below the Palau Nacional

Magic Fountain with lights of Plaza de España in background

People gather in the plaza between fountains

Water and light

More colors

Grandeur

Travel Warning...

If you're ever in Barcelona near the Magic Fountain by Plaza de España, watch out for the two young gals in the photo above.

There's this park on the west side of town(Montjuic) that I go to occasionally. When I'm walking back thru the fountain area, I always get stopped by the same deaf/mute chick that shoves a clipboard in my face wanting me to donate money to her deaf/mute cause. She's about 14 and pretty insistent. I always say, "No gracias," and keep walking. The other day, she was there again, but this time with her deaf/mute friend. The friend shoved the clipboard in my face wanting me to write my name, address and donation amount.

3 TIMES I had to say "No gracias" to this chick. The fourth time, I took the clipboard and, in the Name column, I wrote "Rusty Shackleford." I didn't write down anything else, handed her back the clipboard and said, "Gracias." I turned and walked away. She was furious and, since she couldn't curse or scream at me, she decided to SPIT at me. Good times, good times.

I swear, the next time I come across her I'm sweeping the leg. She's going down!

(For those that don't know, "Rusty Shackleford" is the alias used by Dale Gribble in King of the Hill)