Cold Spain

Montserrat

Last week Lee Ann and I were in Spain. The first four days it rained and was cold. Then it was just cold. This is not the time of year to be in Spain. It is a little bit sunnier than Ireland, but just as cold. We were in a resort town about an hour south of Barcelona and almost alone. That's cool until you need to find a restaurant that is open. The apartment we rented was built for summer. It had a little electric, free-standing space heater in each room, but we were still freezing.

Montblanc

We knew it was not the right season. We visited Lee Ann's sister and her husband who was in Barcelona for a conference. Since this is a cheap time of the year to visit, and much closer than California where they usually reside, we took the opportunity to go to Barcelona and surroundings. Barcelona is a very interesting city and it would be easy to spend a week there. Since we slept quite a bit away from there and have never been in Catalonia outside Barcelona, we only spent two afternoons/evenings in the city (I was only half on vacation and working in the mornings).

Tarragona

One thing we did in Barcelona was to visit Poble Espanyol. Its sort of like the world showcase in Epcot, but dedicated to Spain and in Spain. It was created in 1929 for the world exhibition and is meant to showcase the different areas and cultural aspects of Spain. It's very nicely done and well worth a visit. We were there when the number of tourists was low and the evening light for photography just right. We had to rush a little bit because Stacy had made us reservations for a Spanish dinner and flamenco dancing.

Poble Espaniol

My new camera has the ability of filming HD-quality movies, so I tried that during the show. I'm not much of a film maker;  I can't imagine how much more time you can sink into that than just work on a few pictures at a time. Nevertheless, here are three short clips. Maybe someday I'll win an Oscar and people will look back at these video snippets and discuss my early technique of leaning against a post and trying to hold the camera still.

I liked Poble Espanyol, but it was clearly fake and I was wondering where we would have to go to see the same narrow allies and architecture in Spain. We visited Montblanc on the weekend and got to see the real thing. That was pretty cool; right down to the gate in the city wall where supposedly St. George killed that dragon.

This is where the dragon died!

There is a plaque there describing the incident. Since I don't understand Spanish, I'm not a 100% sure that's what it says, but there are a lot of indicators that this is the place. Including the paragraph in the guide book.

Proof (I think)

Near where we stayed was the town of Tarragona. There are tons of Roman artifacts, including an amphitheater overlooking Mare Nostrum and underground tunnels which gladiators, prisoners, and other performers used 2,000 years ago. As in any town that sounds like a spice, there is good food to be had. We were standing out in the poring rain until the restaurant finally opened at 9 p.m. and we were the first ones there. As it got closer to Spanish dinner time, more guests came. Choosing the food was mostly a guessing game, but it worked out excellently. We were not the first ones to leave, but when we came back the next day for lunch, the same waitress was there still/again working.

Romans walked here

On our last day in Spain we visited Montserrat. Its a serrated mountain in the Catalonian plane that can be seen from miles away and attracts visitors because of its unique shape. More than a thousand years ago it attracted some monks who started building a monastery there half way up the cliff. It's still there, although mostly rebuilt after the French destroyed the place two hundred years ago. One of the things that endured (hidden in a cave) is a statue of the virgin Mary that had turned black over the ages. Supposedly the statue is 2,000 years old and the monks who found her could not move her and therefore built the monastery around her. Carbon dating puts the creation date of the statue into the 12th century.

Pilgrim's way to the cave where the statue was hidden.

None of my pictures from this trip are outstanding. Most of the time we were rushing from one thing to the next or the weather did not cooperate. Nevertheless, as usual, my pictures are on picasa. Here are the links for Barcelona, Tarragona, Montblanc, and Montserrat. Somehow picasa turned into Google+ and some stuff is different. I hope you can still see the pictures.