A swift 3.5 hours away from Barcelona by the new fast train, Madrid is not what I expected. Had imagined a yellow city in a deserted landscape, donno why, maybe from looking at the yellow color on the map in central Spain. Yet what I found was a monumental, green city, busy, but a bright type of busy. Highlights were meeting my friend I. after a long time, going to the bright Real Madrid-Real Valladolid game (4-2, nice one),

walking through the city,

and of course the museums. We praded, for the large spanish painters collection at the Prado, and then supplemented with the Reina Sofia museum for modern art, to see our friends Pablo, Salvador and Juan. Picasso and Dali were in a good shape, Miro I didn’t like at all. That’s where my limit for understanding modern art lies, right there.

Street art is high in supply in Madrid, from painters in the parc to flamenco dancers.

The other night, while walking home, we stumbled upon some street musicians. Some much-talked-about Romanian Gypsies. Watch:

The most “visible” of the Barcelonean geniuses is no doubt Gaudí. Because you can admire his work from the outside (as well). Probably the most…different architect that ever lived. He took the Jugendstil in fashion during his time and just ran away with it, to completely new territories.

The easiest way to check out his work is with the touristic bus. Casa Battló is one stop away from Plaça Catalunya, walking distance. It’s the most colorful, and has the sea as main theme. Insane: (click on any pic to see it big; you get back with “esc”)

Casa Battlo –>
	Chim-chimneys	Chim-chimneys
	<– Casa Battlo

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La Pedrera isn’t far either, 2 stops further up on Passeig de Gracia. The roof is a MUST. Interestingly, all the weird things on the roof are all very practical, ingeniously useful. Genius.

La Pedrera (Casa Milla) –>		Chim-
-chimneys		<– La Pedrera

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Sagrada Familia is huge. And far from being finished. Shockingly far from being finished. This is how she looks up close

from the distance,

and this his how she’s supposed to look when done:

Mindboggling. They have to fill the whole central part with the megatower! They plan to finish it till 2024. I donno. All based on public donation.
We contributed as well with the ticket price to climb one of the towers, according to the King Kong syndrome.

Sagrada Familia –>
		<– Sagrada Familia

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Last stop – the Güell park. (I still haven’t figured out the “ü” sound in Catalan. They pronounce it “Guell”, not “Güell”. Anyway. This guy Güell was a mecaena, sponsoring Gaudio. Hence the name of the park. We set down right next to these guitarists,

who sang exactly like this: (song from their CD, which we bought):

The rest was a walk in the park:

Park Güell –>
			<– Park Güell

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We left at 5am, dark, 7-8 degrees Celsius, and reached sunny Barcelona with some 20 degrees. The easiest way to get to the centre from the airport is via the blue bus, which left us at the University, not far from Hostal Central. Very well located, 5 minuts walking from Plaça Catalunya, a pivotal point for starting city exploration.

There’s an underground tourist info point, from where we got tickets for the touristic bus. 21 EUR for 1 day, 26 EUR / 2 days. There are 2 companies, services are very similar. We spent the first afternoon entirely on the sightseeing bus, 4 hours on the red and blue line, was good to a feeling of what there is to be seen as well as whereabouts.

I had decided NOT to take too many pictures and enjoy the moment more. Which I managed pretty well during the tour – pictures from the bus are not that good anyway. I did take a few however, making an exception for the Monjuic communications tower from example, knowing that I wont come back here this time. Remember Barcelona ’92? 10 points for who knows how the mascot was named.

After finishing the bus tour we went for a walk on the famous Rambla,

And took quite some pictures of balconies.

Houses look very nice, colorful and well-maintained, and I wondered if they were like that all the time – I knew that they had a massive refurbishment going on for the Olympics in 92. And indeed – it seems that it looked quite differently before.

Moving along streets, yards and palm trees (picture idea stolen from M.)

we reached the harbor at dusk,

right at Coulomb’s statue.

Columbus, that is.

I remembered this bridge from last time,

but not the boats,

where I broke the commandment and took dozens of pictures, trying to adjust settings to catch the perfect light.

The sun was setting, as Columbus is showing (apparently in the wrong direction, not towards America),

so we crossed the windy bridge, which I like a lot,

looking at people gazing up from the water

into the firesky.

Once the bridge crossed, we… went back

the same way.

The day ended on the Rambla, at a terrace which turned out to be of a Chinese restaurant, but they had sangria, and that was the deciding factor.

(it’s not cerveza in the glass, it’s sangria. good.).

Buenas noches. Or actually, since we are in Catalunya, bona nit.

As I was heading towards the car I thought it was strange it doesnt react to my remote opening attempts. “The remote control battery must be done”, I thought. Turns out the car battery was done. Shit. I had all the luggage with me, was heading to meet O. in Munchen. Ok. Thinkthinkthink. Check trains. Takes 5 hours, leaves in the afternoon. Not good. So I took the scooter, quick to check the service I use to go to / closed. Saturday morning… On the way back I saw an open door at a Renault service right across the street, went in – there was an elderly gentleman sitting at a desk. Hurray! He helped me out, so I eventually still got to Munchen that day.

Meeting O. was great, as expected. Strolled through the city, sat down for a coffe in the main square,

and on Sunday we visited Deutsches Museum, the technology museum in München, big and at times spectacular

where I had the pleasure to discover a whole wall dedicated to Hermann Oberth,

albeit no mention whatsoever of the fact that he was born and raised in Romania.

On the way back to the hotel we saw people like these

probably preparing for the Oktoberfest:

Which we wish you as well.

Troyes (read: “tro’ah”) was one of the nicest surprises this year. On the way back from Champagne I stopped just to check it out, had no idea what to expect. Had read that it has an interesting old town, but I didn’t expect… this:

I had read there are old wooden Fachwerkhäuser,

but I didnt think they would be this old,

and this charmingly tired.

I took picture after picture in the old city center,

until I found this larger square

where I sat down to have a troyish galette a pancake out of whole wheat dough. Tasty.

On the way back I entered the church in the central square, just to see what’s inside. There was a scupture exhibition, and after crashing my sunglasses to the ground in search for my knew-it-was-missing student card, the lady at the entrance offered a free entrance, without me asking. Unusual setting for an exhibition, but I liked it.

Old art,

modern decoration,

old church.

And some cool architectural combinations.

Most sculptures were, as usual, white,

but I wonder if originally they were painted, like this one.

Without finding an answer, I headed out and back to find my car, on some very, very narrow streets of cobbled stone,

so narrow that it joins at the top.

Last spontaneous stop was at the Eglise de la Madeleine, which wasn’t much on the outside, but inside – wow.

This balcony

was shocking, in an otherwise austere environment. Austere except the windows, of course.

which combined with the balcony

was a sight to remember.

It was the last memorable impression from the French week-end. Au revoir, Champagne.