Spot the Cathedral

Just like in Rome (and Malta for that matter) if you walk more than 500m without encountering a church, either you're walking on the spot or round in circles. The difference with Rome and Barcelona is that they all seem so big.

So I've thought of a little game to play. I've marked the location of 4 churches on a Google map of Barcelona, and taken photos of the churches at those locations. What you need to do is work out which church belongs to which location, and guess which of the four is THE cathedral.

You will need to enlarge the map (by clicking on it) to see the letters of the locations and the numbers associated with each photo. Good luck.

The Shadow of the Wind - The Aldayas Home

On the way up to the Tibidabo I went past the home of the Aldaya family from The Shadow of the Wind. From memory the Aldayas lived on a corner, at number 32.

• This is a view looking up the Avenida del Tibidabo from the bottom of the hill. The tram is visible coming down the hill.
  
  


• The blue tram that Daniel took to the Aldayas' home. They seem to have solved the problem of Daniel getting a free ride by placing the conductor at the stop, so you have to buy the ticket before you get on.
  
  
  


• This is what stands on the corner at number 32 now. I think number 32 was the site of the Aldayas' home.
  
  

I was hoping to cover more of The Shadow of the Wind sites but that's as far as I got.

The Tibidabo

The Tibidabo is a fun park located on the highest peak around Barcelona. If it was anywhere else it would be a bit lame but the setting makes it absolutely magical. The views from there are magnificent, even more magnificent than the other views I have spoken about before. I got there in the afternoon heat so the haze over the city reduced the effectiveness of the photo, but on a clear day the view would be magical.


The trip to Tibidabo involves a few steps but it is good fun anyway. The first step is to take the Metro to Avenida del Tibidabo. Nothing too hard about that except that the station is on Linea 7. Much of Linea 7 is shared with Linea 6 (so you neeed to be careful which train you take) and I couldn't find a way at either Placa Catalunya or Diagonal of getting from Linea 3 to Linea 7 without getting out of the system and having to register another trip on my card. The trip itself is routine especially as Avenida del Tibidabo is the last stop on Linea 7.


You get out of the station into Placa John F Kennedy, and the Blue Tram is right in front of you. The tram seems to be a similar vintage to the ole Melbourne trams and about half the length. It's a slow and noisy thing like our old trains with a very loud bell! It costs E2.60 one way or E4.80 return - the Metro ticket is not accepted. If in doubt about taking the tram, keep in mind it's a long hill that gets steeper as it goes. I walked down the hill on the way back which was quite easy :-)


Once the tram drops you off at the top of the hill, you need to fork out E4 for a return trip on the Funicular. Not many option to walk here as it's quite a long and steep climb and I have no idea where the road goes, and the trip is worth doing anyway. As you look out the back window of the Funicular (this was fun - everyone else was up the front looking at the hill) you see Barcelona unfold before you. Really quite something!

Once you're at the top there is the theme park and the spectacular view. A really worth while trip!

Barcelona III - More Sun And Sea

It sounds a bit like a bad movie sequel. Well, here I am again. I don't think I've ever been to the same city 3 times on the same trip before, never mind specifically flown there all 3 times. Still it's a wonderful place so no complaints. I am still running into plazas and inte3resting streets I hadn't come across before, like this church square and this quaint walkway across the narrow laneway - both of which are only a few yards away from where I'd walked previously.


I had a slow start this morning. I went to a bookshop we'd been to last time and bought myself a decent Spanish - English dictionary as well as a book about the Norte Camino (the north route of the Camino) for Marianne. Then it was off to the El Cortes Ingles department store and some other "incidental" shopping.


I finally decided enough was enough. I really don't have the genes for shopping. Football shirts and books is about my limit. I think my brothers got the shopping genes, the older one in particular. It was quite hot by now so I thought I'd go to the beach. To my surprise Barceloneta is only about 20 minutes walk from the bottom of Las Ramblas, or a 10 minute walk from the Barceloneta Metro station. So I opted for the walk and walked there from the hotel. It was a lovely day so why not?



Like everything else in Barcelona the beach is wonderful. It even comes with its own sights (not all in photos) so it wasn't even the end of the sightseeing! The sea was calm and refreshing, really nice - it didn't even take long to adjust to the water temperature.

The beach is great as long as you don't mind being asked every 30 - 60 seconds if you would like to purchase:

• A cold drink (offered by an army of guys walking up and down the beach), with beer, Coke, Fanta and water being on offer.


• A massage (offered by various young females walking up and down the beach).


• Beach clothing (mostly shawls) on offer by a small army of people walking up and down the beach.

These people are mostly not intrusive though so you learn to just ignore them after a while.


I did get a little bit lucky though. A woman about 20 metres away from me had stuff taken from her. You should have heard her shout obscenities as her very fit looking and muscular partner chased the thief down the crowded beach. The thief would have had a 50 metre head start but he had no chance. The guy caught him and held him until the police turned up. Luckily for the theief, the police turned up straight away (they seem to be on constant patrol), before the woman caught up to them otherwise I think she would have turned him into pulp. She wasn't a small woman and quite capable of it I think!



Tomorrow is my last day here. I think I will start with the Tibidabo in the morning and then the beach (minus camera this time) in the afternoon. According to the BBC tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, 21C to 30C. According to barcelona.com we are expeccting "

Sprinkles early. Morning clouds. Mild

" (with a picture of rain). I liked the word "sprinkles" to describe showers so I had to throw that in! I'll find out tomorrow which is right but I suspect I'll be at the beach!

Rome - How NOT to Organise an Airport

I think there is a good reason why Italians and spaghetti go ttogether, I think spaghetti reflects the essential Italian character when it comes to organising things. My main experience of that was the airport today.

Marianne & I got there and went our various ways to our check-ins, hoping to meet up afterwards.

My check-in was not yet open when I got there.So I waited patiently (second in line). Eventually they changed the check-in counter by simply opening one that was different to the one advertised. A few people took advantage of this to jump the queue but to their credit it was only a handful.

By the time I got through that I must have missed Marianne and she is now on her way back home.

While waiting at the gate I was surprised at how many of the announcements were for changes to the advertised (and ticketed) gate numbers. Heaps.

People finally started to gather around the gate where I was waiting so I sauntered over. Just as I was going over one of the guys from the check-in queue (an Italian who spoke no English) recognised me as he walked past and informed me (correctly) that the gate was now for a Lufthansa flight and we had been moved to another gate. I must have missed that particular announcement.

Just for good measure, as I got to the newly assigned gate I heard the following announcement (in Italian of course) - "will passenger Agius travelling to Barcelona please report immediately to the gate for more information". My heart sank even before the English version of the announcement. What now?

No biggie in the end, they apparently had double booked the seat and had decided to move me from 7F to 25A. Thank goodness that's all it was.

What a mess! I'm back in Barca now and just recovering from the shock of Germany smashing England 4 - 1. Wow. While at the airport in Barcelona I went to the Tourist Information office. The woman in the queue behind me rang someone and spoke in heavily accented English. :I'm in deep sh*t. I am not booked on the flight. The man showed me my booking was for July, not June. Swiss had a spare seat but they want E450 and I don't have E450:.

Ouch.

Important tip. When booking online, always make sure you click the correct month and year, then double check it.

Marianne sent me an email from Singapore. This is what it said:-

I was probably still in the queue. I got through at close to 11am. The flight was delayed, they were taking 5 to 10 minutes to process each person. Service was appalling, no information, people trying to jump the queue and people getting angry. Had to get an extra train to the gate, then signs pointed you the long way around to go past all the shops. I think we passed your plane on the tarmac

While in the subject of Rome & Organisation, here are a couple more things to be aware of:

• We bought a 3 day Roma Pass for (I think) E26. This gave us unlimited travel on public transport within Rome excluding the airport, plus entry into 2 museums (excluding the Vatican which is another country and therefore not in Rome). Entry to the Colosseum is E12 so you can see it is actually good value and we used the buses and Metro quite a lot. The Roma Pass comes in this beautifully presented pack (almost a gift box actally) but is very short on information about public transport! The included tourist map is reasonable but Marianne had to use my telescope to read the railway & Metro schematic (we decided it is printed in 4-point!). The schematic itself is not very clear, confusing. And buses? Not a mention of them anywhere.


• Buying food and drink involves using a system I haven't seen in a long time, where you pay at a separate counter from where you order. In some cases you pay first, other times you pay on the way out.

Don't get me wrong, we had a great time in Rome, just it's a bit more quirky than the other places we've been to. But hey, even they have completely separated lanes for bicycles (see attached photo) and an express train to the airport, concepts that Melbourne still can't get its head around!

The Vatican

This is not my picture (I can only dream of taking shots like this), it is from Wikipedia.





Today we went to The Vatican. It was totally incredible. I can only think of two ways of describing it:

• Go there yourself and experience it for yourself.


• Get a decent book, or more likely several volumes.

We took a guided tour of St Peter's Basilica. IThere is no entry fee but the tour cost E15 each, I thought it was well worth it. As an aside the tour guide is a Roman who is getting married in Olinda this coming December. Small world? Anyway St Peter's itself would warrant several books to describe, so I am going to limit my effort to a couple of photos.



We also visited the Vatican Museum. In actual fact there are a number of Vatican museums, we went to the "main" one that includes the Sistine Chapel. It cost E15 each for admission and we paid E7 for an audio guide, again well worth it. Again it is incredibly rich and has to be seen and experienced. Again I am going to limit myself to a couple of photos that don't even begin to do justice what's in the place.

The last part of the Vatican Museum (not counting the gift shops) is the Sistine Chapel. We walked through a lot of unbelievably rich art to get to the Sistine Chapel, so I was starting to "tune out" to it. Once we got there though it was easy to understand what the fuss is all about, it is really mesmeric and spellbinding. For me the images on the ceiling were just unbelievable, they were almost 3D they were that good. Once again there are countless volumes written about the Sistine Chapel, but this time I will not supply any photos of my own - photography is not allowed in the Sistine Chapel.

Whilst the chapel itself is brilliant, the handling of it does leave a bit to be desired. I do consider myself fortunate to have been in there and seen it first hand but I do wonder how long they will be able to keep funnelling so many people in before they destroy what they came to see. I have no doubt it is very well managed and long may it remain so. But there were still people taking pictures in there and also staying a long time so sometimes it got quite loud. A couple of staff at the front kept calling out "no pictures" and "silence" but really they were on a hiding to nothing. We must have stayed at least 15 - 30 minutes, I don't really know, but we could easily have stayed longer.

In short, an absoiute must see" if you're in the area.

Rome - A Couple More Bibs and Bobs

There is obviously a huge number of things to do (and photograph) in Rome. These are just a couple of them.

• The triumphal gate near the Colosseum. The guide explained who put this up and why, but I've forgotten already!.
  
  


• The unbelievably massive monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II, the first king of united Italy. This monument is as impressive as it is big. Imagine if he'd been a rock star with that size ego!
  
  


• The Trevi fountain, quite something else when it comes to fountains. Huge number of people here in a very confined space, but still worth the visit. The fountain is huge and like nothing I've ever seen before, quite beautiful.
  
  
  


• Piazza Repubblica at the top of the Via Nazionale. Not much to say about this except that it was okay but a lot smaller than I had imagined it would be. Nothing like the Plaza Espana in Seville, for example (but then very few spaces come close to that monster!).
  
  


• A shot of the quaint Ponte Nomentana near the hotel (it is closed to traffic) and the local river.
  
  
  


• The market at Nomentana. Marianne will tell yoiu I am absolutely not into markets. However this market in a square in Nomentana sells genuinely useful stuff rather than the junk available in most markets. Interestingly the fish guy (I am not going to call him a fishmonger) put his fish into foam containers and would occasionally tip a bucket of water over them. Not a block of ice in sight!
  
  
  

Hopefully that should give a glimpse of our time in Rome.

Tomorrow The Vatican!

Rome - The Pantheon

In all honesty I don't know much about the Pantheon in Rome. I only even know about it because it is a location in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (if in doubt, it is an excellent read, or at least I enjoyed it. Better than The Da Vinci Code in my opinion).

Having arrived there, and having just been to the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum, I figured it looked like something built by the Romans. Apparently this is the case, it was a 1-stop shop for all the gods of the day. The building was subsequently converted into a church and is now a Basilica.


One of the curious features of the Pantheon is its dome, which is open at the top (and is still open to this day). So, when it rains, things inside get wet! When it's sunny, a ray of sunlight slowly moves around inside the building.

The effect when walking into the building is quite spectacular.

This link is to a live webcam onto the piazza in front of the Pantheon. Not all that useful, but have a look anyway!

Rome - Palatine Hill and Roman Forum

Next to the Colosseum is the site of the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum excavations. This is a huge site and well worth exploring. The ticket to the Colosseum also gets you into the site. Be warned - it's a large area and quite tiring. However what is there gives a truly exciting idea of what the area must have been like in its heyday - truly awesome.


I found myself thinking contradictory thoughts. Given the obvious size and splendour of the place, it is surprising that effectively so little has survived. On the other hand, given the history of Rome after its collapse, it is surprising that so much has actually survived. It must be an enigma for archaeologists, so tantalising with so much being there and yet so much also missing.

Some of the highlights for me where:

• The sheer size of the place, especially the Forum.


• Walking along the original Roman streets where countless others had walked, including Emperors and other members of Roman society. Mind you, if you want to twist an ankle, try walking along these streets at anything above a slow pace and you're sure to succeed. I have no idea how those people managed it in their sandals etc.


• Visualising just what an awesome and impressive place this would have been to anyone who lived during its heyday, especially people from country towns and villages and from Rome's provinces.


• The beautiful line and symmetry with the Colosseum at one end, and also the Circus Maximus on another boundary. In my photo above the Colosseum is visible at the right end of the picture (especially when enlarged by clicking on the picture). The line from the left end of the photo to the irght side is actually straight, it is the distortion of the photography that introduced the curvature into the picture.


• The houses of Livia and Augustus, and also the various remains of other houses and palaces.


• The buildings and works that covered multiple storeys. This was not a city of single level buildings, but incorporated structures of many levels that intertwined with each other. Very clever engineering.

In other words I found a lot to enjoy in the place. It really exuded awe and power, most of which simply does not translate into photos, and certainly not mine. Here are a couple anyway for what it's worth.