Christmas in Barcelona

This is the diary that I kept when I went to Barcelona on my own over Christmas 2006. 

Sunday 24th December 2006 If you decide to spend Christmas on your own, you cannot choose a better place to spend it than Barcelona. Unless you want continuous wall -to -wall sunshine and then you go to the Canaries or even better, the Maldives. But Barcelona will do for me. I arrived on Christmas Eve. It was cold and grey, though warmer than the weather I had left at home. Having booked into my hotel, right by the old Cathedral, I spent the afternoon drawing outside one of Gaudi’s lovely buildings, the Music Institute, festooned with Wagneresque statuary and arabesques. I endured the usual verdict of the local inhabitants, that it would be much more sensible to just take a photo like everyone else, with good grace.

I went on to get lost in the Gothic quarter until nearly midnight, and found my way back safely with bag intact despite all the gloomy predictions of my friends about muggings and so on. I had had found a restaurant in the Placa Real, enjoyed a delicious snack of patates bravas and fresh herrings and red wine, and practised making myself understood in a mixture of Italian, Spanish and sign language.

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Monday 25th December 2006

Today, Christmas Day, I woke to brilliant sunshine and spent the day exploring the city, getting lost, inevitably, but for me that is the best way to get to know a place. In the afternoon I settled down outside a restaurant at the Vell Port at Mare Magnum where I drew the undulating curves of the bridge back to the main city, the baroque entrance to the port and the endless procession of people on holiday on their way over to and from the waterfront.

I met a charming couple, Andrew and Jodie, who live in Belsize Park, London, but are from Australia, and a fellow spirit, a German lady based in France whose name I did not ask. Like me, she was on a mission to escape Christmas and had found a haven in Barcelona for a few days. We agreed that Christmas was overrated as a holiday and that most of us did not need it. If you are a close family, you have that intimacy all the year round. Christmas is an unnecessary stress, actively cruel to those who are, or who feel, alone. Having said which, this has been one of the best Christmas Days I have had. I even topped up my suntan.......

I was talking and listening too much to finish my drawing, but I got my priorities right.

Tomorrow, the Sagrada Familia and other Gaudi masterpieces are in store for me. _______________________________________________________ Tuesday 26th December 2006 I am writing this in the evening - only more whole day left in Barcelona. I leave on Thursday evening. This morning I woke to another bright sunny day, though colder than yesterday. I found out today what an efficient and cheap metro system Barcelona has, when I went to the Sagrada Familia. I didn't get lost, so I had time to do two drawings, one at the front and one at the back of the cathedral. It really is an awesome sight. I got so carried away with the drawing, and so hungry after the first one, that I didn't realise till too late that it closes at 2pm in the winter. So I will have to go back tomorrow and go inside.

I only had one conversation today and that was with the owner, I think, of the little eating place near the Sagrada Familia where I had lunch. In a combination of Italian, Spanish and French we established that he came from Ibiza which is the best place on the whole planet. My language skills were not up to any meaningful discussion of this proposition so we left it at that. The paella was overcooked, the wine was vastly overpriced and they charged me for bread that I had not asked for, but apart from that he ran a good place, if indeed he was the owner, which I am not sure we established.....

After lunch, finding that the Sagrada Familia was closed, I walked round to look at the other side of the building and found that it is a more modern but still surreal piece of architecture. I sat in the cafe outside and drew it. It is an amazing angular version of Gothic design - like everything else about the cathedral it is still a work in progress but very striking. My drawing did not really do it justice - it needs a large canvas and perhaps I shall use my sketch and photos to make a painting of it when I get back home. In the evening I bought some silver earrings for myself and a belt for a friend of mine, at the stalls on the Rambla and then had a delicious three course meal with wine at the Ambos Mundos restaurant in the Placa Real, off there, which was proportionately a lot more reasonably priced and was excellent. I had been there for tapas on Christmas Eve and thought it was promising. I was not disappointed. Good fast friendly service too.

There are street entertainers everywhere and this cheerful trio came busking round the Plaza Real. There are living sculptures everywhere you look, too. I saw one setting up his pitch this morning and reget not having photographed him, it was such a strange sight to see his identity disappear under a layer of bronze makeup. There were dancers, jugglers and puppeteers there, morning and evening, though not at siesta time of course.

Las Ramblas are wide, busy thoroughfares with traffic restricted to narrow lanes on each side of the broad pedestrian walkways lined with cafes and stalls.

In the square outside Barcelona Cathedral there are street stalls over Christmas, selling an amazing array of (mostly) tat, but it would probably command higher prices on Ebay than the very cheap ones that traders were asking here - probably I missed some priceless bargains. But I am not good at spotting the difference between tat and collectibles and already have a loft full of stuff that I have no room to display, so I just browsed and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Must go to the street that my German kindred spirit told me about yesterday where Gaudi's other big houses are to be seen. It is on the number 24 bus route but I can walk there from my hotel. I shall try to do it tomorrow, as well as getting into the Sagrada Familia. I could see the people up on the walkways on the Gaudi cathedral when I was drawing today, like ants on a sandcastle. Must get up there myself. Being a tourist is fun.

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Wednesday 27th December 2006

Still in Barcelona but today was my last full day. Lovely clear skies again. Not looking forward to going back to what I suspect is dark and damp weather at home. Today I spent my entire allocation of money for the day, very little of it on food and none on wine, a first. I bought a pair of boots. The 10 euro entry to the Sagrada Familia including the lift. And finally a book.

But first I went back to the Sagrada Familia in the morning and found it stayed open all day. It must have closed early for Boxing Day, not called that here but the same thing. On my way to the metro I saw the entrance to St Josep's market and went in, attracted by the brilliant colours and textures I could see inside the the high covered area. Later I relised how relevant this diversion was to my understanding of Gaudi's art. I'll let my photos explain.

When I got into the cathedral precinct (there was a queue but it moved pretty fast) I perched outside the Gaudi frontage where the Nativity story is carved in every detail along with sea creatures, bones, doves, foliage, animals and angels, crags, lilies - everything that curves or leans or slants or blossoms or burgeons, it's all there on that frontage.

I drew the centre section, up over the main door, while I waited for the queue for the lift to the walkway across the roof of the building to get a bit shorter. Four hours. Well, it's a complicated thing to draw. And towards the end of the third hour, when the drawing was really motoring, I met several very nice people, mostly Spanish or French, with whom conversation was limited by my feeble attempts at their languages coming out as a melange of both, flavoured with Italian. There were some lovely children who were honestly puzzled as to what I was actually drawing. And I met one great family from Dundee who were very encouraging and we had a long chat.

Very stiff after sitting in the cold for so long, I went into the cathedral and was overwhelmed by the beautiful ceiling and the coloured light streaming through the stained glass windows on to the pillars supporting it.

I did go up to the roof at last and it was well worth the wait, to be up there looking over all Barcelona bathed in a golden glow.

Back on the Metro to the Passeig des Gracies, a spot of paella and a glass of water - very abstemious today - and then I walked along to look at the other famous Gaudi buildings on that broad avenue.

In one of them I found an exhibition of the sculpture of Gargallo, a contemporary of Picasso whose work I didn't know. It was very good. I liked the work so much that I bought the catalogue, even though it is almost entirely writtten in Spanish. The pictures are excellent. I like this kind of souvenir, even though it costs about ten times as much as a plastic model of the Sagrada Familia would have done.

Finally I walked back through the crowds, savouring the noise, the lights and the sense of spontaneous pleasure that the evening streets here hold. Another good day in Barcelona.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

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Friday 29th December 2006 Here I am, back in England, in mourning for the sun. I gather that the sun was out over Christmas here too – this always seems to happen when I leave the country, usually resulting in a heatwave during the summer when I go to Italy. Now that I'm back it's ten o'clock in the morning and barely light, the rain lashing the windows and the bamboos in the garden getting ready for the next cyclone to hit us.

I had a good day in Barcelona yesterday, though. Lost (or at least off my pre-planned track) again, I found my way up to Montjuic, the hill behind the waterfront, up the back way to the grounds of the Miramar and had my most expensive coffee of the whole trip on the terrace of a café overlooking the harbour and the whole city towards the Segrada Familia and beyond. I did the proper thing – had myself photographed by a kind Japanese fellow tourist – then gave in to my usual weakness and settled down to make a pen and ink drawing of the view. I had to get value out of that coffee. And the sun was so warm.

On I went to the Joan Miro' museum further round the hill. This was an eye-opener for me because I had only seen his little paintings before. Here were some vast pieces- one is a huge tapestry and I couldn't resist getting another photo of myself, with this amazing work next to me. I thoroughly disapprove of this kind of behaviour from tourists but I caught the mood of the place – everyone was snapping pics of themselves cuddling the sculptures and one lady nearly knocked a bronze off its pedestal altogether! I couldn't believe my eyes, being used to the eagle-eyed fascisti who guard British galleries, who certainly do not allow photography, let alone sculpture stroking! It's a lovely gallery, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys colour, imaginative reconstructions of figures and faces, and the airy light atmosphere in which they are displayed.

I intended to go into the Museum of Catalonian Art, a very grandiose palace at the far end of the Montjuic, overlooking the Placa Espanol with its tall towers and formal promenade. I walked there through the lovely gardens that cover the hill, which are studded with statues and fountains at every turn. But by the time I got there it was getting late and I was due to go to the airport by 6pm.

I was all arted out, anyway, and the sun was still shining so I got myself photographed again (it was becoming an addiction I think), walked down to the Placa Espagnol and caught the Metro back to La Rambla. I looked dutifully for the Gaudi Pau Guell but couldn't find it so I settled for a last dish of patates bravas and a Catalan salad before catching the bus to the airport.

I have been making new Myspace friends for the last four days, thanks to the hotel' s Internet provision. It was a very good hotel, friendly, very stylish but comfortable, called the Hotel Barcelona Cathedral, right by the Cathedral in the Gothic quarter. I booked it through BA. A local man told me that to book there normally costs 280 euros a night but BA did it for £70 for the room. That would have been cheap if two had been sharing. One of the penalties of travelling alone. But on this trip I was reminded of the many pleasures of travelling solo. Looking forward to my next one – to Positano in March.

January 2007

I have begun to use the photos I took at Christmas to make large collages. This one is over A1 size and I shall use it in a number of ways, to form the basis of drawings, oil paintings and probably when I have explored it in this state (a raw collage on gloss paper) I shall draw over the top of it with oil crayon, which "takes" very well on gloss photographic paper.

If you would like to see the other work I do you will find it at www.janwindle.com