Mark & Lorraine, apparently having fun up on Montserrat

Somehow I don’t have a great deal to say about Barcelona which is a little strange in that it’s one of our favorite cities in the world. It’s got pretty much everything you could want in a city: great food at sometimes amazing prices, mind-blowing modernista architecture along with great 19th century buildings, vibrant culture, and an old town that’s almost eerie in its medieval feel along with more modern and hip places. Oh, and then there’s that whole Mediterranean beach thing that they opened up when they removed a bunch of old manufacturing hulls for the 1992 Olympics.

So yeah, a great city. In fact, part of our conversation during the five nights we spent there was a debate: if Paris is our favorite city, what’s #2? Barcelona is certainly in the running. Maybe New York City? Miami Beach? Puerto Vallarta? I keep trying to put Minneapolis on the list but somehow it never stays for long. Fortunately we have a couple years at least to keep doing our research.

City visits these days have plenty of time for sitting in outdoor cafés, reading and relaxing

This trip to Barcelona was mostly about visiting with old friends. Way, way back when Mark & I were young professionals, practically new to D.C., Mark volunteered on Tom Harkin’s 1992 presidential campaign. That was the start of, well, everything really, as he later got a paid position on the campaign and then – when that whole presidential thing didn’t work out so well – a position on Harkin’s Senate staff. Later, working on his 2002 reelection campaign Mark built some software tools that eventually became the VAN which is what allows us to travel like this.

At any rate, the guy who brought Mark into Harkin World, Dan Smith, wrote a few months ago that he and his wife Lorraine (another one-time Harkinista) were going to be in Barcelona before going on to a wedding in Seville. Any chance we could meet up?

And meet up we did. We haven’t spent a lot of time with Dan & Lorraine over the last 20 years or so but soon it was as though we hadn’t been apart a bit. Meeting up for dinner one night turned into museum tours, lunches, another dinner, and even a day trip out to Montserrat, home to a Benedictine abbey and a black Madonna that, along with St. George, is one of Catalonia’s two patron saints. To say we had a great time is an understatement; in fact, before we parted ways we started initial plans to travel next year in Africa. I’d call that a successful visit!

Mark, Dan, & Lorraine reunited after too many years

The big attraction in Barcelona these days is the Sagrada Familia, a big old church started in 1882 and scheduled for completion in 2026 (though with decorative elements continuing into the 2030s). It’s hard to imagine a more unusual or striking piece of architecture anywhere in the world, with original architect Antoni Gaudí blending Gothic spires with Art Nouveau/Modernista swoops and curves. Part of the fun of returning to Barcelona after a couple years is to try to identify the new pieces and figure out how far they’ve come. As much as the current status is stunning it’s remarkable to know that they are just now starting construction on the final six (six!) giant towers.

The western facade of La Sagrada Familia. Those old-looking spires are in fact pretty old; I’d bet they were there back in 1975 when I first came to Barcelona. It’s changed a lot in those 42 years and apparently it’s going to change a lot more in the next 10 years as they add six spires that will dwarf the ones already there.

Then there was a nice Picasso museum to tour and – an important part of any Barcelona experience – sampling tapas bars. We went back to old favorites like Ciudad Condal, discovered a new favorite or two like Cor Caliu with its to-die-for chicken salad. And catching up with Dan & Lorraine.

But alas, all good things must end so they’re off to Seville and we’re headed to Mallorca, the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands. Stay tuned.

In Catalan “Montserrat” means “saw (or serrated) mountain”, with the mountain in the background just one of the “teeth” when seen from a distance

Mark with the venerated Black Madonna. She’s behind glass but there’s a cutout so you can touch her hand. I think he’s blessed now, or something like that.

The church at Montserrat with the Black Virgin up there seemingly encased in gold. If you go there you should get there early (as our guide did for us) because when mass starts they close off the tours.

A view from Montserrat down towards Barcelona which allegedly you can see on a clear day

Did I mention the food?

Ciudad Condal, Mark’s favorite tapas bar in the whole world

Our day trip out to Montserrat included a tour of the Pere Ventura winery. Mark & I have done a lot of wine tours over the year and we’re more than a little jaded. There’s only so many times I need to be shown the steel vats and the oak casks. This one was incredible, though. The architecture of the underground spaces where they store the cava (Spanish champagne) was really something, and we actually learned a lot about how it’s made. Color us surprised and happy!

This is Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), the most famous painting by 17th century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. Why is it here? Read on.

Barcelona’s Picasso museum includes a big display of literally dozens of studies Picasso did of Las Meninas in 1957. Some of them recreated the whole work while others were just a little piece here or there. It was pretty cool to watch Picasso play with this over and over and over.

Mark & I left our hotel one morning heading off to Park Güell, a big park northwest of the city center designed by Gaudí and part of the whole UNESCO World Heritage homage to him. Imagine our surprise when we got there at maybe 10:30 AM and saw a sign indicating that the next entrance tickets available were for 7:30 PM! So this is as close as we got.

Another view of the Sagrada Familia. Oddly we have no pictures of the exterior from our 2014 visit, so now we’re trying to document its growth from here on.

While in Paris I got a new pink shirt. Mark insisted on a picture when he saw me walking through these bougainvilleas.