| Spain Trip--entry #2 |
[Oct. 11th, 2008|03:42 pm] |
In today’s blog, I’d like to talk about the sights we saw in Spain. We spent most of our time in two major cities, Madrid and Barcelona, with a quick day trip to Toledo. “Old Madrid,” where we stayed, is a somber part of city with buildings like the Spanish Palace, the cathedrals, squares where historic events took place, and small establishments full of character. We stayed at the Plaza Mayor Hotel, which is, not surprisingly, on the square called the Plaza Mayor. This was a busy place, reminding me of the Piazza Navona in Rome. It’s a huge, red-bricked square with restaurants and shops surrounding it. We went there almost every night to eat, watch the mimes, painters or some band who set up around the perimeter, or we just walked through it to get a restaurant or store. (They had the best gelato shops!) We also spent a terrific evening in this small bistro off the square where four Flamenco dancers entertained us for about 90 minutes. I absolutely loved this show and it met all the expectations of the traditional flamenco performances—intensity, passion and showmanship. There was no bullfight that Sunday, so I was glad I didn’t have to make a choice of whether to go or not. And, last, there is a section of Madrid, on the Gran Vie, its largest street, which is much more cosmopolitan and modern. It, too, was fun to see, though we only spent an afternoon there.
Probably the most interesting and exciting sight for me were the art galleries. For those of you who don’t know, I was a high school English teacher in a past life. My favorite course was Humanities, which combined art, music and literature. I developed this curriculum and taught it forever. One of the paintings I used in the war unit was Goya’s “The Executions of the Third of May.” It depicts an event in Spanish history when Napoleon invaded Madrid and executed the peasants in the town square who resisted the occupation. The artwork is full of symbolism and nuances. Then, we went to the Plaza del Sol where the actual occurrence happened. That was so cool for me to see. (BTW, my husband planned the entire trip and did a terrific job.) Another high point for sight seeing was the Prado Museum, which housed a number of other Goya painting, Velasquez, Rubens, El Greco masterpieces an extensive collection of Salvador Dali. What a thrill to see them! Our last museum to visit in Madrid was the Reina Sophia, which houses many of Picasso’s works, most notably, “Guernica,” another war painting whose magnitude and intricacies are world renown.
The side trip to Toledo, where El Greco lived and worked, was very enjoyable. Mostly, we walked around the cobblestone streets lined with jewelry and souvenir shops. We browsed, bought a few things, and did manage to see the El Greco paintings there.
Barcelona is bustling, cosmopolitan and a bit more ‘hip’ than Madrid. Most notably for me was the architecture of Antoni Gaudi (which is where we got our word gaudy, meaning overly ornate and fancy, usually used in a derogatory way). But I personally loved his work. His philosophy was to blend his buildings into nature, and he didn’t use any straight lines in his work because they don’t exist in nature itself. Facades of his buildings are rippled, and inside, there are curved walls and arches. He also used a lot ceramics—pieces of glass, mosaics and even chipped household items like coffee cups, all intermingled to create a bench or disc on a ceiling. He also made necessary structures like chimneys into works of art. Le Pedrera was an example of this, where the chimneys look like sculptures—and are called witch-scarers, as they resemble masks and supernatural creatures. (Something like scarecrows, I guess.) Gaudi also did Parc Guell, which was supposed to be a planned community, but in the early 1900’s, no one would move out of the city, so it became a beautiful public park. The grounds are graded with trees and hills, are full of benches made totally out of ceramics and a few buildings populate the grounds with ceramic roofs and towers. Gaudi also designed and constructed Sagrada Familia, a world famous cathedral of huge proportions. It’s unfinished—the plan was for it to be completed over successive generations. The section that Gaudi worked on was breathtaking. The exterior has soaring peaks and a menagerie of more life-size sculptures carved out of the façade depicting the nativity, the apostles and other religious scenes. Honestly, I could have stared at it all day.
I know I’ve missed a lot of sights on our remarkable trip, but these are the highlights! |
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