Barcelona is a pretty cool place. It’s a different climate that Central Europe, and the changes make both the geography and the cities themselves the same, but different in many respects. One thing I’ve noticed is that when there is a department store, it really is a full service store. The big store on the corner of Catalunya Square here in Barcelona has everything. And I mean that literally. They have the usual clothes, shoes, home store, etc. But one of the top floors is a full service hardware store. Auto parts, light bulbs, etc. Fully equipped. And the basement? A full sized grocery store. There is quite literally a Safeway (although I think they called it a Supermerkat) in the basement. It’s extraordinary!
Each city seems to have it’s own items that it identifies with. In Barcelona and it’s outskirts, Talavara pottery is everywhere. I’d need another suitcase for everything I liked and wanted to bring home!
One other thing I noticed while in Rome was a Hookah Bar. On the sidewalk. Food on one side under an awing, Hookah Bar on the other, under it’s own awning. That was surprising. But in Barcelona, there was a Hooka Bar just a few doors down from our hotel. There is a big door with the Camel cigarette camel smoking a hookah painted on it, along with a man smoking as well. Not something you see everyday, that’s for sure. Now, it may just be grafetti on the door, but I don’t think so. However, the sidewalk hookah bar in Rome was the real deal, given the people sitting there smoking, and hookas waiting for customers.
The alley on which our hotel is located on is a little different anyway. It’s narrow, and if it were in the US, it would be used for freight access only. You’d never guess a hotel was anywhere near the vicinity. The hotel is about halfway down, and between two bike rental shops, the hookah bar, a kind of odd looking restaurant (seems to be related to the hookah bar), a luggage storage place (stash your luggage by the day until your hotel is available-and they do quite a good business from what we could tell!), a couple of businesses, and a really high end ice cream store on the corner. Typical Europe – make use of the spaces that are available.
We saw a truck on the corner today next to the ice cream store, and it had a ladder going up to the top balcony, probably the 4th floor. We stopped to look at it. A man was at the balcony, gesturing below. Sharon figured out that yes, it was a ladder, but it was also a lift! It looked like they were moving a cabinet or a piece of furniture up to that floor. It was in ingenuous solution to what I’ve seen of European stairs and lifts!
Christmas is also coming. The lights over the alleys are going up. We saw them in Rome as well. Nothing is lit at night yet, but they are getting ready. Christmas merchandise is slowly showing up in the stores as well. I guess we are getting towards that time, but it feels early to me! We went into a couple of stores that were now primarily Christmas shops.
A quick work about our hotel. It’s a little different. As I’ve said, it’s decorated in early Dania/IKEA style. But it’s got a fun vibe to it, and is really quirky. The halls are white with flat doors. It looks like a type of storage unit.
The elevator feels like something out of the disco era – all mirrors. At least it’s normal size, which can be a real anomaly in old town Europe. And the keypad is a 10 key type. We have a room on the 5th floor, and looking at the keypad, thought that their must be 9 floors to the building. Nope, 5 floors high, and -1 (or the star sign) for the breakfast room in the basement. We’re a little afraid to push 6, 7, 8, or 9. We don’t know what will happen. I vote for Roland Dahl and the Great Glass Elevator type of thing.
But everywhere, there are fun things on the wall, recommending shops, things to do, etc. I’ve attached a couple of pictures.
The hotel is the Hotel Denit, and it’s a 36 room hotel. The Rick Steves guidebook recommended it, and I see why. It is unique. The closet and sink are covered by roll up curtains, and on day one, the window was bare, with just frosted glass. Day two, somehow we acquired draperies. And on days three we scored a black out curtain. You just never know.
We also have an interesting weather barometer in Barcelona. Right outside our window is the light well. Our neighbors hang their laundry out on their balconies. If the laundry is out, it will be a nice day. No laundry, time to take the raincoat.
Another thing that interests me is the city planning. Barcelona is not a city that tears down a building in order to build another one. They renovate. I’ve seen a couple of historic buildings that are now nothing more than shells as they renovate the insides. Barcelona also doesn’t cut down it’s mature trees. I got this picture of an awning over the sidewalk next to a building that was being renovated. It’s a clever way to keep the tree and keep junk off the sidewalk as well.
The building that is being renovated (the same building where I took the picture of the tree above) had a big sign on it. It showed a picture of the building as it was currently, dirty and run down, and a rendering of what it would look like when finished. The facade was the same, but cleaner and repaired. And one can assume, the inside will have been completely gutted and rebuilt. We in the US can certainly learn from them. There have been several landmarks in the city where I live that have been bulldozed for high rises. Couldn’t we have taken a page from the Barcelonean’s, and just repurposed the lovely old landmarks?
Coffee is big in Barcelona, just as it is in the US. It was interesting that there were no Starbucks in Rome, but they are everywhere in Barcelona. Sharon and I went into one a few days back. I actually got a fancy hot choclate, since I’m not a coffee drinker. Sharon got her drink and came back laughing. Apparently, a couple of Asian tourists were trying to order coffee. They didn’t speak either English, or coffee, and the poor barista was working overtime trying to patiently to figure out what they wanted.
The people watching is wonderful in Barcelona. At the same Starbucks, a tiny girl in a stroller immediately recognized the logo (and the whipped cream fancy hot choclate picture), and grabbed her Dad’s leg and pointed. They laughed and came in. Starbucks is ubiquitous, that is for certain.
Our Tapas dinner last night was also fertile ground. A couple next to us ordered their meal, sat next to each eating their meal, drank their drinks, and left, without ever speaking a single work too each other that we could tell. They were both too engrossed in their phones.
Another Asian couple was eating with an elderly man who was clearly a relative. The couple was happily ordering and eating Tapas, yet the elderly man was incredibly suspicious of the whole procedure. He had his arms crossed, and a dour look on his face. But the time we left, he was finally eating hesitantly off of his plate. I hope he ended up being a convert like I was!
All in all, Barcelona was fascinating. I had not realized exactly how much of the town was known for it’s architecture. It was amazing to walk through the city and see building after building with some touch of the Art Nouveau/Modernist style. Maybe not quite at Gaudi’s level, but curve here, a softness there. Nothing is hard or harsh in Barcelona. It’s an amazing city, well thought out by the planners. They make sure they keep and honor the old, but usher in the new in a manner that fits their view of themselves.
The people are as wide and varied as in any city. They are open and welcoming. A wonderful place to come see, and I would come back again for more!
Suzanne’s Travels 