Gaudi: Nut or Genius?

Antoni Gaudi was awarded the title of architect in 1878. As he signed the title, Elies Rogent declared, "Qui sap si hem donat el diploma a un boig o a un geni: el temps ens ho dirà" ("Who knows if we have given this diploma to a nut or to a genius. Time will tell.")

Our hotel in Barcelona has lined the hallways with black and white photos of the walkways and arches of the park that Gaudi designed. I fail to understand what I'm looking at ubtil I return to the hotel after visiting the park. I missed my chance to imitate some of these otherworldly shapes and images.

Here are a few more Gaudi photos. I vote genius.

Speaking of Eurotrash Gypsies...

Tampa, Florida

My SIL and BIL have left their home in Venice (Italy) for a three week vacation in the area of the Italian Amalfi coast. This is one of my most favorite places. My sister-in-law has posted some lovely pictures on her website. I envy their ability to think outside the box about where to live and the courage to implement their thoughts.



We're doing some last minute maintenance before heading out on our annual seven-month camping trip. This year we're focusing on America's west coast.

- We rented a carpet cleaner yesterday and sucked seven months worth of grime out of the carpet.

- Mom's pool pump is cavitating. I suspect a bad O-ring is letting in air somewhere. I'll have to fix that before we leave.

- I need to get a spare key made for the RV door and hide it outside somewhere. We locked ourselves out in the Mexican desert last year and locked our cell phones and Toyota keys inside. Thank goodness for Good Sam's road service.

- My dermatologist didn't take any new biopsies. That indicates no apparent cancers for a change. I should be good to go for a few months. I'll find another one out in California this summer and try to wear a hat and sunscreen for a change.

- Mrs. Phred convinced me to pack the SCUBA gear. It would be cool to see some giant kelp somewhere on the Pacific Coast this summer.

- Mom's blood work tests, blood pressure and weight were excellent, once again. She has the constitution of a water buffalo.

- We need to wash the RV and check the fluid levels and tire pressures.

- The automatic satellite dish is malfunctioning. I Jerry-rigged a connection to our portable dish. With my database of azimuths and altitudes from last year, I hit the satellite perfectly on the first shot. We're taking the RV in Tuesday to see if they can get the automatic dish working. If not, it's no big deal, we can use the portable.

- I'm trying to find an adapter to drop the tow bar for the Toyota about nine inches. I've been to two likely vendors and have been referred to a third vendor who might have the right gadget.

- The tow bar itself is slightly bent and one arm does not retract properly. This gives us only an inch or two of tolerance about positioning the Toyota to hook it up for towing. I have a lead on a welding shop that has a big press. If that doesn't work out we'll go to the Roadmaster factory in Oregon. We drove right by it on our last trip though Oregon.

One of our first stops will be New Orleans for some jazz and good food. We hope to leave Wednesday.



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Barrack in the U.S.

Tampa, Florida

Barrack in the US...
Barrack in the US...
Barrack in the USSA!
-The Beatles

Mrs. Phred declined my offer to cancel our return tickets and become Eurotrash gypsies for the next year or two. We arrived home from Madrid before dark last night.

We'll be here long enough to wash clothes, have my sport coat dry-cleaned and have dinners with a few friends, then head out for the big summer adventure.

A little wet frog hopped onto the back of my neck this morning while I was driving in to collect my mail. I looked for him to put him back in the canal, but he disappeared.

At 7:35 AM the crescent moon was next to a bright planet near sunrise. I think maybe Jupiter. My calculations are that Venus won't overtake us again for about three years, so it should be invisible from this side of the sun.

The temperature in Mom's pool went from 71F to 75F while we were gone. I'm about to take a dip.

In Search of Gaudi

Barcelona, Spain

For our last day in Barcelona, we decided to find and photograph as much of Gaudi's work as we could.

In the evening we find a tapas bar. Tapas are "little plates" of food, A Spanish tradition that we have come to enjoy. We order a bottle of red wine and:
- deep fried camembert cheese with a red fruit sauce
- grilled duck liver with ginger bread and mango sauce
- battered mushrooms with garlic mayonnaise
- sun dried tomatoes with mushrooms and artichokes
- hazelnut, walnut and pistachio ice cream
- crepes with a cream filling and chocolate sauce

Grown by Klingons?

Barcelona, Spain

Gaudi's Cathedral (The Temple of La Sagrada Familia: Expiatory Temple to the Holy Family)is about half finished. It's clearly the strangest piece of architecture we've ever encountered. We can't resist returning again for night pictures.



George Orwell said that the Anarchists should have blown the thing up when they had the chance.



The building has been under construction for over 110 years. The ground floor is a construction area full of bags of concrete being formed into strange shapes by a crew of 300.



We arrive just before dark and pay the euros to tour the interior and museum. The lift to the steeple closes just before we arrive, but the interior and large museum in the basement is interesting. Gaudi appears to be one of those strange geniuses from outer space like Nickola Tesla or Salvador Dali. His concept for the church was rendered with thousands of small bags of sand suspended by strings and reversed in a mirror.



We go into two nearby places for tapas and wine, waiting for the lights to illuminate the church.



Gaudi works with shapes from nature to create a structure that appears to have been grown by space aliens, rather than built.



The interior arches are graceful curves. As they close the church to tourist, we hear a mass being conducted in a small area of the church, perhaps 1,000 square feet in area.



When the top is completed, it will feature a much taller tower topped by a huge cross that emits laser beams. One again we wish for a time machine to go forward 200 or 300 years to see the completed building.

Picasso Dogs

Barcelona, Spain



Perhaps the strangest sight in Barcelona is the cathedral designed by Gaudi. The work began in 1891 and, by the time of Gaudi's death in 1926, only one bell tower had been completed. The church is covered with massive scaffolds and towering cranes as work progresses 24/7 at a feverish pace. Eventually there will be 18 bell towers. Maybe we'll find a way to get back this evening and see it when they light it up.



Like all the cities we've visited in Spain, Barcelona has an old section full of twisting alleys. We wander down the Ramblas at night. It's packed with pedestrians, street artists, immigrants hawking flowers and beer and beggars. We pick a restaurant which promises Basque cooking. One of the things I get is squid cooked in something very black.



We decide to buy two day passes on the double-decker tour busses for the two days we have to visit Barcelona. Today we rode the bus for several hours and then find and visit the Picasso art museum. I'm struck by the Picasso dogs (white blobs with four legs, a tail and a head with two eyes on the same side like a flounder) in many of his paintings and also the many different abstract representations of a little girl called Margarita Maria in his Las Minenas series. As I understand it, Picasso became slightly obsessed with a 17th century painting of a royal family by Velasquez and did 57 interpretations of it, including many different abstract faces of the little girl...looking at them change was psychotropic...





The tour bus tape described this building as "torpedo-shaped". Mrs. Phred had another word for it. It's supposed to be spectacular at night when lit up.









But back to the Gaudi cathedral: this is a closeup shot of the strange asparagus stuff on the top of some of the lower steeples....



Our train from Valencia to Barcelona...A fast train, but it made a lot of stops along the way.

Valencia at Night

Valencia: Pretty City

Valencia, Spain




The 400 mile drive from Granada took a big bite out of yesterday. Finding the Hertz place in Valencia to turn in the Toyota was a challenge. We hit some snow topping the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our hotel is very modern and is in the historic city center next to the train station and bull ring.



The buildings here are very lovely.



This is a huge market building in the center of the city. There is an amazing variety of meat, fruit, vegetables, pastries and olive oil.

















The Graffiti here is abundant.



This plaza with all the pigeons reminds us of Venice. We find a little restaurant for dinner and order two things at random. She orders the "numero tres" and I opt for the "numero cinco". I end up with fried eggs, fried potatoes and ribs of lamb. Mrs. Phred gets salad, something a little like quiche (called a tortilla) and grilled chicken breast. We're both pleased. The wine is good and only one euro a glass.



Our Bullet train (the AVE train) leaves for Barcelona at 10 AM tomorrow. That's our last stop before catching a plane back to The World in Madrid. If you need someone to order a bottle of house wine in Spanish, I'm your guy.



My Sister-in-law says Barcelona is known for graffiti. There is a lot of bad graffiti here as well as good stuff. Some of it is artless and defaces old historic doors and walls. The banks in Spain get a lot of angry graffiti too.

Granada: The Alhambra

Granada, Spain

If you go to Granada, have a meal at the El Huerto de Juan Ranas restaurant. It is located on a cliff overlooking the Alhambra. We got the recommendation from Mrs. Phred's sister (a world traveler).



You can also see the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains from your table.





Our son sees this picture and writes to say that he thinks I've lost a few pounds. It's an old joke. I say, "Really?" and he says "Turn around and you'll find them."



We have lunch at the Garden (Jardin) restaurant under some grape vines at the Alhambra. There are long lines to buy tickets and they announce that they are sold out. This disappoints many who have driven hours to see the Alhambra. Fortunately, I followed Mrs. Phred's sister's advice and bought my tickets online months ago. They whisk me to the head of the line and my tickets pop out of a machine in seconds.





The Alhambra has extensive gardens.









The Alhambra itself is a curious place. It seems to be built with modest materials such as stucco and timber. There are Arabic inscriptions everywhere on the stucco and intricate carvings on the wood. I check it off of places to see before I die. The wine in the gardens was good and I enjoyed photographing a sunbeam passing though a glass of Mrs. Phred's red wine.



On the bus ride back we passed some superb graffiti at high speed. Because of the camera problems, I could only snap one shot, but I like it.

Ronda: Bullfighting Capital

Ronda Spain

We're on a tight schedule today. We have two hours to allocate to Ronda and then a 200 mile drive at 120 KPH to Granada. Ronda is a lovely White City built on a tall sandstone cliff. It has the largest bullring in Spain. I pay 6 euros to wander though.



When we arrive in Granada, we see a bullfight on TV. The bull is bloody and has things sticking out of his shoulders. He chases the cape around in circles, but cannot reach his tormentor. The last shot shows the bullfighter holding up a bloody piece of the bull. It looks like a tongue, but maybe it's an ear?




The TV also shows several people being gored during the running of the bulls in Pomploma. I haven't done that since my visit with Hemingway back in '25.



Ronda has a magnificent old bridge that joins the old and new city. There is lot of action there with shoppers and people in plazas drinking vino and eating bocadillos and tapas. We wish we had more time.



We check into the Granada hotel and walk to the old town to buy a map. Tomorrow we visit the Alhambra.



Here's a shot of the Ronda bullring.

Easter in Gibraltar

The Rock of Gibraltar

After a morning drive through the switchback mountain roads of southern Spain, we arrive at the city of Linea and then pass customs into British territory.



The sidewalk on the way in has a one foot drop off. I'm staring up at the rock and step off, taking a nasty fall on broken chunks of concrete. My camera is damaged and cracked. It has trouble extending its lens. My escape and evasion training finally pays off as I do a perfect tuck and roll onto the rocks. We spent almost a year learning to fall in a parachute landing and how to kill people with sticks, knives and our hands and feet. I dust myself off.



Looking across to Africa I imagine I am a bearded U-boat captain. I turn off my engines, rig for silent running and drift with the current at 400 meters past the flock of British destroyers guarding the Straights.



After a two mile hike, we find the number 3 bus, which takes us to the cable car ride to the top of the rock about 500 meters above.



The walk down is about three miles. We see the siege tunnels, a Moorish castle and lots of monkeys. The number three bus takes us back to the Spanish frontier. We wave our passports and reenter the European Union.



We've walked about six miles in the pretty shoes that Mrs. Phred made me buy to appear more stylish for the trip. Not unexpectedly, my plantar facititis flares up badly and I'm limping now with a very painful left heel. My sneakers make it feel a little better. The last time it took three months for the pain to recede.



On to Ronda and then Granada and the Alhambra this morning. I booked a hotel last night. The rates are about 1/2 what we paid during Easter week.

(Note from Mrs. Phred: I take no responsibility for the "inexpensive version" of the good walking shoes I suggested.)

Heading for Gibraltar

Ronda, Spain


We visited a number of "The White Villages" yesterday and cruised some narrow roads though the Spanish National Parks.

Today we're heading to Gibraltar to see the monkey colony. More later.

The White Villages

Mountains of SW Spain

We picked up a rental car and some cafe con leche at the Seville train station and navigated out of town to the city of Ronda, some 120 kilometers to the southwest. Traffic was light because of the Good Friday holiday. Easter week is one long celebration and series of daily processions.

After checking into our new little rural hotel and some more cafe con leche and tapas we drove though winding back roads of the Andalusian mountains to see a few of the White Villages.

We saw groups of young people lugging pine trees up and down the road. I think it has something to do with Easter or Good Friday, but Google revealed nothing.



I've analyzed my blog traffic. It appears that most of my traffic on my 400 plus blogs are referred from a single blog from the Google Images search site. I get over half my hits from an obscure Frank Lloyd Wright blog I did a couple of years ago. By naming the pictures in that blog, which I usually don't do, people gravitate to that blog in large number. From now on, I'm naming all my pictures...no more a pathetically unread blogger will I be.





This is the patio outside our room. It's a small rural hotel about 4 kilometers outside Ronda. The hotel is run by an English couple, Ian and Elaine. There is a river behind the balcony, a library, a garden of fig trees and a pool. They serve tea in the afternoon. We wish we had a couple of weeks here instead of three days. The hotel is called the Hotel Rural Molino del Puente Ronda. We love it. Stay here if you get a chance. We had a great dinner last night in the hotel restaurant. Elaine recommended a local red wine.





Mrs. Phred and I stop in a little White Village bar for two copas of white wine and tapas made from artichokes.



I think I've got Mrs. Phred convinced that we should take the scenic drive to Gibraltar today. I'd like to take the ferry over to Algeria and trace Rommel's 1,000 mile retreat along the Northern coast of Africa and then see Isreal, but Mrs. Phred remains skeptical.

The Rest I Just Squandered

Sevilla, Spain



It is the day before Good Friday in Sevilla. Some of the women dress in traditional mourning clothing.


We try an Italian restaurant. The presentation is good.


The cathedral in the center of the old town is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. We spend a few hours looking at the treasures, art work and arches.




Then we finally find a place in a plaza that serves fine cold vino blanco and a five tapa surprise. Mrs. Phred says “OK, but no gambas (shrimp) in the surprise”. We are learning the language of vino. Copas are glasses and botellas are bottles (double L is pronounced Y).



The low-hanging fruit in the parks has all been picked. Above eight feet the fruit is bountiful. I snag an orange at about the 8’ 6” level. It is very bitter.

Did I mention that the new subway just opened this week?

Cordoba Hit and Run

Cordoba, Spain

We took the regional train from Seville to Cordoba and back today. The regional trains do not require reserved seats or a security check for explosives. A four-travel day Spain rail pass cost us about 220 euros or 55 a day. To use the pass on a bullet train costs something extra for a reserved seat. The first day we just bought a ticket to Toledo because the total cost on the bullet train was only 34 euros. With the regional trains, you just jump on and use the pass. Confused? I am. We probably are paying was too much for our five train trips and six days of car rental, but Eurail at least made the planning convenient.

We missed the bull museum with all the famous bull stuffed heads, the museum of medieval torture instruments and the restaurant that serves bull tails for lunch.

Our high school Spanish is coming back…I shout in Spanish “Bring the check, please!” at least five times a day. I know that “jamon” means ham and is pronounced “hamone”.

Here are some shots of the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (Castle of the Christian Kings). It was built in 1328 and used as a palace and fortress. Later it was used by the Inquisition and as a prison. The gardens are lovely.







I spent 30 minutes trying to snap a white pigeon on the wing. This one had beautiful lazer-violet beams from her eyes. I fell in love.





Sometimes, when you sit in a dark area, a playful sunbeam falls on a precious object with interesting results.



The trip to Cordoba and back is about 90 minutes each way. We arrived about 11 and walked for an hour to see the main attraction, a huge Islamic mosque. The original church on the site dates back to the Visigoths. After the Islamic invasion, the martyr church of Saint Vincent was torn down to make room for a huge mosque dating back to 785 A.D.

In 1236, King Ferdinand reconquered Cordoba and the mosque was converted to a huge cathedral. After the mosque, which took hours, we visited a small sinagoga, constructed around 1315.



We have lots of pix, but not much bandwidth or time....I'll post links to more pix when the bandwidth clears up.

High Tech

As we sit in a Cerveceria in Sevilla, eating tapas, and surfing the net with free wiFi. Mrs. Phred's sister calls in on Skype from Amalfi and they chat.

I remember Dick Tracey's two-way wrist radio with voice and video from the 1950 comic strip.

All we need now is an anti-gravity vehicle.

Easter Week in Seville

Seville, Spain

We took the bullet train from Madrid and arrived in Seville a little after noon. The hotel wanted 18 euros a day for internet access so I write everything in Word and then go to a sandwich shop with WIFI to post to my blog.

The hotel gave us a city map that had the top oriented to the west so we walked for about an hour away from the center city. We ended up in an area of high-rises for the less affluent that Mrs. Phred called “the projects”. It kind of reminded me of all the dead German tourists who take a wrong turn into Liberty City on the way to Miami Beach.

We saw a young man who was standing on the corner and yelling something at a passing pretty girl. He had lots of tattoos and metal things in his face so I asked him for directions. He seemed angry at me for some reason, so we asked two other nicer young men who advised us to take bus number “TRES. UNO…, TRES, UNO”. We caught that bus and circled though the projects for an hour or so, but at least it was air-conditioned.

Eventually the bus passed a big palace in our guide book that we recognized, so we got off and found a place to buy a better map. The inner city is a maze and we get lost every two minutes but always end up somewhere interesting. Seville has lots of pretty places, palaces and the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.

After hours of wandering and many stops for tapas, we met Sedan from Senegal. He played us a song on a home-made instrument made from a large dried pumpkin. Sedan has four children back in Senegal to whom he sends all the money he makes as Street artist. Sedan speaks English, French, Spanish and Italian.





We are in the middle of Easter Week where tens of thousands dress up in black robes and pointy black hats every day for parades. These are very scary outfits. You wouldn’t want to be a false convert in the Middle Ages and have someone come after you dressed like this with a pair of pincers and a red hot poker.









We take the train to Cordoba and back tomorrow and then have one last day to wander in Seville before picking up a car from Avis. I hope it has a GPS. I’ve been getting lost a lot lately.



Seville is a lovely, ancient city.

Palm Sunday in Madrid

Madrid, Spain

We spent our last day in Madrid with a visit to the Palacio Real, former home of the Spanish royalty. The thing is ridiculously huge and opulent. You can see why the Spanish Empire turned into a corrupt empty shell. Between the palaces and the cathedrals, they were spending all their pesos on the wrong stuff. They should have been upgrading their weapons, armada and army.

Even the weapons and suits of armor in the Royal Armory are engraved in ridiculous detail. They could have made 20 suits of armor with the man hours that went into engraving one metal suit for a horse.

The big cathedral by the palace has a parade of people carrying palm fronds and singing. In the plaza between the two monster buildings we hear two men playing good classical guitar and synthesizer. We buy their CD for a souvenir.

We wander though the middle of the city walking about five miles to see the Thyssen-Bornemisza art museum. This is near the El Prada and has lots of Picasso, Gauguin and Degas. A nice way to end.

Our dinner, on the sidewalk, lasts until midnight. We share an arugula salad, a bottle of wine, grilled chicken breast and flan.. In the morning we catch the train to Seville.

Taking the Tren to Toledo

Toledo, Spain


Up in the morning and down to the subway to the Atocha train station. The bullet train from Madrid to Toledo takes about 25 minutes. Toledo seems to thrive on tourism. Our book says to see it in the evening after the tourists have gone home. Unfortunately, this didn't work for us because we had to go home.



Toledo is noted for swords and knives. A lot of the tourist shops offer them for sale.



We saw the big Cathedral on the hilltop of the old city. No pictures allowed. This is a case where it's an advantage to be a Japanese tourist. They can't read the signs so they're popping flashes everywhere. The admission was seven Euros each, which must help with maintenance on the impressive interior.

The Bridge of San Martin was built in the early 14th century. It has defensive towers at each end and is still used for foot traffic. This was a lucky shot from a fast-moving bus at the right time of day.



Everything is uphill and downhill in Toledo. We went for the Synagogues and Jewish barrio after the cathedral. We paid to tour the remaining two Synagogues. Mrs. Phred has stopped complaining loudly about paying admission to European Synagogues (which used to embarrass her non-Jewish traveling companions).



They had a museum of medieval torture instruments. Some of them were fairly gruesome. This is the home of the Spanish inquisition.



We got fairly lost in the rabbit warren of unplanned hilltop streets without a city map or a clear idea of where we were to catch the shuttle back to the train station. My idea was to keep moving generally uphill, thinking that surely we would reach a vantage point from which we could see our destination. Ultimately this strategy paid off, and, once oriented, we kept the afternoon sun at our backs. Mrs. Phred was thinking we might have to spend the night under one of the bridges.



We're still looking for tapas this evening back in Madrid. The street outside is insanely crowded on Saturday night. Mrs. Phred tells me that it is very unfashionable to dine before 10PM in Spain, so we bide our time until the appointed hour.

Dateline Madrid

Madrid. Spain



The 767 on the trip over had a new seatback entertainment system. I watched three episodes of "Breaking Bad" and the new Jim Carey flick, "Yesman" and "The Day the World Stood Still"...even so nine hours is a long flight. We took a taxi to the hotel and the driver turned off the meter at the destination. It read 31 Euros, but somehow I owed him 45 euros anyway. We had read that the taxi drivers rip you off. The Metro ride would have been two Euros, but I was tired.



We took a nap and then reconoitered the Metro to the Atocha train station.


This morninig when we got up at 6:30 and dressed for our train ride to Toledo, we were surprised to find that the tickets are for tomorrow. Breakfast at the hotel was fantasticismo...croussants, ham, cheeses, jelly, butter, Cafe con leche, fruit and yogurt and hard-boiled eggs. We went to the El Prada art museum, primarily to see Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights"



Double-click on the photo above to get a better view of something really twisted...After that we strolled the big park to the East of the El Prada...


This is a building in the park called the Crystal Palace.



We wandered around last night looking for the tapas we had heard so much about. No luck on those but we did find a place that had a lot of pig legs hanging on the ceiling...we ordered red wine and an Iberian platter of pig things...they were very tasty...we're a little jet lagged and slept last night from 9-12 and then 4-6...tonight should do the trick...Mrs. Phred is taking an afternoon nap right now...tomorrow Toledo.





The plazza next to our hotel has a nice statue of Don Quijote (Quixote), his horse (Racinote?) and his buddy (Pancho?) and mule. Maybe I'm thinking of Zorro? Our hotel is on the Grand Via...it seems to be a shoe shopping district...the room electricity only works when a card is inserted in a slot...the shower is poorly designed and runs all over the floor...its a 4 star...we're on the eighth floor...I smoke on the balcony and consider head shots with my M-1 on the pedestrians far below...wind and elevation complicate things...my admiration for Whitman's work in the Texas Tower goes up several notches...