Barthelona: Sun is shinin, weather is sweet...

Well folks, Bret and I are back from our Catalonian adventure, and what a great time we had!

It was Bret’s first time on the Iberian peninsula, and I hadn’t been in 8 years, so I had forgotten quite a bit about it, like how sunny it is in Barcelona! Every day we were blessed with bright blue skies. The temperature, too, was glorious, usually in the mid-fifties. Despite this, wherever we went, we saw everyone bundled up with scarves and coats. Even most dogs were clad in their little canine sweaters! Barcelona is a very dog-friendly city. Actually, it’s a very pedestrian-friendly city, not only because of the weather, but also because the sidewalks are wide and there are many shops and cafes everywhere. We stayed in a wonderful little hotel called the Alexandra, right off the Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona’s “5th Avenue”. Everyday, we walked along the storefronts of Tous, Burberry, Carolina Herrera, and MaxMara.

But the shiny storefronts were hardly the only objects to dazzle our eyes on this trip. Barcelona was Antonio Gaudi’s design playground, and his art nouveau influence, with eccentric undulations and quirky mosaics abound. In fact, after greeting my parents and grabbing some tapas, we decided to head out to his famous cathedral La Sagrada Familia. It’s a fantastic and still unfinished structure which lights up gloriously at night. Across from the Sagrada Familia, there is a lovely park where children were playing futbol and ping pong. Like any cutting edge urban mecca, Barcelona is home to many bustling green spaces. My mom tells me that as a child when she would visit Barcelona for long periods of time, she would feed the pigeons in Plaza Catalunya and play in the Parc de la Ciudadella. These parks act as a sanctuary to garrulous groups, joyous (and tantrum-throwing) children, fetching pups, and romantic (frequently underage) couples.

Surrounding these parks, there is often a mixture of buildings: Parisian-style apartments, grand government structures, and sleek hotels. The old and the new comfortably co-exist in this cosmopolitan city. Ornate gothic churches sit alongside jagged-edged post-modern structures. The centuries compress within buildings, too. It is not uncommon to see an old 18th century exterior, with thick stones and dramatic doors, lead to a cleanly refurbished ultra-modern interior.

After appreciating the preliminary sights of Barcelona, Bret and I decided to head back to our own minimalist quarters at the Hotel Alexandra. As we lay in bed, we couldn’t help but notice that there was something curiously different about our setting aside from the obvious change in location from our English bedroom. Then we realised: unlike our bedroom in Durham which faces a noisy, busy street, this room faced an interior courtyard. We closed our eyes, and for the first time in 3 months on Dec 24, we had a truly silent night.