Sagrada, Boqueria, Ramblas and Doors

What an impressive title! Sounds like I’m pretty comfortable with Spanish, doesn’t it? Nope. In fact the language barrier is tougher than I thought. Most people we’ve encountered speak no English. The young waiters in the restaurants may have a wee bit but most residents or shop keepers have none. But why would they? We are in Spain. The language here is Spanish – actually Catalonian Spanish. Everyone that we have talked to or asked for help has been wonderful and between charades and Google translate we have been understood, at least partially.

The doors are another matter. I have been embarrassed on multiple occasions already and they all seem to be “door” based. We have 2 tiny little elevators to take us up the 80 stairs to our Air bnb but yesterday the elevators were always locked so we hiked up and down – many times. This morning we happened to arrive at the same time as another lady and watched. The door was locked. She pushed what to me looked like a keyhole and soon the door opened. After she left we experimented. The elevators here at our Air bnb stop on the last floor they were taken to and have outer doors (that just look like a regular door) that are locked on all the other floors. If you press (in this case a keyhole button) the elevator travels to your floor and then the outer door releases so you can get to the elevator and it’s buttons. Yeah! Mastered that.

Last night we walked 3 or 4 blocks to a tapas restaurant that had good reviews on Trip Advisor. There were lots of people inside – a beautiful big glass door – walked up and pulled – nothing – pushed – nothing. It’s locked, I said to Jim. I tried again – no, it’s locked. I peered through the door at all the people inside wondering what the heck??? A young little waiter finally glanced up and came over and SLID the big heavy door to the side. OMG – Patti – you have to be smarter than the door!! Many entrance doors here slide – finally got that.

The last door tale was this morning visiting the Sagrada Familia – the man who welcomed us in as we arrived said – go downstairs for bathrooms and go upstairs for bhffhrxx. Something. I didn’t catch it. He smiled and was friendly and I smiled back and then thought – no I have to go back and ask? I didn’t understand what he said. So I turned around and asked “you said to go upstairs for what again Sir?” He smiled and said, “Everything! The Sagrada, it’s why you’re here, no?” We laughed together and proceeded up the stairs! I thought the language might give us some grief but didn’t think the doors would be my challenge!

Today we woke up early and toured the Sagrada Familia – Sacred Family. A basilica. An absolutely beautiful architectural masterpiece in the centre of Barcelona. It is still incomplete; construction began in 1882. The hope is it will be completed in 2026. Gaudi, the creator and architect knew it wouldn’t be finished in his life time or for generations but said “his client was in no hurry – God had all the time in the world”. I won’t go on and on with details because there is so much online for anyone interested but I will say it’s truly awesome. I got a little teary standing in the doorway. Wonderful – another thing to add to my long list of what makes me teary – beautiful, beautiful sites!

Our other highlights today were mastering the metro, and walking the Ramblas (a large boulevard which runs through the heart of the city centre for 1.8 miles). We had done enough reading to know that the Ramblas has some seedy characters looking to scam tourists and lots of pickpockets. We had our satchels under our coats in case but never were approached and felt safe the entire time.

We also visited the beautiful Barcelona Cathedral with 500 year old stained glass windows and a roof featuring a large number of gargoyles – animals real and mythical.

A highlight was the Mercat de Boqueria (huge marketplace) that we wandered through for a long, long time. I love markets – in every city we have ever travelled to, markets call me, and this was a great one. We had some fresh strawberry juice and different croquettes but mostly just enjoyed the sites and smells.

We ran out of steam mid afternoon and joined the Spanish people in their siesta – a great tradition! One last highlight – I won’t bore you with all of our food experiences (I am a true foodie, so I could go on and on) but we did stop for warm churros and thick hot chocolate to dip them in! Yum!