Barcelona, Spain
Alan's Log:
Joan's Log:
New Year's Eve, Barcelona Style
January 2008
We returned to Barcelona on December 30th on a marvelously sunny day, with a feeling of being far, far away from home. Moonstruck had been well looked after by the marinaras, we could see her at the end of the long pier, gleaming happily in the sun, her decks having been freshly washed. I had to remind myself that we were home! The interior and exterior were exactly as we had left her, which was a relief. The main salon soon looked as if a bomb had gone off as we unpacked the huge amount of "necessary"stuff we had lugged all the way from WA. It would take us days to sort it out and stow it away.
On New Years Eve I felt we would be cheating ourselves if we didn't go out into the city and experience first hand the festivities in Barcelona. I, for one, had never in my life been out in a big public venue on NYE, always prefering a quiet evening close to home.
We left the boat around 10:00p.m. planning to walk down into Barcelonetta and then into the Born, the Barri Gottic and then up La Rambla to the Placa Catalunya. The streets were steadily filling up as we went deeper into the city with throngs of mainly young people, although we did see some very elegantly dressed "older" folks as well. I could hear every language being spoken all around me, French, German, Japanese, Russian, English and American! Everyone was clearly in a party mood as they made their way through the narrow streets, all seemingly heading in the same direction. We managed to squeeze into an Irish pub for a beer where we heard Placa Catalunya was THE place to be. By the time we made it to La Rambla every restaurant, bar and tapas bar was filled to capacity, with long lines spilling out into the street. The enterprising "beer boys" were everywhere, selling Cava (Champagne) along with 6 packs of Estrella Damm, and every other person, it seemed, had one and was drinking straight from the bottle. The streets were getting jam-packed so we decided to seek a little refuge for a while and ducked into an oasis of calm in an elegant French hotel bar, to gather our courage for the fast approaching midnight hour.
Back on the street we pushed our way through the crowd up to the big plaza with was filled with thousands of very excited, yelling, singing, intoxicated people. Fun. I noticed a lot of people holding bunches of grapes! I learned later that it is the custom, at 12 minutes before midnight to eat a grape at each minute leading up to Midnight for luck in the New Year. Midnight couldn't arrive fast enough for us; at the stroke of 12 we kissed and said "lets get out of here!" Making our retreat down La Rambla wasn't easy and slow going, at one point someone thought it would be a good idea to see how far they could toss empty champagne bottles into the air. Soon hundreds of bottles were literally raining down and shattering in the middle of the Rambla! The pavement was completely covered with broken glass, young men would run out into the fray, kind of like "dodge ball", reminding me of The Running of the Bulls, only it was The Running of the Bottles! At this point I was getting a little concerned, there seemed to be a mob mentality setting in, people were tipping over parked motorcycles, and climbing to the top of the newspaper kiosks. Even down in the marina area there were hoards of people. The plinth of the statue of Christoper Colombus was covered with people trying to climb it. Tons of trash and broken bottles covered the pavement, the mother in me kept thinking "what a mess! Who is going to clean this mess up?" Back on the boat and safely tucked under the covers like two sticks in the mud, we could hear screaming people and the constant zig-zag wail of police/ambulance sirens until four or five in the morning. I'm glad we experienced it, but in the future I think we'll stick to our quiet little celebrations at home!
As we walked home early on New Years day, the clean up crew was already assembling in all the side streets. They worked through the night and into New Year's day. By dinnertime there was no trace of the previous night's mess. I wondered why most of them were young women. Later a neighbor explained the sweeping the streets is a time-honored punishment dealt out by the vice court!
The Circus comes to town
A small traveling circus has set-up just a few hundred yards from Moonstruck on the promenade. Neither of us have much interest in modern circuses or in animal tricks but we cycled past it a few times and were intrigued by the old, brightly-painted circus wagons and the vintage look to the entire scene.
Tickets were cheap and we decided to check it out. What a fun evening we had! Circus Raluy is an old Spanish traveling family circus complete with wagons and equipment dating back to the early 1900's. The act is performed in a real circular tent and we sat on antique velvet covered seats just feet from the stage. The performers were great; the acts were fun and energetic; sometimes a little hokey, but funny and fairly low tech/low risk. This was not Cirque du Soleil! It was however a complete blast with comedy and pathos and we left the tent chuckling, and totally surprised to find the performers and their families all waiting for us outside, mingling with the departing spectators and thanking us for our patronage. The following pictures are from The Circus website - Thanks!
The Festival of the Three Kings
Ater all the excitment of New Years Eve, I thought the holidays were over, was I ever wrong! I was expecting to see huge after-Christmas sales going on in all the stores. There were no sales, but there was a frenzy of shopping going on! All the shops were packed, with long lines at the check out. We had coffee with some of our Barcelona friends and found out about the next big celebration, The Day of the Kings. It is a huge holiday here in Spain, even bigger then Christmas! It is also called The Epiphany and occurs on the Twelveth day of Christmas, January 6th, when the Three Kings visited Jesus. In Barcelona they arrive, not by Camel but by Boat!On the eve of Kings Day there is a huge parade here in Barcelona, in which the three Kings arrive by boat and then move in a procession (riding camels) all around the city thowing candy to the children. Also on the night before Kings Day, children polish their shoes and leave them out for the Kings to fill with presents and candy, they also leave cookies and milk or tea for the Kings and hay for the camels. On Kings Day people exchange gifts on a much larger scale then on Christmas day, and spend the day with family and friends with a big dinner followed by a special cake called Roscon (actually sweet bread, and very much like the King Cake, popular in the US south around Mardi Gras season) The cake contains a bean and a tiny doll, which represents Jesus. The person who finds the bean has to bring the cake to the following years dinner, and the person who finds the doll is crowned King of the day!
A few days before the parade we noticed a lot of activity directly across from us, as a huge stage, platforms and speakers were being errected. What in the world is going on? I thought. On the Eve of Three Kings Day we were out most of the day and returned to the boat around 5:00 p.m. as a crowd of people was gathering on the pier across from us. There was music, and people in costumes were dancing on the stage. Our marina was full of families with children, all watching from their boats. News helicopters buzzed overhead, and inflatables zoomed all around our boat. Obviously there was a temendous amount of anticipation which was leading up to the arrival of the Kings. Above the stage on a huge screen, we could see the Kings were on their way on board the big historic schooner which is normally moored across from us. The schooner slowly arrived and deposited the Kings, in a climax of drums, bells and cheers! Then the Kings began their procession and they and the crowds gradually drifted from our sight. What a spectacle, and how exciting to have it all happen just a few feet from us!
We're mobile again!
Ever since our previous pair of bikes were stolen one weekend in October we have greatly missed them. We bought new bikes a few days after we returned. This time we bought cheap lightweight mountain bikes instead of the heavy folding ones we had before, then we pimped them up with lights, a basket, bells, etc. We also brought with us from the states super heavy duty, industrial locks, and then we bought another set of locks for the front tires just for good measure!
We are having the most wonderful time with them, they have really improved the quality of our lives here. Barcelona is loaded with bike trails, you can ride just about anywhere you want in the city on a designated bike trail. Plus there are so many great rides, my favorite is north along the beach, which goes for miles and miles. Also it makes our trips to the laundry and market sooo much easier!
Next....We take a cheap flight to an expensive city...Rome!