By Tina Kelly
I once heard the saying, "A bad day of travel is made easier with a great travelling companion."
No quote evokes the spirit of my one day in Barcelona, Spain more.
Standing in the middle of La Rambla, a travelling companion from Australia and I struggled to make more out of our day than the shopping option the rest of our group had defaulted to.
Wandering aimlessly or eating tapas surrounded by tourists didn’t appeal to us. We wanted adventure and independence from our tour group. A glance to the left brought our attention to a stand brimming with beautiful postcards showcasing tile mosaics by the famous Antoni Gaudi. We wanted to see and feel the real tiles — the real art.
In the best Spanish an Aussie and a Canadian could muster, we attempted to ask the newsstand vendor for directions to Parc Guell, location of much of the photographed work. "Vallcarca" was the response, accompanied by rapid arm waving and finger pointing. Vallcarca, it turned out, was a Metro stop 10 minutes from our location, with the entrance below our very feet.
With four hours until we needed to re-join our tour, we repeated "Vallcarca" to the Metro ticket seller, paid and set about finding our destination. Alighting at Vallcarca, we walked a gauntlet of foreign catcalls and successfully found our way to the park. If Alice were to fall down a Spanish rabbit hole, quite possibly, she’d find herself in a land resembling Parc Guell.
Eusebi Guell commissioned Antoni Gaudi to work on a development project in 1900. Eusebi sought to create nature, health and an escape from the industrialized city. By 1914, the development was falling through and in 1926, the city turned the partly completed project into a public park.
The park is an eclectic mix of gardens, sculpture and buildings. It covers a large area yet even with a seemingly large number of locals and visitors, it is easy to have your own little part of it. The best known features of the park are the two whimsical fairy-tale-like pavilions, the tiled salamander fountain and the 152-metre serpentine mosaic bench that surrounds the Gran Placa Circular.
Gran Placa is a beautiful large plaza where we sat and absorbed the atmosphere Gaudi created a hundred years before. On this day, the atmosphere was enhanced by a blazing sun, a children’s choir singing out from below and local artists selling their wares.
Sad to leave, but running out of time, we noticed a sign pointing to a different, closer Metro stop. Strangely this route seemed more confusing and longer than the way we had come. We functioned better on Spanglish instructions than well-marked signage.
After a panic-stricken moment over missing our group, we arrived with minutes to spare.
We were met by our fellow travellers, who had become bored and daunted spending all afternoon in the tourist hub of Barcelona. We smiled a satisfactory smile, proud and excited about our independent adventure. It’s true, the right travelling companion made all the difference.
Tina Kelly is a biologist and teacher in Victoria with a penchant for the outdoors, travel and culture.
Vancouver Sun
