The year was 1981. Annemarie and I were recently married, the first draft of my Masters thesis at the University of Alberta was under review and my supervisor was on sabbatical at Stanford for almost a year. In those days, not so very long ago, we had to communicate by snail mail with chapter drafts slowly drifting back and forth as I wrote each chapter, and lovingly Annemarie typed it. With the communication tools available today this process could have been significantly accelerated and I could have typed it myself😊. But I digress.
Annemarie and I had planned a long travel after I finished my studies which we sort of covered under the guise of a honeymoon. However, with my course work completed and the thesis process sort of hovering, we basically decided to drop everything and go. This meant that Annemarie gave up her first real position in her field, a social worker with the AB government. We had carefully lived on my scholarship and saved Annemarie’s wages, but with the high cost of living today our saving plan would probably be impossible today.
With $10,000 in the bank and itching to travel we loaded up our packs and flew off to London for what would become an almost 6 month adventure. Our first of numerous travels together would take us to many countries ranging from Ireland to as far east as Turkey and Bulgaria with loads of stops in between. One of those stops was here in Barcelona.
One of the highlights of our brief visit to this fabulous city was the Sagrata Famalia. Started part time by Antoni Gaudi in 1883 he finally began exclusive work in 1914 until his death in 1926 when he was hit by a tram. During the Spanish civil war all the plans were burned and the plaster models smashed. In 1939 work continued based on information found in Gaudi’s workshop and some previously published plans. It’s been dragging on ever since, but they say it will be completed by 2026. I guess you could say that we came back 3 years too soon!😆
If the outside was amazing, and it was, the inside was exquisite! Beyond the imagination the way the light plays plays. I’ve never seen it’s like and I don’t expect to again.
We managed to walk everywhere today. The metro costs quite a bit and we are more likely to ride city buses than the Hop On, Hop Off buses which cost a small fortune. They provide a good service, but as long as we are having fun walking all day then we will defer them for as long as possible. We find that walking let’s us get into the back streets and to interested places we wouldn’t otherwise see.
Some other things have been going on since I last posted. We stopped at the covered market next door to our hotel on our way out for the evening.
Then while in search of a place for dinner we found this going on in front of the city’s massive cathedral which we didn’t visit. They were charging huge dollars to get in, and I think we’ve seen a few brilliant cathedrals over the years.
We also saw a couple of other buildings Gaudi designed and perhaps I’ll share them plus a few other experiences tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, we will spend the morning here before beginning our trek to Eindhoven in Holland. We are very much looking forward to spending some wonderful time with family and a few friends too. Also I hear that it’s not too cold there yet. Bonus!
More from Holland!
Ciao! 🍷
Geoff
Distance Walker - Wandering & Wondering! 