Barcelona ; 4 - 9th Dec 2016 ; Great city, watch your wallets and bags.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian, commissioned by the Spanish king to go and look for the East  

     The first city during our 2 week holiday in Europe was Barcelona ; it is the capital of the Catalan province and when we arrived there in the early afternoon, our first reaction to it was "Wow !". We stayed at the Dequesa de Cardona, an excellent 4 star boutique hotel located right at the waterfront, along the Passeig Colom overlooking the beautiful marina, and Port Vell. The hotel is overlooking Barcenoletta beach (about 1 km away), and directly fronting the marina and the yachts, some of which are quite luxurious. There is also a small swimming pool which would have been the highlight if it were not 13 deg C in the daytime ! 

     At one end of the Passeig Colom was the statue of Christopher Colombus, an Italian who was commissioned by the Spanish Queen to find new lands in the 15th century. That was practically the height of the Spanish empire during the last millenium and Spain was looking to expand her empire and colonize new lands. 

    Columbus thought that when he arrived in 1492, he had reached Asia, after seeing the indigenous peoples of the Bahamas. His travels and subsequent landing can be found in the film "1492".   

    There are many architectural sights in this beautiful city, not least the world famous Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi as well as the La Perdrera which is a famous unique building fusing nature and all the curves it has with the modern day structure. I will elaborate more of these in later posts. 

View of Barcelonetta and the marina from our hotel terrace

      Barcelonetta beachfront during the winter is pretty quiet, however, there are many street vendors from Africa and the Middle East, though I am not pinpointing tham as the perpetrators, the area along La Ramblas, Placa de Catalunya and much of the tourist section, Born and the Gothic Quarter we had to pretty much watch out for our wallets, handphones and of course passports.

      As we had many fine dining options at very decent prices, tapas restaurants were plentiful and were just next to our hotel at the Born district. We had many lovely meals at the Bodega la Puntal, address is Carrer Montcada 22, El Born. The Vermouth is really "to die for" ! Most meals for 2 cost us no more than EU 50 which was quite expensive by Singapore standards. The picture below is in the daytime but at night the square comes to life and there are literally hundreds of people out in the streets, meeting up after work, downing a Vermouth and some tapas and then heading off home. Its a time honoured tradition amongst the Catalonians. 

Placa de Santa Maria (beside the Santa Maria church one of the most beaufiful churches in Barcelona)

    There are so many fine small tapas restaurants (small meals that can be served and eaten with your fingers like canapes) that many people actually do the tapas crawl. For us though, as it was winter and temperatures fluctuating between 10 and 15 deg C, to be inside and eating excellent Spanish tapas would do it.  

c'est magnifique ! Pardon my French

      Practically all the service staff speak good English and the service generally is very good ! Perhaps I should qualify my statement by saying that the Service standards in Singapore restaurants, F and B establishments and boutique shops are really pathetic compared to European standards.

     So Barcelona is truly a magical and lovely city which we were most fortunate to visit. 

   

  

Burung Kakatua - Indonesian Nursery Rhyme of my toddler days

          This song was always at the back of my mind and my maid Kakak (big sister) always sang it to us as did my parents during those carefree simple days. If anyone remembers the singer, please verify it but it was a great song though I barely understood the lyrics, its about a cockatoo bird. Burung being bird and Kakatua meaning Cockatoo. 

          We did keep a cockatoo called Cocky which was my pet, I adored it and it would play with me, gently biting my fingers. It died way too soon, I believe it was poisoned by my house tenants whom Cocky bit and he carried a grudge against it. What a pity.  

Paris Dec 17 2016 Rue Cler ; Chic district for fresh produce, cheese and chocolate

Rue Cler ; famous for its market selling fresh produce, chocolate and cheese shops 

        This district is famous for its food and specialty shops. We went there on our last day in Paris. The sky was gloriously blue, which was very pleasant,given that the temperature that day and the whole week was in the low teens. Today was no different, around 10 - 12 deg C. May had last come to Paris in 2011, and had learnt some French cooking booking the pricate class online. The American host recommended Rue Cler as the place to go for the freshest and most attractively priced groceries as well as cheese and chocolates. How French you will say.  The shop selling cheese is called Fromage Marie-Anne Cantin and we bought some hard cheeses Racoulette and Gruyere. The address is the Rue adjoining to Rue Cler. 12 Rue Champ de Mars.  

Egg and Cheese Omelette

      The French take dining very seriously, and we noticed that the women who stay so fashionably slim, do not eat much except for a salad for lunch and something very light for dinner. Its true that Evian water is more expensive than a glass of house wine, red of white at most restaurants.

Pretty Streets of Rue Cler

       A bottle of Evian water at the corner supermarket costs EUR 1.10 (S$ 1. 60) while the same bottle in Singapore costs EUR 1.80 (S$ 3.00) or more. But that is making nonsense comparisons ; the chocolate shop at Rue Cler charges EUR 16.00 or S$ 20 per box of small chocolates which, while exhorbitant, gives us a little piece of gastromic heaven after a dinner. This food dinosaur has been refining his prehistoric palate bit by bit over the years and is able to differentiate his Beaujoulais from his Bordeaux, and his his La Maison du Chocolat from his Hersheys. Ahem. 

The market street at Rue Cler 

        Is Paris worth a visit every few years, certainly in my book. Not so for the threat of pickpockets or the vagrants of course. The city has its centuries of culture, world class museums , gothic and Renaissance architecture,  Tour Eiffel (just an icon in my book) and it has turned gritty over the few times we visited (2009, 2011 and 2016). Parisians are entrepreneurial and cosmopolitan and there are a huge number of people from all parts of the world (all continents are represented) living and working there. Expensive city ?  Yes. Global City ? Yes. Welcoming City ? Speak French and the answer is "Oui Oui !"     

        Taken as a whole, it is a melting pot of cultures, gritty, in your face with challenges facing it. Life goes on in the city of Lights. 

       

Card Players by Paul Cezanne.

The First Years Video 3 ; First Steps, Adis Road House and Family

     This is the third video of me crawling and at the verandah of our first house at Adis Road. A bungalow off Sophia Road. My father and my uncle David Mun, Aunt Susan Mun and some of my father's friends are also in the video. 

     This was taken in 1963, apologies for the grainy and poor quality video. 

Paris Musee d' Orsay - Dec 11 2016

Outside Musee d' Orsay on a brilliant sunny cold winter's day 

      The Musee d'Orsay is second only to the world famous Lourve in terms of number of art pieces, sculptures, paintings with over 30,000 pieces mainly from French Renaissance artists such as Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Manet and Frederick Bazille amongst other world famous artists. I am a near ignorant art museum with engineering and logic being my background, so please excuse the almost simplistic decriptions of the paintings.

The view from the museum of the 7th arrondissement 

       It was a brilliant Sunday morning, and we took a casual breakfast (le petit dejeunner) of croissant, orange juice and coffee before heading to the I'll de Cite. In the basement are mainly sculptures of the Roman Byzantine era while those on the 2 to 5th floors highlights the more Renaissance artists. The works for Frederick Bazille are currently highlighted and they occupy the whole 5th floor. He was an artist who painted with watercolor as with all other struggling artists of the late 19th century (Monet, Manet and Cezanne). He was an accomplished pianist and came from a well-to-do family. Unfortunately he died at 30 while fighting against some uprising from the regional fishermen. Below is the picture of the artists who mostly stayed together (many were gay) on the left bank of the Seine.

     

Frederick Bazille's studio on the left bank

   The draw for artists from all around Europe from 1700s to early 1900s was that here was a place for all to come and share ideas, discuss philosophy and perhaps pool together their money to hold joint exhibitions. It was a fervent time and many great names have stayed here for years. Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Bazille, Miro, Picasso and Dali all had legnths of time in Paris. 

       

Men at rest and play - Frederick Bazille 1887 

  

   

The First Years Video 2 ; Parties at Adis Road and the Famous Slide

      This was taken sometime in 1966 when I was about 3 year old, my brother had just been born and we had a birthday party in the big garden at Adis Road.  The slide was the centerpiece for all the kids and I had the toy gun and brandished it around with glee.
      
      There was a merry go round and all the aunties and uncles came over. The last part shows my brother John at the front steps of the garden. 

      Apologies again for the shaky video.  This was taken 50 years ago !! 

The First Years Video 1 ; Adis Road 1963 - 1966

      This was recorded by my late father Geoffrey and using his Cine camera which was 'state of the art then' ; it shows my first steps as a baby, my grandfather (an Anglican priest) Aruputhan Abisheganaden, the garden, my dog Scamper and some neighbourhood children pulling leaves. My mother is dressed in red, and I was playing in some inflatable canoe in the verandah where I spent most of my infant and toddler years. There is some footage of our first dog, a cocker spaniel called Trixie. 

        My Por Poh (Mum's mother), Mdm Wen  can also be seen in her cheongsam. The video ends with all of us going into the Simcar for a ride into town. 

       Please excuse the shaky recording of this video which was taken 50 odd years ago !

       Thank you to Youtube and modern video editing technology.