I'm having an 80s moment

     The '80s for me was in 2 words, independence and freedom. I had turned 21 in the early '80s and while the Singapore economy was booming from the late '60s till the early '80s, I played no part in it, as I was still a 'dependent' and living off my parents' goodwill. To be honest, I lived a very fortunate life, having had additional exposure to music at a young age (I was taught the piano for 8 years), was disciplined through swimming training  at the Singapore Swimming Club (for 6 years), as well as taking part in rigorous martial arts of karate (at the Palmer Road YMCA) for at least 5 years. 

     The funny thing is that, I have revisited my 'hobbies' of my early days and now am playing tunes on my Yamaha piano, practice karate at least once a week and occasionally swim. I am grateful to my parents for imbibing in me, through these hobbies, a sense of truthfulness, perseverance, and a love for music which is another whole sphere of language - which is universal - and a never say die attitude. 

    Seize the Day.  

     

Take it to the Limit - My Favourite Eagles song ; In memory of Glenn Frey

There are times when I question my mortality and the collective conciousness which shaped my growing up years all of the people, the activities and music of the  70s and the 80s. It seems like so many of them are gone in a flash. A real wake up call to all of us Baby Boomers. Life has been good, but let us reflect and see what we have truly contributed to this world, it could be children, some good you have passed on to the next generation, some art works, music, the list goes on. I rarely remember the many good acts, small and large by people and the nasty behaviors of people stick out. My 2017 goal is to be more magnaminuous and look beyond the petty. 

Money is nothing more than a commodity for us to live and exist.   More of it may improve our happiness and the lack of it will surely impinge on our so called 'quality of life'. Stop and look around you. 

Are you alive ? 

Barcelona La Pedrera

The magnificent La Perdrera at Placa Catalunya 

The La Perdrera is the centerpiece architectural work from Antoni Gaudi at the turn of the 20th century. He was a brilliant architect who eschewed (see I learned how to use this word !) the clean lines of the minimalists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and many others and worked his brilliance by fusing nature and the wavy lines all in one building. Built at the turn of the 20th century, La Perdrera was supposed to house one family, that of his benefactor, but in the end, because of cost overruns, it housed several families.

The inner courtyard of the building which let in natural lighting

     The layout of La Pedrera is that of a building complex and every corner does not end in an apex. So, it is rectangular but not rectangular owing to the wavy curves with no start and end. On top of that he infused alot of plants and plant like sculptures together into the building facade to create some kind of cave outlook. I cannot adequately describe it owing to my architectural illiteracy but the end result is something out of this world from the outside yet homey on the inside.

    Capped at the rooftop are these foreign looking structures from Star Wars (I am sure George Lucas took inspiration from this to form his storm trooper helmets !) but are no more than the traditional chimney with an out of space chimney top !  Inside the building there are rooms fitted out in the 19th and turn of the century 20th century furniture, cups, saucers, pictures, place mats giving the person a walk-through time machine. 

   There is a museum showing Gaudi's works and life as well as his influences and end days. He was an eccentric man who died while attempting to cross a busy street. He was hit by a passing tram and was brought to the local hospital where he stayed for 3 days in the poorest ward because nobody recognised this great architect from the ordinary peasant farmer. He was recognised by Barcelona mayor who immediately transferred him to the best ward and best doctors but it was too late. He died soon after, and the whole city, and Spain mourned for the great man who was just left to die on the street and he did not complain or protest for his mistreatment. What a tragic irony

   My rather stoned looking face after almost 14 hours of flight and our first day in Barcelona

   The rooftop of the building (at the 6th storey) housed these strange Star Wars looking chimneys which are one of Gaudi's signature pieces of work. Again, he eschewed the straight lines of the typical chimney and created these fluid rather alien looking chimneys.The building has many curves and there is never a straight line where one can take any reference from. The view from here to the Sagrada Familia is also one of the main talking points for all tourists.

    I will show more in the next posts.

Barcelona 3 Parc Guell

Open courtyard of Park Guell

     Situated in the neighbourhood of Vallcarca, lies the iconic Parc Guell, this was another of Gaudi's massive projects which unfortunately for the funder, went bankrupt before it was officially opened. We took the Metro to Vallcarca and walked uphill (it was a massive steep walk by the way).  Fortunately there were escalators assisting us up the hill.

Barcelona Metro Lines 

    At the top of the hill, there was a blues guitarist doing some busking work. That memory of him doing his thing and singing in the winter sun is something really special. His name was Robert (no last name) and he had cut a CD taken from his gig at the Harlem Jazz Club in Barelona. I have it in my car's CD and it is exceptional. 

The steep road up to Parc Guell

The panoramic view at the top of Parc Guell 

   Antoni Gaudi, the most famous architecht in Spain lived most of his life in Barcelona, and his 3 most iconic works are the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell and La Pedrera. Parc Guell is by far the largest and most ambitious work of his. Below are some of his eclectic and eccentric houses, and courtyards which try to fuse the natural beauty of nature and modern design.

  As belligerant tourists, we were captivated by the fact that such a renowned and forward looking architech had died a pauper, and an unknown knocked down on a main street by a tram. Great vision and design is seldom appreciated during most geniuses lifetime.      

Uniquely designed house 

We were fortunate to arrive in Barcelona when the weather was generally fine (out of the 5 days we stayed there, 4 days were sunny). Parc Guell is well worth a visit, firstly to see the entire city from the hilltop (I will post a picture in another post) and secondly to see the curves on his buildings which he was so famously renowned for.   

Would we go back to parc Guell ? I think 1 visit is sufficient. 

If you have 4 to 5 days in Barcelona, do check out the following in order of importance (according to this belligerant tourist ! )

1. La Pedrera

2. Sagrada Familia Church

3. Montjuic (we went to see Joan Miro Musuesm which was absolutely fantastic)

4. Parc Guell

5. Barcelonetta Beach

6. La Ramblas

The chic distric of El Born was another of my favourite walking tours (plenty of small boutique shops selling all kinds of things from arts and craft, clothing and of course tapas).

I had the misfortune of having my phone stolen from right under my nose, that unfortunate incident aside, the city is beautiful, with its residents warm and inviting.

Service in the tapas restaurants was excellent, again highlighting the distinct lousy service provided by Singaore F and B joints generally.  

Barcelona 2 ; Sacred Family Sagrada Familia Church

Remembering those who left in 2016

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.