Another Visit to Barcelona

Barcelona from the aft deck of the Celebrity Edge

OUR NEXT stop was an overnight in Barcelona. This was our second visit to the city. Our first was in 2015, where we boarded the Princess Cruise Lines, Emerald Princess with our friends Paul and Linda, on their first cruise with us, and our "makeup" cruise for our first aborted cruise back in 2013. We spent several days in Barcelona on that trip. And we fell in love with the city. The people, food, history, culture and architecture are simply spectacular. Until our 2022 visit to Portugal, and particularly to the city of Porto, Barcelona was far and away my favorite European city. It still remains one of our favorites, and we know we will return many more times (including a stop on our 2022 Mediterranean cruise - for a future post).

Parc Guell; Barcelona, Spain

THE OVERNIGHT presented a couple opportunities. We had seen a lot of the city in 2015, taking the Gaudi tour, doing some food and beverage "walks," and of course, seeing the La Sagrada Familia. We also saw the spectacular Paleo de Musica, and of course, Gaudi's utopian village: "Parc Guell." But our Parc Guell visit was cut short by a massive rainstorm. So, for this trip we made a return visit to the park a priority on our first day. The next day, since we had already seen so much of the city, we would take a tour north into the mountains, to the abbey at Montserrat. I guess this was the official "Monastery Cruise" for us. 😀

Wall Details; Parc Guell; Barcelona, Spain

WE WERE able to see all of Parc Guell this time, with a guided tour, showing all of the parts of the self-contained community for the "rich and famous" of Gaudi's time. For all of its planning, it never did really catch on, and now in the current day, it is a park for tourists and visitors, showing off Gaudi's architecture and ideas. For those who may not have known, Gaudi had a huge influence in the architecture and development of Barcelona, and his work can be seen all over the city. His approach was unique and was based largely on the theory that nothing in nature was a straight line. For the most part, almost nothing in Gaudi's design is in a straight line.

The Gothic Quarter; Barcelona, Spain

WE RETURNED to the ship afterward but had a scheduled nighttime tour of the old Gothic Quarter (arguably the coolest part of the city). A few of our new friends from the ship, including Steve and Jan (mentioned in an earlier post) were on the tour. It was in interesting mix, in that it was architectural and history, bringing us through several centuries of examples as we walked around; but also mixed in with tapas food and wine along the way. It was an interesting opportunity to see some of the city after dark. Much of it matches the look of the period it was built in (even though electricity is present throughout), with "torch-like" lamps lighting some of the alleyways, giving it an eerie, but probably realistic feel for its time. Those who know something about photography will appreciate, and I hope the rest will understand, that I don't have any photos of this evening. Dark conditions and a fast-moving tour just don't create good shooting conditions. So, I didn't. 😐

Montserrat; Barcelona, Spain

THE NEXT morning, we met our tour guide on shore and a small group of about 12 of us took the approximately hour-long trip (just over 30 miles) northwest, into the mountains, to Montserrat. Santa Maria de Montserrat is a Benedictine Abbey in the Catalan region of Spain. The name "Montserrat" means "serrated mountain" in the Catalan language. From a distance on most days, it is easy to see how the jagged, multi-peaked mountain gets its name. Montserrat is part of the Catalan pre-coastal mountain range (on our visit in 2022, we were told by our guide that the range extends all the way west from Monserrat to the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic Ocean).

Santa Maria de Montserrat; Barcelona, Spain

OUR TOUR was supposed to include about 1/2 day at the Monserrat Abbey, and the second half at a local Montserrat winery. There is a funicular from the parking main parking area, and a second one from the monastery up to the top of the mountain. I wanted to take that to the top. For reasons I will get into below, we weren't able to do so. I was disappointed and vowed to be back (and indeed we were back here again in 2022). When we did return, I learned that the view was inward between two close ranges, and not that spectacular; and that more often than not, fog at the top obscured a view of any kind. It was foggy in 2022, and having learned what I now know, I opted not to go up then either. One of the sights to see in the Abbey is the statue of The Black Madonna (Our Lady of Montserrat, a/k/a The Virgin of Montserrat), the patron saint of Catalan. The legend goes that someone discovered the Black Madonna (on of only a very few in the world) on the site of the monastery, and since they couldn't (or didn't want to) move it, built the monastery around it. We stood in a long line to see it.

Church; Montserrat, Spain

I AM sure every reader has heard the expression, "hangry." On this day, I had a version of "hanger," that was related not to food, but thirst. Our timing off the ship that morning and the concern about how long before a restroom facility had me planning my hydration poorly. There is a famous boys'-choir that performs each day a noon at the Abbey, and most of our group opted to purchase tickets and hear them. There was also a purportedly nice museum on the grounds. But I couldn't think of anything more than that I was dying of thirst. I went to the cafeteria to get water. Our guide had been there many times, so he opted to accompany us to the cafeteria and sat with us. At that time, he began to express some concerns about continuing the tour - and ultimately decided he would cut it short, returning to the ship as soon as the boys'-choir was finished. Thus, I also caused us to miss out on the museum, which we could have done during the boy's-choir performance. Something else to return for.

Catalan Separatist Protest

BARCELONA IS part of the region in Spain known as Catalan. There are a number of regions (e.g., Basque) in the diverse nation and a national unity came very hard for them. Most of the regions have maintained a high degree of autonomy and their own specific identity. No region is more attuned to this than Catalan, which still maintains its own language, along-side the official language of Spain: Spanish (of course). The Catalan Independence movement took root in the early 1900's as a nationalist movement for Catalan to separate from Spain. Over the years, there have been various and frequent demonstrations. To their credit, there has been only very rare episodes of violence. But it really goes back further than that. Catalan was originally a principality of Aragon, resulting from a union between Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon, in 1137. Late in the 15th century, the crowns of Aragon and Castile were united through marriage, and eventually became the Kingdom of Spain. All of the entities of Aragon became part of the new Kingdom, but for the most part, maintained a high degree of autonomy, maintaining their own laws and customs. But over the years there was a great degree of pressure to unify; and a great degree of resistance (amounting to several wars) as well. In 1641, Catalan seceded from Spain and sought the assistance and refuge of France. Mostly affiliated with France for the next several years, Spain regained control of Catalan, but again, it maintained its laws and customs for the most part. This history of Spain goes on, but is well beyond the scope of this blog. Suffice it to say that during all the occurred, the Catalan people maintained a fierce national feeling and even though at time "underground" the movement was never dead.

Catalan Independence Flag

IN 1922, the movement boiled again to the surface with the creation of the Catalan Independence Party: Estat Catala'. During this period, Spain as a nation continued to have "growing pains." By the 2000's, the movement had become much more vocal (though as noted above, rarely has been violent), with numerous referenda and protest demonstrations. We really knew nothing about it in 2015 when we were there, but we learned about it in an offhand sort of way. We had some free time during our several day stay in Barcelona, after a morning excursion. We found a nice indoor/outdoor bar near our hotel and sat down for a drink. The television was broadcasting the local news, showing a huge Catalan independence protest, and we learned from our bartender that we were there right around the official "Catalan Independence Day."

Newscast of Catalan Independence Day Protest/Celebration - 2015 - Barcelona, Spain

DURING OUR 2015 stay in Barcelona, we learned bits and pieces about the issues from our tour guides, so on this trip, we knew a little something about it. What we were not aware of, though, brings us back to why our guide was nervous about the Montserrat excursion. In 2019, demonstrators organized a "walk-in" from all over the Catalan countryside, scheduled for the day we were in Montserrat. He mentioned the news accounts as the genesis of his angst. He was not concerned about safety or violence, but about getting us back to the ship on time. As the afternoon wore on, it was expected that thousands of these marchers would completely clog the streets of Barcelona, particularly down near the port and in the old Gothic Quarter. At the time, we didn't appreciate his concerns.

The Catalan Flag is a very common sight in Barcelona; 

more common than the official Flag of Spain

CUTTING OUR trip short by a few hours ensured that he got us back to the ship with no problems. And consequently, we had most of the afternoon back on board. After freshening up and a quick lunch in the buffet, we headed back to my favorite spot on the ship: the cigar/smoking area of the sunset bar. The aft of the ship faced the city, and we began to see what his concerns were about. We got quite a show, as hour by hour, the streets filled with a mass of people and the colorful Catalan flags. It was complete gridlock - a mix of humans and vehicles. We knew others who were off the ship that day and over the afternoon, they (people we had met in the smoking area) straggled in and joined us for the "show." One couple arrived quite late and they told of their story. They were in a cab, and after sitting in traffic for over an hour, their cab driver actually told them they would have a better chance of getting back to the ship on time if they go out and walked. They did. 3 miles (and she was on a knee scooter!). Nobody was angry or put out. We all saw it as a bit of an adventure (of course, from the safety of the top deck of our ship; which departed almost on time - everyone aboard).

Port of Barcelona, Spain

THE ONE other virtue of the overnight stay was that it gave me a rare opportunity to make some nighttime images from the deck of the ship. Normally, by nightfall we have left the port and are steaming toward our next stop. There is usually little but the empty, black sea (maybe some stars sometimes), and our motion makes night photography a challenge. Shooting in very low light conditions usually means you must have long exposures. And long exposures are certain to totally blur any motion that occurs. I took advantage on our overnight, shooting the port from the rear deck of the ship and made a photo I really liked, to add to my nighttime image portfolio.

[Some of you may have noticed that I changed the banner here. When I first began writing this blog a few months back, I had a shot of the Celebrity Solstice (one of the older, "Millenium" Class ships) and it seemed to fit the theme and space. But on reflection (see what I did there? 😉) it occurred to me that we really don't cruise much on that class anymore. One ship that we have cruised the most times on - and has become one of our favorites - is The Celebrity Reflection, so I thought it made a good "thematic" banner image. I made this shot one night in San Juan Puerto Rico, shortly before we pulled away from the port].