A feast for the eyes

In front of La Sagrada Familia

I must confess that when people told me that I should see as much Gaudi as possible in Barcelona, I really didn't understand what they were talking about.

But the minute you see this Catalan architect's work, you can say for certain that the word "unique" is truly justified here.

On Thursday Katie and I started out our day by visiting La Sagrada Familia, the large Roman Catholic church that he designed. Construction of the church began in 1882 but was not completed in his lifetime, and work is still under way.

This sandcastle in the sky takes you by surprise when you come up out of the nearest Barcelona train station, looming over everything else in the vicinity. We ate lunch across the street at a restaurant with outside tables and sat transfixed.

Katie had already been with her study-abroad friends, but I don't think her amazement was tempered by a return visit.

Next we climbed...and climbed, and climbed...up to Parc Guell, where the tile work many associate with Gaudi, is equally eye-catching. I wouldn't have made it up or down without Katie's arm.

Crowds of people took photos all over the place as though intoxicated by the shapes and colors. It was impossible to stay out of everyone's way. We got a little crazy too.

Up at Parc Guell

From Granada to Barcelona

On the plaza overlooking the Alhambra

View of the Alhambra

We had a couple of beautiful days in Granada, where the sky was a perfect blue.

Sunday was our big day, when we toured the Alhambra, the palace and fortress that looks down on the city of Granada. The gardens are amazing, with some flowers still in bloom. The design, with fountains and water flowing all around, are designed to inspire meditation. We sat on a bench and took it all in.

There were steps everywhere. Our admission ticket allowed us to wander in the gardens until 6 p.m. if we wanted, but after about two hours I couldn't move anymore. I looked up at a steep flight of stairs which I'm sure led to an inviting garden, but I froze. We found the salida and ended that part of the day.

But later, after I lay down for a while, we headed for the old Jewish neighborhood, where the view of the Alhambra was promised to be awe-inspiring, and it was. We went up up up more stairs through  narrow streets until we finally got to the top. A band played flamenco music, and so-called hippies playing flutes laid out their wares on blankets while dogs wandered around. As the sun set, making the Alhambra look more and more unreal, I didn't want to leave, but it was getting dark and we had a long way down.

At right is the street that we took to get to the plaza with the view.

Monday, a short day because we had to catch a flight, we went to a tetería, an Arabic tea house where you can relax and have a choice of many teas. We think we might open one in Northampton. If you don't drink, it's an excellent place to hang out instead of the bar scene.

But that venture will be hard to realize if we move to Andalucía, which is another possibility that we have discussed.

Christmas in Barcelona has been pretty quiet. We walked along La Rambla, the main street, and spent some time in our hotel, having coffee (me) and hot chocolate (Katie) and sharing a chocolate chip cookie and talking.

Last night, Katie watched "A Christmas Story" ("You'll shoot your eye out!") and I watched it with her until I fell asleep sitting up. I think I'll watch the end tonight after we eat Chinese food and take a stroll to see the lights at night.

I said before that I have been introduced to many things. One is Principe cookies, sort of like an oreo but not as intense, with a chocolate filling inside two plain wafers. I have to admit that I just ate quite a few while I was writing this. I also have to admit that we had breakfast at Starbucks, which is just as ubiquitous as in the U.S.

Goodbye Seville, hello Granada

Katie at the entry to Granada center.

Me walking down the hill from our hotel.

I was sorry to leave Seville this morning, but I'm happy with the taste of Granada that I got this afternoon.

I still can't believe what a beautiful city Sevilla is. I knew Katie loved her program, but I didn't understand how much being in the city played such a big role. Yesterday we didn't go to any attractions except an artisans' showcase where we admired the beautiful work and bought a few things.

But most of the day we walked around. "Un paseo," they call it. We walked past the cathedral several times, and each time I just wanted to stop and look at it in all its grandeur. At night, photographers with fancy cameras stood in a group, trying to capture the Giralda, or tower, as it glowed in the night. ("You were up there!" Katie said.)

People shopped, but many stood or sat and enjoyed each other and watched people. Well into the night, the crowds of people having a drink or eating grew. It was unlike in New York or Boston, where everyone always has to be going someplace.

At night, we went to a flamenco performance and then had dinner outside around 10 p.m. If you go too much earlier, they look at you like you are uncivilized.

Our hotel in Granada is on top of a long steep hill, next to the Alhambra, where we will go tomorrow. We walked down the hill (and later, back up...thank you Michael, my physical therapist, for helping me get stronger). Then we went into the cathedral and chapel, a monument to Queen Isabel and her husband, Fernando, and into the adjoining museum.

Katie, an excellent tour guide and interpreter, had already been there and explained the history. We stood at the grand, intricately sculpted monuments to the monarchs lying in rest and went below to the crypts where they are buried. Eeeew.

John the Baptist's head has been another fascinating and somewhat creepy sight. We saw it in the Seville cathedral and later today in the Granada cathedral, and I looked up the story of the demise of this major New Testament figure.

In Seville, a sculpture of his head lay in a glass case, the sinews and tendons of his neck exposed. In the Granada cathedral, we stood in awe of a large altarpiece of scenes in the life of Jesus Christ, including his birth and his baptism by John the Baptist and then John's head on a platter.



I looked it up and learned that Herod, subking of Galilee during the Roman Empire, drunkenly promised Salome, the daughter of his wife, Herodias, anything she wanted. Herodias, jealous of John's influence and angry about his criticism of her unlawful marriage to Herod, told her daughter to ask for John's head on a platter.


I never knew that while having fun I would learn so much history.

Above, Katie stands next to a sculpture of Queen Isabel.

Left, John the Baptist loses his head, which is about to be placed on a platter.

Magic and mystery

Yesterday we went to the Plaza de Espana, built in 1929 for the Exposition Iberoamerica. An impressive, fairytale-like building abuts a plaza with fountains and little canals; around it is intricate tilework used to create a map and a scene for each province.

There is tile-work all around, so that everywhere you look there is something to admire. If you are from Western Mass, think the states buildings at The Big E. ONLY KIDDING.

We walked around the Plaza and the gardens across the street in the twilight, a time when everything glowed magically.

It's great to walk around Seville, not a CVS or big box store in sight. There are actually old-fashioned drug stores.

At this time of year, you also run into Santa Claus scaling the walls and the Three Kings hanging from terraces.

Hola from Seville

On one of the bridges across the Guadalquivir River

 I am having a wonderful time in this beautiful city with my beautiful daughter as my tour guide and excellent companion.

The flight on Sunday was fine, six hours on the plane. The six hours in the Madrid airport waiting for my connection to Seville were harder.  I saw what some other people were doing at 6:30 a.m. local time   (12:30 a.m. my time) and did the same – I put my coat down on a table, dropped my head down onto it, and fell asleep. For a change of scenery, I saw down at a gate and fell asleep in a chair.

I picked up some Spanish just by being at the airport. When I got to Seville and asked where I could get a cab to the B&B, I learned that the airport taxis were on strike and I would have to take two buses or one bus to the bus terminal and then a cab to the B&B.

I got the correct change and got in line for the bus. After a few minutes everyone ran to the other end end of the pick-up area to where the taxis line up, calling out, "The strike is off!" I guess I was getting my first taste of Spanish culture.

Yesterday, on my first full day after getting over jet lag, we went to the Seville's awe-inspiring Cathedral, said by some to be the largest cathedral in the world. We saw some amazing things, such as Christopher Columbus' tomb. After walking around, we climbed the Giralda, the decorative brick tower on the side of the cathedral. It seemed like it might be hard, but it really wasn't because a series of ramps leads to the top, built that way so that the guards could ride to the top on horseback.

From the top, there is an incredible view of Seville.

We also went across the street to the Alcazar, the royal palace surrounded by beautiful gardens.

People in the city walk everywhere and eat outside even if it's a little cool. We walked a lot, and it was tiring, but our daily siesta is refreshing. This is just my kind of lifestyle, with a late dinner eaten at a leisurely pace. Restaurants don't even open until 8:30 p.m. We have been eating a lot of tapas, a good way to try different kinds of food. Orange trees and palm trees line the streets.

Our hosts, Rosa and Carlo, are especially friendly and helpful and give us a good breakfast of fresh orange juice, coffee and typical Spanish fare: toast with salt and olive oil, tomatoes, Spanish ham and good cheese. That's what I'll want to eat when I get home. You can't get the ham in the U.S., and I hear that people try to smuggle it out of the country wrapped in clothes.

Leaving on a jet plane

"Have a great trip to Spain and BE SMART."

"Pace yourself and remember, less is more."

"Don't overdo it."

"I don't want you to call me from the hospital."

This is some of the advice that well-wishers have given me about the trip.

What, me overdo it?

I guess my friends know me well.

I am leaving at noon tomorrow to get to Diane's around 2. She'll drive me to the airport (as Joe Biden says, "Bless her soul" for carting me around) and I should get there around 3 for a 5:25 p.m. flight.

I'm not packed, but I do have piles which are about to go into the suitcase. Last night I had a "packer's nightmare" that only a woman, and maybe a few men, could have. I wasn't fully packed, but the bus (bus to where?) was about to leave, so I had to throw everything in my suitcase and dash out the door. When we were on our way I realized I had forgotten to wear or pack a necklace.

I was devastated. How could I enjoy a trip without a necklace?

I am truly my mother's daughter. For those who don't know, she was a jewelry designer and a firm believer in being properly accessorized.

I better go pack my necklaces now.

Drink up...your water, that is

I fell on my rear end while playing tennis today, finished the set and then ran into the bathroom and threw up.

The sore rear will take care of itself, although at this minute it hurts to sit, and I hope it's better before I take a seven-hour plane ride on Sunday. It wasn't that bad, and actually it was kind of funny. We were playing a round robin on three courts. A man on the court to the left of me fell and got up. Then I fell. It was kind of like the wave. We glanced over at the third court to see who would fall next, but it was only the two of us.

The throwing up has actually been happening on and off after tennis for a couple of months. I asked Melissa about it and she said it was probably dehydration. Then I looked up on the internet "Why do I vomit after exercise?" and was surprised to see quite a few entries all with the same conclusion: It's due to dehydration.

I talked to someone else about it today and she pointed out that while in the warm weather we just naturally drink a lot, in the winter we sometimes forget to. I thought I was drinking enough water, but when I paused to consider it, I realized that probably I wasn't. I came in from running errands this afternoon and saw a 3/4-full glass of water sitting on the counter. You have to do more than pour it; you actually have to drink it.

Here are some tips that I found in various places on the web:

• The conventional wisdom of drinking eight 8-ounce glasses a day still holds. If you don't think you can keep up with that at random times during the day, drink a glass before each meal to make a dent in it.

• Eat raw fruit and vegetables, which are mostly made of water; fruit juices don't count.

• Adjust for exercise by adding 4-8 oz. of water for 1/2 hour of low-intensity exercise and 10-16 ounces for 1/2 hour of high-intensity exercise.

• Avoid or limit caffeinated drinks and carbonated drinks, including seltzer, or if you are a coffee-drinker, try to switch to decaf in the afternoon. Also, drink extra water each time you have caffeine or a carbonated drink.

• Limit or avoid sugary food and drinks, which cause dehydration.

Staying well-hydrated will also help with dry, cracked skin and lips.