Barcelona, Spain

Max and I left early on a Friday morning (yet another French holiday) and flew to Barcelona for a little vacation. We were both getting a little squirrely and were ready to see some more new things. The first thing we wanted to do when we got to Barcelona was to see La Sagrada Famila (above). It is the unfinished masterpiece of architect Antoni Gaudi and will be Europe's largest cathedral when completed. Construction started in 1882 and is estimated to continue until around 2020, hence the massive cranes in the background. Even though Gaudi has since passed away, the construction is being carried out through interpretations of his other works.

After walking around La Sagrada Familia, we headed over to La Pedrera, another one of Gaudi's creations. The sculpted stone exterior seriously reminded me of something from the Flintstones, but with much more sophistication. We went inside to visit the museum about Gaudi, to see one of the building's apartments, and to stroll the rooftop terrace. The design of the building was very interesting since the entire structure was based on arches and pillars instead of walls which allows a lot of natural light to filtrate through it's apartments.

These are some of the chimneys and vents on the roof of La Pedrera. They're as functional as they are bizarre but strangely mesh with the rest of the architecture of the building. The rooftop contains a series of stairs that leads around the entire perimeter of the terrace with various chimneys and vents scattered along the way.

The view from the from the rooftop of La Pedrera was great and we could see the La Sagrada Familia without dodging the masses of people and tour buses.

 






We ended the afternoon with another of Gaudi's works, Casa Batllo. He did not design this building from the ground up but trans- formed the existing structure. After that, we figured we'd seen about all of Gaudi that we could want to and went out to eat.

We woke up Saturday morning and took the metro to Las Ramblas, one of Spain's most famous streets. We more or less stumbled across the market, Mercat de la Boqueria, as soon as we came up from the station. The market was filled with so many fruit stands, and we both bought fresh fruit juices like papaya mango and strawberry kiwi to have with breakfast. We would go back there again for breakfast later during the trip but it wouldn't be as lively as it was that Saturday morning.

Here I am, standing in Las Ramblas, Purell-ing my hands after finishing a messy, but delicious pastry from the market. The boulevard was just waking up and by evening, the streets would be jammed with people. There was never a dull moment here.

We headed over to the Barri Gothic district where parts of the city have survived since the Middle Ages. Here a cathedral was built over the ruins of a Romanesque church. The outside of the cathedral was either being cleaned or under construction, I couldn't really tell.








We stopped at a small corner cafe for lunch, sat at the bar and watched a machine squeeze juice out of oranges as we ate. It's the small things that make me smile, that and Max who was good sport the whole time I would randomly take his picture.

While stand- ing in line to see the Museu Picasso, we saw the man 3 people ahead of us get bombed with pigeon feces. It was not pretty. Every- one took shel- ter under an overhang after that. Next, we walk- ed by the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar(right).

Exhausted from walking all over, we took at break down by the beach for part of the day. The water was still pretty cold (don't tell the surfers), but the weather was nice for lying out in the sun. Some people thought it was really nice...can you spot the topless lady in this picture? It's like playing Where's Waldo, but it was a little too easy when you're there in person. I'm still a prudish American, I know.

Later that evening, we went back to Las Ramblas for some tapas and sangria. While deciding on a place to eat, we ran into a parade or something, going down the boulevard. Canons were being fired, people were playing music with sticks, and giant puppets were dancing in the street. We still have no idea what the occasion was but it was a lot of fun watching and listening to everything going by.

The last day we were there was the only day the weather was a little questionable. We went to see the Monument a Colom, a statue of Columbus overlooking the harbor. By the time were done seeing all that we wanted to see, we were so tired and kind of ready to be back in our smaller, slower paced Chambery. That was the first time I'd ever spent quality time in a really large European city and I don't think I'll forget it any time soon. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Day Trip to Lyon

On yet another three day weekend in May (I'm not complaining), Max and I decided to head to Lyon on a Saturday morning. Although we'd flown into the airport there a couple of times, we hadn't yet visited the city. It's only a little over an hour from Chambery, and was much cheaper for us to drive (even with tolls and parking) then taking the train, as we discovered on our attempt visit Lyon. We wanted to visit this church overlooking the city.

The church is actually referred to as a basilica - a name given by the pope to a church that has important historical significance or influence. During the Franco-Prussian War, the citizens of Lyon prayed to the Virgin Mary and asked that she would protect the town, promising to build a sanctuary in her honor if their prayers were answered. The town was spared and the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière was built.

"Riiiicccccooooolllllaaaa!" There seemed to be a lot different things going on in the city that day. We came across this group of musicians playing their traditional alpine horns (or alphorns). Here is an audio clip of what these horns sounds like:

http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/listen2.aspx?type=preview&trackid=38374.

We walked down to the Place Bellecour, a large public square in the city between the Rhone and the Saone rivers. There was this statue of Louis XIV there called the Statue Équestre de Louis XIV but nicknamed "the bronze horse".

Lyon was definitely a more international city. We heard more English spoken, some cafes had English names and most important of all, they had a Ben & Jerry's! As with most imports, these things were more expensive; a foot long sub at Subway was not 5 dollars, more like 10. Even though we didn't stay for a meal, just seeing these things made up feel more at home.

Hike to Croix du Nivolet

The Croix du Nivolet is a monumental cross on top of one of the mountains overlooking Chambery. We can see it from our apartment window on a clear day. So on the first nice morning of our long weekend, we went on a hike to see what the view was like from up there. Here is Max, taking a view of the valley at the beginning of our hike.

We went with Justin, the other American that works at the same site as Max. Here he and Max are leading the way up the mountain. It took up about an hour and a half to hike to the top, stopping along the way for pictures and water. It was amazing to see families with little kids (5-6 years old) on the trail too. We couldn't let them make us look bad.

Here is Max standing next to the Croix du Nivolet, putting some perspective to its actual size. The view from the top was beautiful. Not only could we see Chambery, but we could see the neighboring towns and nearby lake. The Alps seemed even bigger. We were also above the gliders that we see floating around the sky on the weekends.

And this is Chambery, from 1547 meters (or about 5,000 feet)! We couldn't make out our apartment building, but we could see the train station. By the time we were done looking around and taking pictures, we were so cold! We hiked back down the mountain at a much quicker pace. That evening we were pretty wiped out but looking forward to doing it again sometime.