Summer Vacation III--Spain Wieder

Valencia and Barcelona were the last planned stops of our Sommerurlaub. Unfortunately, our stop in Valencia was not a pleasant one. Not because Valencia is an awful place. On the contrary, it has everything I like in a city--an old and gritty center, great museums, and restaurants facing clean Mediterranean beaches.

Our stop in Valencia was unpleasant because our car broke down. The car's battery died in an underground parking garage. If there is one thing I truly fear, it is car troubles. Maybe it is because I once owned an old Saab that was constantly breaking down and leaving me stranded. Luckily, Bob joined ADAC, Germany's version of AAA. They were great! First of all, their phones are manned by people who speak English, and when we're stressed, neither one of us can remember a word of Deutsch. Secondly, they took care of everything. They asked to speak to a Valencia native, which was not hard to find since we were next to the Mercado Central. The woman told them our exact location, and they sent a local mechanic to jump the battery. It took him about an hour and a half to get to us, so during that time the kids and I went shopping in the Mercado.


Since our car decided to die on us on the day we were to leave for Barcelona, we couldn't wait for car garages to reopen after lunch. Everything in Valencia closes down from about 1 or 2 until 4 PM. Since Bob couldn't turn the car off, because the battery would die again, we drove straight to Barcelona. Bob didn't even turn the car off when he added gas. The bartender at our hotel in Sant Cugat, a suburb of Barcelona, told Bob how to find a garage and we had a new battery within the time it took the kids to finish their swim in the hotel's pool.

While we were in Valencia, we tried paella, which wasn't very good, but we ate at one of the restaurants along Valencia's immaculate city beaches. Supposedly, Hemingway ate his paella at La Pepica, a couple of doors down. Too bad it was closed that day.


We also saw the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, a modern museum complex with an arts center, science museum, IMAX theatre, planetarium and aquarium. The science museum had an exhibit about the Titanic, but we didn't have time to see it. Schade!

Last stop Barcelona! I used to think Paris and Prague were the most beautiful European cities. Now, I'm going to have to add Barcelona to this list. In fact, Paris has been bumped down. After my second visit to Prague (possibly in December), I'll decide which one tops my list. The architecture was mesmerizing, and the locals were very patient with the tourists, almost too patient.



Our first stop, of course, was La Sagrada Família. All I can say is "Hmmm?" I don't know if I liked it. It was not as impressive as I thought it would be, but I didn't hate it. I am glad that we viewed a few of Gaudí's other architectural gems; otherwise, I would have left Barcelona without a positive impression of Gaudí. We saw Palau Güell, which was under scaffolds but the rooftop sculptures were visible, Casa Batlló, and La Pedrera. La Pedrera was especially breathtaking--flowing concrete and metal is the only way I can think of to describe it.



After taking photos of La Sagrada, we stopped at a café across the street for dinner. The food on the menu seemed reasonably priced, and we assumed that beer and Fanta would be only a Euro or two more than in Valencia. We ended up paying almost 7 Euros per beer and almost 5 Euros per Fanta. The waiters said, "It's not us, it's the church."

The next morning, we visited the Barcelona Zoo, home to the only know albino gorilla, Snowflake. What their website neglects to tell you is that he died three years ago. We were all disappointed, but we knew that he was old--he was brought to the zoo in 1966--and he hadn't been in good health since 1996, so we weren't completely surprised. They did have some of the largest pythons we had ever seen, and during our visit we came across a cage of about 50 nutrias. Bob said, "This is why the pythons are so big." I told him to keep his voice down, because Alex was going on about how the nutrias looked like his favorite stuffed animal, Bibery, which is actually a marmot but looks like a beaver.

We spent the afternoon walking through Barri Gótic and along La Rambla. We found a great restaurant in the Barri Gótic called 4 Gats (4 Cats)--Art Nouveau décor and three course meals, including water and wine, for 15 Euros a person. There were too many mimes along the Rambla, in my opinion, but the boys found them interesting, as did the British tourists.

Bob and I will remember the architecture and the food in Barcelona. The boys, on the other hand, will remember the completely naked, old man riding his bike down a busy street. Too bad we didn't get a photo.

Originally, we had planned on camping one more night in either Lyon or Dijon, about half way between Barcelona and Erlangen. But, Bob was anxious to get home, so we drove 14.5 hours home.