Spain 2016

Flight Day: Regina to Barcelona.  As always, click of Pics to enlarge.

We like tight connection times as waiting around airports in between flights just adds to an already long day.  Our flight was 30 minutes late departing Regina as the inbound was late and the passengers take forever to board because they try to jam over-sized carry-on luggage into the overhead bins.  The flight attendants kept deploring people to get the carry-on, on the floor under the seat in front of them or get it to the front so they could check it into the hold.  It does not help that the airlines now charge for second bags in checked luggage.  We carry on small backpacks and there was no room for them when we boarded, so they went on the floor.  Luckily we made great time flying to Toronto and got there with plenty of time to make our connection.

Our flight from Toronto to Zurich was great, a baby across the isle was unbelievably silent during the entire flight.  I have great respect for a mom flying alone with a baby, as they never seem to get much of a break; the flight attendants couldn’t get the bassinet rigged up properly so the baby was on the mom’s lap the whole flight.  The food was abysmal, but we are always well supplied with our own.

The Swiss really know how to operate an airport, our connection was in Zurich and the Swiss will let you connect from an international flight in 40 minutes even though passengers have to go through security, passport control and take a metro style train to the gates.  A panicked European asked us while in the lineup for security if he was in the correct place as he had to connect in ten minutes.  I told him that Zurich was the airport if he had a tight connection time, I am certain he made it as he ran and as we found out later, we could have lounged around and still made our connection as they hold the plane for connecting arrivals.  Our flight to Barcelona was with Swiss, they hand out croissants, which we declined, but they provided good coffee, the coffee on Air Canada was bitter and vile.

After picking up our luggage, we caught the aerobus to Placa Catalunya and then walked to our apartment in the medieval core of the city.  I had planned on staying in Gracia, a less touristy area but decided on the medieval area as there is much to see here.  When we return to Barcelona at the end of our trip, we are planning to stay in Gracia.

Our apartment is fantastic, it is the cleanest apartment we have ever stayed in.  After check-in, we headed to the market for groceries and then to a supermarket to get additional items, then we walked a lot to see a few examples of Catalan Gothic architecture.

Catalan Gothic Architecture

Catalan Gothic dates from the fourteenth century, it evolved from the very plain, thirteenth century Cistercian monasteries.  The architecture is fortress-like, the walls seem to tie to the earth and the buildings demonstrate mass with severe forms of squares, cylinders, hexagons and octagons.  Surfaces lack ornamentation, solids are preferred to voids.

The bell towers of Gothic churches are square at the top with no spires, but gargoyles protrude horizontally.  Catalan Gothic differs from the Gothic churches of England and France during the same period, in Catalunya, the naves are very wide, the structure feels heavy.  In the English and French designs, long naves soar overhead.

Most notable, is the Catalan vault, perfected in the fourteenth century.  The Etruscans and then the Romans, were early vault builders, but their vaults relied on gravity and were of a single layer of thick, wedge-shaped stones.  The Catalan vault does not rely on gravity; rather, they used several layers of overlapping tiles, woven together with fast-setting mortar.  The layers adhere to each other resulting in a laminated shell, which is almost as strong as reinforced concrete.

The thin Catalan vault was capable of bearing much higher loads, this enabled the builders to span huge widths and form gentler curves.  Some wonderful examples of Catalan vaulting and Gothic design are the old churches in the medieval centre of Barcelona.

We don’t sleep on flights so are rather bagged tonight after 31 hours without sleep, after dinner we kept dozing off so we gave in and slept for an hour, something we don’t normally do.  I will spare myself and readers the long blog post of the history of Catalunya, but that will come tomorrow, you have been warned!

Santa Maria del Mar

Building commenced in 1329 and the church was completed just a half century later, which is in record time, as it usually took a century or more to build a church.  It was a church that was built by the workers, for the workers.  There are no airy flying buttresses, rather, we have solid rectangular blocks.  The bell tower is octagonal and the church looks solid.  The dark doors are massive and iron studded.

The octagonal piers that support the nave are 42 feet apart, a massive distance during this period. During the Spanish Civil War the anarchists set the church on fire, destroying the baroque details, which served to improve the interior space, letting us see  the open design and minimal supporting structure.  There is balance and symmetry in this design, the space is light and airy.

Rose window at top

Good view of the bell tower

Wide naves for this early period

At the top of the vault

View toward the front

Stunning rose window from the inside

View of gargoyles

Santa Maria del Pi

Pi refers to the pine tree that is in the square (placa) where the church is located, the current tree is supposedly a descendant of the original tree.  The church dates from the thirteenth century with completion in 1453.  The rose window is purported to be one of the largest in the world.  The design is severe, the two octagonal towers are engaged in the wall.  We didn’t go into this church, but the naves are also very wide.

Huge rose widow

Pine tree in right side of pic, the building looks very block-like and heavy