2001 Streak 61/365: Walking - 13.38 miles, Time - total about 7hrs (including all the café stops and gawping), about 4.5 hrs activity, Weather - blue skies but a slight chill.
This was a Gaudi day - the walk passed four of his buildings, including, of course, the Sagrada Família, which was actually the worse part of the day. It is not that the building was a disappointment - it is not: it is gloriously bonkers, like a vision frozen in stone and concrete. The problem was the people. There was a huge queue waiting to get in and all around there other people were milling. In other words it was a crush of tourists and there is nothing more oppressive than a crush of tourists because the crowd has no clear movement, there are little eddies of people in the way.
I know I am also a tourists and cannot distance myself from everybody else but I find little pleasure in these great, tourist set-pieces, everybody feels they have to visit. Whenever I go to one them I always wonder what I am doing. But what can you do, if you are in Barcelona, Gaudi is part of the story and you need to make the effort to see the buildings in context. After all he is one of the interesting quirks in the story of modern architecture.
Strange though he has become iconic and is firmly on the tourist map. I am not sure when that happened. I visited Barcelona in 1995 and I can remember being undisturbed as I walked around Segrada Familia. There was certainly not the crush there is today.
But now Sagrada Família, Casa Milà, Casa Batlló, are all big draws, and the buildings that most immediately come to mind when you think about his work. However there is an early house: the Casa Vicens, which is quite charming and a little off the beaten track. It is down a street so narrow you cannot get far enough away to take a picture of the whole house. When we were there only one other person gave it a glance, all the others just hurried by. So although the building is actually quite well known it feels like a little discovery.
It was not however my favourite discovery of the day; that was something far more modest - a little park/open space with a play area and a boules rink.In a corner was a life sized statue of Gandhi, almost unassuming, somehow befitting the man. The old men got on with their game, people wandered past not looking, but nevertheless it was there as a reminder of a great life and a form of idealism.
I like such spaces because they are reminders that although cities might be about business, activity, and bustle, they are also for living. It is in such places we gather and find meaning
Such odd corners are the reason for wandering around cities. You miss them is you are on a bus or the metro
No comments:
Post a Comment