The Road Goes Ever On

Sunday, February 7, 2010

More Ramblin' In Barcelona

About midway down the Rambla, we ran into
the Liceau, the Barcelona Opera

Where they just happened to have been
doing Tristan und Isolde this week; the
only tickets remaining were 192 and 138
euros; so I decided to pass; a visit to
their book and CD/DVD store, the best
opera store I have ever seen, convinced
me I could own all the Wagner DVDs I'd
ever want for 192 euros!

Opera interior

The Rambla is lined with mimes of every
description; here's one talking to a "friend"

The Barcelona Columbus
monument; after the first
voyage, he arrived back here
to greet Ferdinand and
Isabella

"That-a-way" he seems to be saying

The maritime museum, built from the medieval
ship-building structures

We finished up with an exceptionally mediocre tapas and a paella dinner. Paella, in my estimation, is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things.

Ramblin' On the Rambla In Barcelona

Part of the huge Plaza de Catalona

Bird stalls on the Rambla

In the Bouqeteria, the market

I love markets; but then I also love hiper/super mercados too

Note the knife this woman is wielding

The egg store

The candy store; well, one of them

One of the two or three obligatory activities in Barcelona is a stroll down the Rambla, the broad boulevard that goes from the Plaza de Catalona down to the harbor and the Columbus monument. We did this Wednesday afternoon and evening, seeing the Rambla both by day and night. We also did a bit of the Passeig de Gracias and the somethng-or-other de Angels and also a bit of the Gotic area. Lots of walking. Great, super-great city.

And On To Barcelona

Peniscola is artichoke country; don't ask me about the

symbolism; but we really like artichokes...

They also do potted plants here, big-time;

these are 20-30 foot palms, in pots

And ancient olive trees, in pots large enough to swim in

Miami Beach

At length, the road snaked up the seaside cliffs and went

on for miles

And miles, on cliffs hovering over the Mediterranean

Before finally dropping into greater Barcelona

Welcome to Barcelona!

We followed the coast pretty much to Barcelona, arriving in the mid-afternoon. Our campsite was perhaps our least attractive yet, and also one of the most expensive...the Forum Park n' Ride, 25 euros a night, no services, but a safe place to park and a 15 minute tram and Metro ride into the heart of the great city. There weren't many spaces left!

Pulpi to Peniscola

After not enough lazy warm days at Pulpi--I got to know the wifi bars pretty well--we pushed on west, through Valencia, and into a seaside resort town called (I swear I am not making this up) Peniscola. We spent the night there at a campground, sort of--a parking lot, with services, just for RV's, 100 meters from the beach--for 8 euros.

Self-portraits at Playa del Serena Mar

Red moon rise

Europe is a land of roundabouts ("rotaries," sometimes, in

the US), often decorated with public sculpture, local

interest, etc; this one is some beach-side community,

painted all sea-blue; I wondered, approaching it, what one

would think, at night, half-drunk, approaching it...

Typical terrain...miles and miles of plastic hot-houses,

growing tomatoes; soon to be followed by condos...

Highway of the Mediterranean

Spain had some 10,000 castles at one time, now down to a

mere 300-500; you're never not in sight of one of them

Or another

And there is always plenty of interesting contemporary

architecture in the cities

Valencia, I think

And more condos

And more castles

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Unnamed road, Pulpi. 37° 20.676'N 1° 41.212'W

Back on the coast, just west of a place called Pulpi, we happened onto a free-camping paradise, low hills right on the sea, dozens of RVs, all enjoying the same view. We plan on staying here a couple days, doing nothing but walking into town, 3 miles away, for wifi. At a bar. Life is good.

Oh, Pulpi is famous, by the way. According to the all-knowing and self-correcting Wikipedia, "On September 29, 2007, Pulpi tossed the world's largest salad, with 6,700 kilograms (14,740 pounds) of lettuce, tomato, onion, pepper and olives, supervised by 5000 cooks over 3 hours. A Guinness World Records judge was present to confirm the new record. The salad was prepared in a container 18m (59ft) long and 4.8m (15.7ft) wide." Too many cooks may spoil a soup, but, apparently, not a salad.

Not a bad view, and the price is right; the place is so popular that a truck from
town calls every morning at 9:30, selling bread, milk, newspapers, etc.

Moonrise in the afternoon

Only cloud in the sky at sunset, Friday night

Full moon over the Mediterranean, a place called Playa del
Serena Mar; indeed

Other Side of the Mountains

But for the lack of sagebrush, you'd think you were in the

American West

Ditto

Ditto ditto

Many houses are carved into the rock, with a regular

house looking facade

Closer up

Reminiscent of the Big Hole in Montana

Heavy-duty terracing, some of it by the Moors, for the

olive trees

As you get closer to Almeria, the valley opens up and then
is covered, not by condos, but these huge vegetable farms,

all covered in plastic, one humongous greenhouse of

tomatoes

The east side of the Sierra we drove through is a landscape very reminiscent of the American southwest. In fact, we read, it is used very often for Spaghetti Westerns filmed in Europe (Sangria Westerns? Paella Westerns?).

Sierra Nevada

We have crossed the California Sierra Nevada mountain range many times, even climbed Mt. Whitney way back in 1972. They are much higher, larger, more rugged than their namesake, The Sierra Nevada here in Spain. In winter especially, the Sierra Nevada are an impressive brilliant white backdrop for Granada, and seeing them we decided to risk crossing them en route back to the coast near Almeria. It was a gorgeous drive, superb highway, not all that much snow really, and none on the road. The terrain east of the mountains was equally interesting.