Ordinary Gente

Barcelona is a feast for the eyes. Color is riotous and lines are fractured everywhere in the Modernist style made famous by Gaudi.

Years ago Lorenzo had a glossy book from Acres of Books in Long Beach and he carved it up to paste the plates on his bedroom wall. At the time, I didn’t know these were photos of glorious facades and interiors were of sites of Barcelona. Hey, when you don’t know, you don’t know.

Yesterday, we wandered through the gothic alleys and made our way out to the Columbus statue. We rambled up Las Ramblas. Late afternoon, we took a bus from our lodgings next to Placa Catalunya to Parc Guell. Though we arrived an hour early, we were sent from entrance to exit, to another meeting point and to two other meeting points. We ended up overheated, angry, frustrated and sad . . . UNTIL we met a guide from the company half hour late. She had missed us and we had missed her. Our tour in English had long since departed. But she tagged us onto a tour in Spanish with a nice family of 6 from Peru.

Happily sated, we loved the wavy seats, gloppy columns and shiny tile. The tour guide, Marta was sweet and generous as well.

We stayed in the park after the tour. As the sun dropped and our sweat dripped, we appreciated a cold, cold beer in the snack bar. We walked toward the bus stop and it began to sprinkle. Getting on the bus, it rained and continued to rain during the 30 minute ride. A break in the clouds, was just enough time to make it to the lodgings from the finale bus stop.

~Rosana