Monday 26 November 2012

Religious experience

And now for the cultural aspects of Barcelona.

1) Religion of architecture

Barcelona is home to many incredible works by very famous architects, but it's mostly Gaudi that people associate with. His yet-to-be-finished final work is the Sagrada Familia - the large Roman Catholic Church which began construction in 1882 (although Gaudi came on board a year later and added his signature style).

Here is a photo of the 'Passion' facade as we strolled up to the church through the adjacent park.


With new work happening everyday, the latest statue installations are easy to see against the weathered, older parts of the church.


This picture shows the contrast of the different styles of each of the church sections - the darker, weathered part is the Nativity facade and the angular portion on the left is the main Naive. The spires are topped with sculptures of fruit.


And this is the fourth, unfinished side of the church. When it's completed (estimated at sometime in the 2030's....exactly as Gaudi had thought over 130 years ago) it will depict the 'Glory' - man's place in creation.


Seeing the church, along with other Gaudi buildings is quite amazing. It's interesting to think what the city council of the time thought when tenders were put out for architects.....there must have been some pretty open minds. Good forsight though - in 1999 Barcelona won the Royal Gold Medal for architecture....an award usually reserved for a single person.

2) Religion of shoes

Spanish espadrilles to be exact.

By some fluke we happened upon the store while winding our way through the Gothic Quarter. Cassie had it on her "hit-list" of places to see in Barcelona - but with those highly UN-detailed tourist maps, you're never 100% sure where you are exactly in a more medieval street layout. None the less, at the sandle store we arrived.

The store, La Manual Alpargatera, dates back to the 1940's and they stock an incredible amount of espadrilles (or, in Catalan, espardenyes). They have the classic flat, slip-on style (in a rainbow of colours) and a beautiful selection of wedge-heel ones with various embroidery and coloured ribbons for lacing up.

There shouldn't be a problem finding your size or colour as one wall of the store is the entire stock of the basic espadrilles.


And here's a shot of two things - Brad waiting very patiently for me to pick out my three pairs (two basic ones and one wedge heel) and the classic glass display cases of the other "dressy" styles).


And then onto the final religious experience of our visit...


3) Religion of Tapas

Quimet & Quimet

Tapas bars are everywhere in Barcelona, from tiny bars with barely four stools lined up in front of the beer tap to large, modern restaurants with both indoor bar seating and outdoor patios (some even had a very Cactus Club feel to them...with full colour photos of each dish and specials on sangria jugs....not that this is a bad thing).

But we were after something a little....cosier.

So we sussed out this place:


Located just a few blocks from our hotel, we strolled over, arriving just as the doors had opened for the evening service (19:00). Arriving another hour later may mean standing on the sidewalk and having to elbow your way back into the tiny restaurant to order food and replenish drinks.

The walls are lined, to the ceiling, with bottles of every type of liquor....all for sale, with the price written in chalk right in front of it. There are no seats and only three, small tables to perch your drink and plates on.

We eased into ordering by getting two half plates - one seafood and one meat....and a platter of fried potatoes as suggested by the waitress ("very Mmmmmm", she said). The seafood is canned, which in Canada makes it a bad thing, but here in Spain, they can the GOOD stuff!

Seafood: anchovy wrapped olive, razor clams, baby clams, soft squid and mussels.
Meat: cured ham, house pâté, foie gras, onion confit, sautéed mushrooms and a chestnut...all drizzled with a truffle vinegar.
Potatoes: essentially giant, thick chips...but lightly salted and drizzled with a honey-vinegar.
Washed down by glasses of rose cava and house beer.

Next plates were four montaditos (round toasted pieces of bread topped with various fillings - about the size of a small half-bagel)

Cockwise from top left: Anchovies on tomato jam, topped with olive tapenade. Mussels topped with caviar. Prawns with creme fresh and caviar on a roasted red pepper. Codfish with black and green olive tapenade.

As we ate and drank, locals stopped in for a quick drink, bite and short chat with the owner/manager. Although we weren't the only tourists there, you could tell most of the clientele were locals. It was great to not only enjoy the food, but the experience of a traditional tapas bar.

For €30.
No kidding.
Two half platters, four montaditos and three drinks.
Start the car!!!

Sunday 25 November 2012

BCN MKT WUZ OMG


Sigh. Another town, another market to try - oh the hardships.

(And by the way, BCN are the call letters for Barcelona....not Brad & Cassie Niessen...but it did seem kinda cool though ;-)

Barcelona's permanent covered market is La Boqueria. It is a bustling building in the same vein as the Granville Island market....but as an older, wiser big brother. And this isn't just a market for tourists (although the front two stalls are certainly there to draw us in). As we walked the aisles, gazing at the wares, we were jostled about by short Spanish ladies tugging loaded handcarts from one vendor to another with their daily shopping. And the site of a chef strolling around, sampling freshly sliced cured meat was not uncommon.

Smack dab in the middle of downtown, off the pedestrian walk of La Rambla.

A beautiful wrought iron entrance sign welcomes you to the market.


And just to the left of the main entrance, a more North Amercian welcoming sign. We assumed that the company found it better to pull people in saying they sell coffee to dunk-into....versus the actual item to be dunked?


The selection of fruit was amazing, such is the blessing of the southern location. And it was both the selection and literal size of the fruit that was huge! They certainly know how to showcase their products.


And it was mushroom season. Where the stalls weren't overflowing with fruits, they were laiden with a huge variety of mushrooms.


The seafood was located in the centre of the market - where the straight aisles suddenly curved into a huge oval - all covered in whole fish, filets, fresh prawns, crabs, cockles, mussels...it seemed endless.


The charcuterie vendors were numerous as well, with many selling various cured and smoked styles of ham (Iberian, Serrano....). You almost can't see this vendor amongst all his hams...but he's slicing off pieces for a client to try.


When you read about the market on various websites, everyone says "great place to get juice!". And they are not kidding. What should be explained is this - almost every single fruit stall (and there are quite a few) sells fresh squeezed juices. And each of them has, at least, a dozen flavours (kiwi-coconut, banana-dragon fruit, papaya-pineapple, the list seems endless).

It's hard to choose....here's our tip though - bypass the stall at the front as most others in the rest of the market sell the juice for €1 (cheaper than out front). Yes, a glass of fresh, squeezed juice for a euro! Needless to say Cassie had blackberry-coconut coursing through her veins after a few days.


And it's not just your thirst you can quench at the market. There are lots of stalls to grab food for eating right away. 'In a cone' seems to be the transport method of choice when taking the food to go. And hey, can't argue with a good blend of ease in both portability and edibility. This was a cone filled with fried meat fritters, pickles, potatoes topped with a fried quail egg (wink, wink, Irene).


And from the charcuterie, two simple cones - one with Iberian ham and one with manchengo cheese slices....doesn't get much more Spanish than this (although a cup of Sangria would have been great...but then I would have needed another hand...)


On our last day we opted for tapas at the market. The tapas are great because if you only want a snack, the portion size is perfect (or, if you're like us and want to sample a bunch, then you can!). And most of it is on display as well....so if your Catalan isn't up to snuff....your pointing finger probably is.

Soft squid draped with a slice of roasted green pepper on toast, Spanish spinach omelette with bruschetta, and ham croquettes. I'm sure I don't need to say it was amazing....it was so amazing, there were four croquettes and I only managed to get the camera out when half were gone....

The meal was made even more memorable sitting beside a dear old lady, taking a break from her shopping and snacking on a slice of omelette and a coffee. As you can see from OUR drink selections, we bypassed the coffee and opted to wash our food down with a beer and a cava....hey we're on holidays!

Saturday 24 November 2012

Hola! Barcelona!

And as previously mentioned in Brad's Not-Quite-Top-Gear entry, we were off to Barcelona in our little Italian number...

What an incredible city! The architecture (Gaudi curved buildings everywhere!), the food (seafood tapas and paella!), the fashion (bold colours and designs!) - it is an amazing, world-class city to visit. We already want to come back.

The warm temperatures (a balmy 16c-18c while we strolled around during the day) reminded us of San Francisco. But the boulevard trees had a more Hawaiian feel to them.


And as we're in Spain now, the fruit tree of choice for the boulevard (versus olives in 'our' town) is oranges.


A walking tour of the architectural sites is easy to follow as it's marked with coloured tiles embedded into the sidewalks. This marker shows the modernism tour route - the tiles were actually designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi himself.


The route takes you past several buildings either built or renovated in the modernism style - including this famous one, the Casa Batlló, renovated in 1906 by Gaudi.


Another famous Gaudi landmark is Park Güell (the name of the developer of the site). It was an unsuccessful high-end housing project that was turned into a municipal park. Here's a shot of us....with the other hundreds of tourists and school children (and souvenir hawkers who hide their illegal wares at a moments notice when the police appear).


And a shot of the most famous piece in this famous park....Brad is already thinking about the next tile project for the house....


Much of our strolling took place on La Rambla - the long pedestrian boulevard on the edge of the Gothic Quarter. The street runs for just over a kilometre, leading up from a giant column topped with a statue of Christopher Columbus. While the streets are lined with permanent stores, the wide centre boulevard is crammed with stalls selling a unique array of merchandise. There are the usual souvenir magnets/baseball hats/fudge....but there were also two (!) pet stalls.

This one was selling turtles, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits. AND the supplies for each of them.


Really?!?! People buy that sort of thing on the street? But I guess when they're THIS CUTE!!!


But if you don't want to grow a pet, you can always augment your garden. There were several fresh cut flower booths and then two that sold vegetable seeds for the garden....


But we did find some classic Spanish wares for sale. On our first night here, after walking around for a while, we wet our whistles with some Sangria...keg-sized.


Salut!

Friday 23 November 2012

An Orange in a sea of grapes.


One of our excursions away from Uzès recently found us in the town (small city) of Orange, about 40 or so kilometres away. Since there is such an amazing amount of Roman history throughout this area, we decided to take in the 'Thèâtre Antique d'Orange', or as we would call it, the really cool Roman amphitheater in Orange.

Quick bit of history. This place is unique because it is the only Roman amphitheater in Europe which has retained its backstage wall. Two others exist this way, one in Turkey and one in Syria.

The place is truly awesome. Even better as we were visiting it in November when there were more cats cruising through it than tourists.

With a total seating capacity of about ten thousand, the whole city of Orange, or Arausio as it was known in Roman times, could watch a performance all together. Since this was Rome, admission was always free, but the people of "lower social status" were allowed in the nosebleed section only.


Although "those damn Goths" sacked the city in 412 AD, the back wall of the theatre has survived for more than 2000 years, with the area inside used as both a fortress and later a whole flourishing Dutch town.


Here we are near the top of the seating area. In the 18th Century, when the Dutch prince left to go back home to the Netherlands, King Louis XIV ordered the whole town to be dismantled and the theatre returned to its past glory. What a guy!


This is the last remaining statue that was found within the rubble of the theatre. It and other original artifacts have been returned to their appropriate places on the stage.


Since the early 19th Century, when the seating area was restored, the amphitheater has been in use for its intended purpose: seeing plays performed in the open air. By the way, the acoustics are amazing, just remember to bring a cushion to sit on...


Oh yeah. One of the best aspects of being in the south of France: Look carefully at the outside temperature shown on the dashboard of the car... and the date...nice.

Thursday 22 November 2012

The cars we drove...

Over the course of our nearly six months away from home, we've had the opportunity to 'test-drive' a selection of rental cars.

So this is "Brad's totally biased, not even close to being objective, a VW will win anyways, European Car Comparison"

Note: if you are not in any way interested in cars (not a "petrol head"), you really don't need to read on any further... yes Rene, you can wait for the next post if you want!

We had a few key pieces of criteria each time we rented a car. The first rental needed to be small and fuel efficient (and cheap!) because we were driving it from Bruges, Belgium to Austria and back to Brussels.

One thing to keep in mind: when you select a car rental, it always shows what is generally an unavailable model, replaced by a totally different car. When you go to pick up the car, you can then negotiate for the exact car you want...sometimes...

Rental Car #1. Booked a VW Up! (The exclamation mark is part of the name)
Received: Nissan Micra 4 door. "You've been upgraded!" (actually it's the only car we have left....I'm sure they meant to say).
Yahoo! 3 cylinders of raw, Japanese(?) power. Drove many km's on the German Autobahn and Austrian mountain passes with the pedal to the metal, watching Smart Cars fly by us.

Best attribute: possibly the only Micra in all of Germany (and Austria)
Worst attribute: grannies in their VW Up!s laughed at us.
Funniest moment: roadblock on a Friday night in Austria. My reaction as we pull over: "OMG, do you think the cop will speak any English?"
We pull up, roll down the window and the first thing he excitedly says to us is "Do you speak English?"
Apparently our Belgian license plate made him freak out a bit.... Dutch, Flemish, French... We were on our way in no time!

And here she is... The Micra! (Last place. Like that's a surprise.)


Rental Car#2
Booked a VW Polo 4 door.
Received: Peugeot 308 4 door.
This one came out of left field after our one hour flight was delayed almost 4 hours in South Brussels airport.
We were once again upgraded and this time we were quite impressed. The Peugeot rocked. Tons of power from a 2L diesel, and power-everything: auto wipers, auto headlights, auto dimming rear mirror, awesome stereo, power folding door mirrors.
We drove this car to Italy, picked up John and Megan, drove around Tuscany and then back to France.

Best Attribute: excellent brakes. Tested outside of Milan at 120km/h when a motor home wanted our EXACT spot on the Autostrada...
Worst Attribute: adjusting to up-shifting at 1500rpm.
Funniest Moment: Had a big laugh at the 2 retired Belgian couples ahead of us in the rental car line after landing in Nimes. The one husband who was in charge of the driving rented the French equivalent of our (former) Micra, the Renault Twingo. Picture 4 elderly people in a tiny 4 door, with only 2 of their 4 suitcases fitting in the hatch... And the two of us getting into the exact car they needed, but were too cheap to rent.

Overall placing: second, definitely second! You'll see why soon enough.
Below: the über cool 308.


BTW: our intention had been that we would not really need a car for our time in France as we rented bicycles and there is a really good bus service from our town of Uzès to the nearby cities. However, a trip to IKEA was required at the end of September so off we went to the AutoEurope booking site.

Rental car #3
Booked a Fiat 500
Received a Fiat 500!!!! Yes, Cassie even cheered at the rental counter.
I am perhaps a little biased here, as I really (REALLY) do like the little Fiat. Even in the rental car version with the 69 horsepower 1.2L four cylinder, this car is a scream to drive! All you need to do is keep the revs high when shifting and all 69 of those horses work wonders. Ironically, Cassie's MG has more horsepower than the 500.

Best Attribute: It is as cool to drive as it looks.
Worst Attribute: 2 things: 1. Only had this car for a two day rental. 2. Happily driving around Avignon when a bee stung Cassie in the arm. Dead bee and unhappy wife.
Funniest Moment (sort of): to save money, we try not to pick up a car at an airport or train station if possible, as those locations charge about a €30 fee on top of the rental. In Avignon, the car rental offices are in the suburbs, which was no big deal as we chose to just walk there (and back). As we were dropping off the Fiat, another couple were picking their car up. Joe and his wife, it so happens, own a house in Union Bay! So we talk about Vancouver Island, blah blah blah, and Joe offers us a ride back into the centre of Avignon. We hop in the car and Joe starts driving... without too much thought about how to actually get downtown. After witnessing some tense moments between Joe and his wife, and a few close calls, we were quite happy to be getting out of the car. Nice couple. Hope they survived.

Overall Placing: Tied for first.
The Fiat 500. Just like home. Made in Poland.

Clayton is arriving...
Rental car #4
Ordered: Opel Astra sportwagen. (Guaranteed to have this EXACT model to rent. Paid extra from Hertz. Available only at the train station.)
Received: Option 1: Chevy Cruze 4 door sedan. What? Are you joking? We need to fit 3 people and 2 bikes in the car! Option 2: Renault Clio sort of station wagon. Don't you have an Astra? No? But it says here... 30 minutes later...
Oh, look, we can offer you a Ford Focus Wagon that is just like an Astra... Yes, we'll take it!
As advertised, the Focus did fit all of our needs, although it wasn't as powerful as the Peugeot nor as roomy. We did get lucky finding free parking near our apartment, although a guy in an old Toyota truck scraped our bumper while he was trying to parallel park behind us, while we were sitting in the car... I blame myself. He didn't seem too concerned.

Best Attribute: both bikes fit inside.
Worst Attribute: Ford.Focus.Wagon.
Funniest moment: see renting the car, above.
Happiest Moment: there already had been a scrape on the bumper, so we weren't too worried about Toyota truck guy.

Overall rating: 3rd place. What we needed was the Peugeot 308 wagon!
Here's the Focus. It looks pretty good from the front.

Our last few weeks have arrived and we decided that we would do a few road trips, so we've rented one last car for three weeks.

One more time on the websites.
Looking for the best deal available.
Once again, we don't really need anything but a small car.
Just enough room for us and our luggage when we catch the train to Paris.

Et voila! I find an anonymous discount code for Europcar (it was really hard, typing "discount code for Europcar" into Google) and it worked! Yeah, it took me 5 months to figure that one out.
...although it almost seemed to be too good to be true. 21 days, $350 CDN. All in: $17 per day!
Apparently some sort of "Ex-pat" discount. Who cares, it worked.

So... Car rental #5
Ordered: Fiat 500
Received: Fiat 500. Didn't even need to beg. Girl at rental counter surprised by rate. Reminded me of the IKEA commercial "start the car!" Literally. Start the car!

And off we went to Barcelona...
What more can I say. We drove the round trip of about a thousand kilometres quite comfortably, most of the time cruising at 130km/h on the toll highways and once again I was impressed. For such a short car, it really handled well. I also reminded Cassie that the one I want is the Abarth version (look it up, Rene, if you're still reading) which has almost 100 more horsepower than our rental!

Best Attribute: unlike the other Fiat 500, this one has an iPhone/iPod connector, which allowed us to hear our GPS through the radio. And charged it too.
Worst Attribute: this one had a white leather steering wheel.
Funniest moment: As Cassie went to pay for gas, I quickly hid the Fiat beside a very purple Porsche Cayenne. Cassie not amused. I still am laughing about the guy who would order a purple Porsche...

Overall Rating: First place again!
And here is the winner, in dark grey this time.

(And I still have yet to drive a VW product in Europe)

Technically that's not true. In England, we used a VW Golf as part of our house exchange. It was a very nice car, but driving on the other side of the road took up all my attention and I totally forget what the car was like to drive.

Friday 9 November 2012

We drove the Grand Canyon... of France: Les Gorges du Verdon

So there we were, sitting in the Marseille Starbucks on a state holiday (All Saints Day) at 9am, wondering what we would do for the remainder of the day... "Ever heard of the Grand Canyon of France?" asks Brad.

Since Marseille wasn't looking too 'open' today, we finished our coffee, paid for our parking and hit the road!

After about an hour of toll-highway driving, we entered the eastern boundaries of the canyon, driving on what became an amazing, twisty two lane road. It seemed like we almost had the road all to ourselves... which is good because it is damn narrow when even two small cars are passing.
Here's Cassie at the first lookout as we entered into the actual Gorges du Verdon. Translation: canyon of the green river.

After oohing and ahhing at the lookout we travelled a bit further to see and drive over the pont du Chaulière which is 600 feet above the river below. According to Wikipedia (and we know and trust it for its truth) people bungy jump from the centre of the span. We didn't see anyone jumping on this day.

Amongst tunnels carved into the mountainside, we were able to stop and take a closer look. It was also a great time to take a photo of our rental car in "a really exotic location". I think it turned out really well. Go iPhone photography!

Photos do not do justice to actually being here, but hopefully this one gives an idea of what an incredible sight the canyon actually is...

If you look carefully at the upper left hand corner, you can make out the lake in the distance. This is actually the largest man-made reservoir in France, called Lac Sainte Croix.

Finally, as we drove the length of the gorge, we realized that there is another road which is cut out of the other side of the canyon, leading to farms and small villages. In this photo, you can just make out the line of the road cut into the mountainside.
Overall, it was a fabulous drive home from Marseille on a really warm and beautiful November day.

Sunday 4 November 2012

What we do in Uzès

Thought it might be nice to get out of the grocery and candy stores and show a couple of shots of life in Uzès.

It's a very pretty, medieval town, full of winding stone streets, wrought-iron clad balconies and olive tree lined boulevards. The street pictured below is the one typically used on tourist brochures - and it is very, very quaint. The street winds up the hill at such an angle that steps are built into the centre, darker stone part.


And here is one of the many olive trees dotting the town.


And each of them is loaded with olives.


Most of our days will find us at one of the numerous cafes around town, enjoying a coffee. Brad has a simple 'cafe' - essentially an espresso. Cassie opts for a noisette (same small espresso with a touch of cream) or a creme cafe (a giant splash of cream with the coffee). Sometimes you get a little thin biscuit with it, depending on which cafe you're at.

Typical Monday....


We're slowly getting the hang of 'having coffee' here. If the cafe serves food and you only want coffee, you don't sit at a table set with placemats and cutlery. Cafes usually have some set and some not. You don't need to wait to be seated, just sit down and someone will appear to take your order. When the drinks arrive, so does the bill - which you can choose to pay immediately. After that, you're free to sit there as long as you want.

Typical Tuesday.....with Clayton visiting...


Typical Thursday...


Heyyyyy, wait a minute!

Ok cheating here. We dropped Clayton off in Marseille for his flight out of France, and we stopped in the city for a bit o' home. Starbucks has not infiltrated into France yet, really. There are a load of them in Paris, but outside of the City of Lights, the way the French have coffee and the way Starbucks needs to do business are very different.

The French like to sit and drink their coffee and relax for a while. But Starbucks needs a good percentage of their clients to take that Grande Latte and leave with it. We've read that the profit margins for French Starbucks are low (or non-existent) due to the required rental of large stores with adequate seating (and the established, traditional cafe culture in the country). Should be interesting to see what the green mermaid can pull off.

We did enjoy our stop at the downtown Marseille store...with the next closest one about 300kms away.