EUROPEAN VACATION – WEEK 3

We are now officially part of the cruising scene, having spent our first three days aboard the MS Rotterdam, a medium-sized ship owned by Holland America, very similar to the ones that call in Charlottetown.  She began this voyage in Ipswich, England, and arrived in Barcelona on October 9.

We spent six days in Barcelona, one of the most beautiful cities we’ve visited.  The Greater Barcelona area boasts a population about the same as Toronto’s but the place has a far different feel to it.  Friends and family members who’ve visited here raved about it and we can see why.  It is definitely world class. 

It’s the cleanest big city we’ve seen.  Municipal workers are constantly at work, armed with brooms and various motorized cleaning devices, even on a Sunday evening.  They all wear the same colourful fluorescent uniforms.  Construction workers also seem to pay particular attention to cleanliness and order when they’re jack-hammering sidewalks; all refuse is placed in large bags and is stacked neatly, to be picked up the very next day.  Cleanliness and order have become part of the Barcelona culture and a noticeable feature of its brand.

Every part of the city centre is designed for walking.  There are broad boulevards along the waterfront and other main thoroughfares, and parks everywhere.  Vehicle traffic is strictly controlled on the narrower streets to insure pedestrian safety.  Barcelona has five kilometres of beachfront, all of it easily accessible by foot or public transportation.  Our room was located in the Gothic Quarter, near La Rambla, a tree-lined pedestrian walkway with a buzz that makes you want to be there every day, especially in the evening, when artists and buskers are on full display.

 

But one cannot truly experience Barcelona without seeing the works of Antoni Gaudi, its most celebrated architect.  Elva and I spent a morning exploring his masterpiece, the church of La Sagrada Familia, a structure begun over a century ago and still far from finished.  It is more sculpture than church, however, with a truly unique design.  Gaudi’s imagination and genius are incredible! 

 

As impressive as the exterior is, the interior is awe-inspiring.  With its massive dimensions, incredible columns and stained glass windows, it is a veritable kaleidoscope of light and colour.  I’ve seen Notre-Dame in Paris and Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome; neither compares with La Sagrada Familia.  All of the work is financed through private donations: no money comes from the Catholic Church, the Government of Spain or the City of Barcelona.

 

Before leaving Barcelona, we visited Parc Guëll, another example of Gaudi’s work, this time consisting of buildings, walkways, stairways, and plazas, all in a peaceful, park-like setting.  We also toured the churches of Santa-Maria-del-Mar and the Barcelona Cathedral.  One evening, we saw a spectacular fountain show that makes the Bellagio in Las Vegas look like a fountain with poor lighting and an enlarged prostate!

 

I’m not a particularly religious person, but when I visit a new village, town or city, I like to tour its church.  Each usually features a historical plaque or panels that explain when it was built, added to and renovated.  Some of the churches are plain and stuffy; dark and dank even.  Others are more ostentatious.  But each is the heart and soul of the community, regardless of how many people attend religious services, and a source of pride for residents.

Each one evokes in me the sad memory of the church where Elva and I were married, the regretted Saint-Philippe-et-Saint-Jacques of Egmont Bay, needlessly destroyed a few years ago by small-minded parishioners who neglected their duty to save it.  All over Europe, one finds churches in far worse condition.  But they are not being demolished just because the present congregation lacks the needed imagination and vision to breathe new life into them.  People here have too much respect for the sacrifices made by those who came before to even think of making such hasty decisions.

Our first port-of-call on the MS Rotterdam was Marseille, an overnight sail through rough waters from Barcelona.  With apologies to my friend, Denise, I was not much impressed by the city.  It has a very hard and tired look to it, not nearly as welcoming as Barcelona. 

We rode the shuttle into the city centre and walked from there up to the highest point in the old city, the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde.  From here, one enjoys a very impressive view of the city, including the Château d’If, the Vieux Port, and the two fortresses that guard the harbour entrance, Fort Saint-Jean and Fort Saint-Nicholas.  After strolling along the inner harbour watching fishermen clean their catch, we visited Fort Saint-Jean and took in a very informative audio-visual presentation on the history of Marseille.  We finished our day’s visit with a tour of the Cathédrale-de-la-Nouvelle-Major.

 

On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast just as the sun was rising over the harbour in Monaco.  The Principality of Monaco is barely four square kilometres in total area, and every square inch is utilized to the fullest; no wonder, what with real estate running at about $53,000 per square metre!

We walked from one end of the country to the other and from side to side, all in the same day.  The place reminds me of Disneyworld; everything is so modern, perfect, and orderly.  We toured the Cathedral, the Prince’s collection of vintage cars, and saw the changing of the guard at the Palais du Prince.  Then we walked through the city of Monte Carlo, along the waterfront and through the tunnel where the Monte Carlo Formula 1 race is held each year, and up to the Casino de Monte Carlo.

The cars on the street here are a sight to behold: BMW, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Audi, Range Rover, Jaguar, Maserati, Aston-Martin, etc.  They’re everywhere.  And what to say about the yachts; one was so big it had to be moored outside the harbour.  As you can see from the picture below, it even has its own on-board helicopter!

 

For a snot-nosed kid from the streets of Wellington, it’s all just too much!  Elva and I were reminded of Antonine Maillet’s character, the washer-woman named La Sagouine.  Too poor to ‘buy’ a pew in church, she could still stand at the back and watch the rich people flaunt their style.  Like my idol Jed Clampett would say: “We’re too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash!”

Tomorrow, we’re off to Corsica.  The Captain says it will be 22 degrees Celcius!  After just three days aboard, we’re enjoying ourselves so much we’ve decided to extend our cruise by a further ten days, allowing us to see more of Turkey and, in particular, Istanbul.