Dispatch: Back on the Grid!

Barcelona is the Iberian Manhattan. Its energy pops and sizzles off the page. It doesn’t sleep or even seem to slow down. With 1,600,000+ inhabitants and countless more visitors and tourists Barcelona surges and sways as the tide of humanity dictates. Like most modern cities Barcelona is on the grid. Roads run parallel and perpendicular to each other, providing order and restoring logic. Seville and Granada, like Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, are out touch with the modern world. They have no logic or direction. They are reactive cities that do not possess the forethought of urban planning. Instead, these cities, or what we saw of them, have narrow roads that twist and turn as they wind their way from point A to point B, or is it point Q?  

Today, we walked and absorbed the energy of Barcelona before we visited the Picasso Museum, which exists off the grid in the Gothic Quarter and focuses upon the master’s youth. Picasso’s revolutionary vision becomes understandable when you realize that he had nailed the styles of the Spanish masters by the time he was 15-years old. Then he went off the grid and focused upon interpretations that veered away from reality as they explored new visions of artistic understanding. It was only years later when Picasso’s genius was acknowledged and much copied that he was allowed back onto the grid.

When I visited Barcelona in 1972, the great Catalan Architect Antonio Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) Church had already been under construction for 90 years.  Combining a unique vision of organic architecture with devout spirituality, Gaudi’s design was beyond anything previously envisioned. The roof was finally completed in 2000, yet it took another 10 years before La Sagrada Familia found its way onto the grid. That is when Pope Benedict visited and consecrated La Sagrada Familia as a minor basilica. When I look at pictures of the consecration I can see the Pontiff’s calculation, as the Church waited for more than 100 years, many millions of man hours and private funds before laying claim to this majestic masterpiece. I’ll bet that when the “minor basilica” is completed it will fast track into the hierarchy as one of Church’s outstanding modern achievements. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.

Then again on Saturday Jean Berlinghoff was found alive wandering the streets of San Francisco with her abductor Uncle Charlie. Charles Berlinghoff fell off the grid about a decade ago and ran up a rap sheet of sex crimes against children. When he came back onto the grid and insinuated himself back into family life, the Berlinghoff’s were unaware of his criminal past, so they did not have their guard up before he disappeared with his 15-year old niece. Without making any effort to disguise himself the fugitive predator and his victim were totally on the grid and the young girl was rescued safely, thereby proving that sometimes life is fair after all.

Dispatch: Prisoner of History

Picasso - Guernica

We managed to acclimate pretty well. After a long and well deserved sleep inside our tiny, jewel box of a hotel room, Violet and I had breakfast in the hotel restaurant before trekking into the rain. Prosciutto and other cured meats to die for, fruit as sweet and vivid as either of us has ever had, coffee with hot milk, fresh orange juice and a vast assortment of Spanish pastries, it was easy to overlook the scrambled eggs and sausage. We lingered and marveled for more than an hour, reluctant to go forth into the rain.

At the turn of the 20^th Century Madrid, which sits 616-meters above sea level encompassed about 10-square miles. As a result of unfettered growth this sprawling metropolis of 3.3 million people had grown to cover more than 400-square miles by the beginning of the 21^st Century. Located in the geographic center of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain’s capitol city is the headquarters of its own ancient, defensive wall, historical Madrid has had to adapt in order to survive. With massive traffic jams and crowded, narrow streets Madrid is headquarters for government and financial institutions as well as the Spanish Royal Family.



Plaza Mayor



I know all of this because this morning, Violet and I jumped on the on-and-off double deck bus tour that has become so popular throughout the world’s tourist destinations. Braving cold, scattered showers throughout the day, we received a thumbnail tour and experienced some of Madrid’s awesome destinations. The Plaza Mayor

We stopped off at the Plaza Mayor in the center of historical Madrid. Popular with locals and tourists alike the Plaza has hosted bullfights, coronations, festivals and executions. This week the Plaza is focused upon coin collectors, Christmas ornament vendors, caricaturists and its ability to shoehorn more humanity into a 90 X 120 meter rectangle than anyplace we have previously visited.



Miro - House With Palm Tree



The Reina Sofia Museum contains a permanent collection of Spanish modern art and traces its history from the breakthrough realism of Francisco Goya through the Dada, Cubism and Surrealistic movements championed by 20^th Century masters Picasso, Dali, Miro, and Gris. The converted 18^th Century hospital has soaring galleries, and houses priceless sculptures, photographs and paintings culminating with Picasso’s stunning masterpiece Guernica. As impressive in its way as was the Prado, we lucked out and visited on free ticket day.

Dali - The Great Masturbator

We understand that Madrid never sleeps, that the best that the city has to offer isn’t even available until after midnight, but by 7:00 p.m. we are as exhausted as we are exhilarated. We ducked into another Tapas’ restaurant, shared a bottle of local Red and ambled back to our gorgeous little hotel amid the Christmas lights, teeming humanity and brisk air. By 8:30 p.m. we were both dead to the world.

Why then, am I wide awake, staring at my computer screen and typing a blog at 3:30 a.m.? I have no idea, but touch me for I am golden.