More Barcelona Photos

Here are some additional photos of Flat Stanley in Barcelona:

We thought this was kind of amusing. This is the smallest car we've ever seen. It's called a "SmartCar" and it's so small that it can park in any parking spot. Two of these cars could fit in a normal spot. I've even seen these cars park perpindicular to the normal spot so squeeze in. Of course it's very fuel efficient, and perfectly safe for a city where you aren't going very far or very fast. But I wouldn't want to drive this on the highway. That's me (Greg) on hold Flat Stanley and my wife's father, George Sapir, is on the left.

This is a decorative urn in a park near our apartment in Barcelona. It's near the Arc de Triumph. I believe this was designed by Antoni Gaudi, but I'm not positive. You can see how interesting it is: the gryphons of greek myth are common on gothic buildings but not on decorative urns. And the giant snails along the rim!!

This is a photo of another building of Antoni Gaudi. It's an apartment house called Casa Mila but it has a nickname that most people use: "La Pedrera" which in spanish means "the quarry", which was a description of the building when it was built in the late 1800s. It wasn't meant in a nice way - the people at the time hated the building. But that's the way people are - they don't like things that are too different. (The Eiffel Tower was reviled when it was built - now people think it's beautiful). Here are some web sites that give more information:

http://www.lapedreraeducacio.org/flash.htm

(a very good website availble with English, Spanish, and Catalan from the cultural sponsors of this building)

The Barcelona World Race is a yacht race around the world sponsored by the City of Barcelona. They left the city in November, and they are really moving fast. You can see the route on the map above Flat Stanley's head. They are taking the most direct route, but in my opinion, also the chilliest.

Firenze (Florence) Italy

As a bonus, Stanley accompanied us on a trip to Florence, Italy, where my wife Genevieve and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. Also along for the trip was George Sapir, my wife's father. We spent three days there, including New Year's Eve.

Florence is the birthplace of the Renaissance, with so much history, culture, and architecture that it was like the buffet at Souplantation – it never stopped! My favorite sites were the Uffizi gallery where paintings from the famous Renaissance painters are displayed, the view of the beautiful bridge named Ponte Vecchio (meaning “old bridge” in Italian), and the statue of “David” by Michelangelo. From the photos, you can see that it was cold in Italy, much colder than we expected. It was between 35-40° F or 0° C, which for people like us from Southern California, is really, really cold.

Barcelona Sites

We took Stanley to the major tourist and cultural sites of Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia, the arc d’triumph (although no one here seems to know what “triumph” the arch is celebrating – maybe they forgot), and the sea, among others.

La Sagrada Familia is a cathedral that was started in the late 1800’s and was never finished (still isn’t, they are still working on it). It was designed by a famous architect named Antoni Gaudi, who worked on nothing else for the last 30 years of his life. Once completed, it will be enormous, the largest structure in the city, and a cathedral to rival St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the standard by which all catholic churches are measured. To give some idea of the scale, what we see now is about 50% complete, so the cathedral will be twice as large as it stands now. Gaudi is famous for his unusual designs - his buildings are like nothing seen before or since. He uses natural forms for his inspiration - scales, fins, fruit, birds, trees, skeletons. His buildings are wonders to behold.

Here's the offical web site in english:

http://www.sagradafamilia.org/eng/index.htm

Barcelona map images

Here's where Flat Stanley is now. The first map shows Barcelona relative to Spain. The second shows the city with a shaded area showing the general area where we live. The third shows a closer view of our neighborhood ("barrio" in spanish), which is called Sant Pere.

Barcelona information

Here is some information about Barcelona and the province of Catalunya, where Barcelona is located. The city dates back to 300 B.C.E. when the Romans founded a small city here. It grew over the years and at one time during the Middle Ages (the 13th Century), the city was the capital of Aragon and Catalunya, the most powerful city-states in the Mediterranean Sea.

http://www.bcn.es/english/laciutat/barcelona/
The website from the City of Barcelona, with all kinds of interesting information about the city.

http://www.en.mhcat.net/
The website of the Museum of the History of Catalunya with virtual tours of the region's history.

Because Barcelona is in Spain, spanish is of course spoken, but the citizens here have another official language called catalan, which everyone who is born learns to speak. Catalan is very different from spanish, and in many ways is similar to french.

Arrival in Barcelona

Flat Stanley arrived in Barcelona today, December 19. As his hosts, Gregory and Genevieve Stackel were thrilled to receive the package. We have great plans for Mr. Stanley. We will take him around Barcelona and then, when we travel to Florence for New Year's Eve, we will take him there to see some sights.