Barcelona: Unfinished Business

I remember playing a classical piece on the piano and playing every note but the last chord, leaving others in the room unsatisfied at the ending since they were expecting to hear the chord that finished the song. That is how I felt when I left Barcelona - there was so much left undone to feel finished. It is definitely a city I would like to visit again.

We arrived late Thursday evening and took a cab to our hotel called Hotel Jazz. It was located near the University area, not far from the Las Ramblas, and close to the Latin quarter and a short walk from the beach. The hotel had a rooftop pool and bar and overlooked the University area. We dropped our suitcases and immediately walked to Las Ramblas for some tapas and sangria. I had heard that the food was not so great on the Las Ramblas because it was a touristy area, but either because we were hungry or the food had some spice, it was tasty to us.

The next morning we walked through the Gothic Barrio to Plaça Sant Jaume to meet Austin, Texas based Fat Tire bicycle company for a bicycle tour of the city. We did the same in Berlin and knew that it was the best way to get a feel for the city, as well as a way to get some exercise. It was a four hour tour and included some highlights of the city, including the government area of town in Placa Sant Jaume and the nearby Plaza del Rei where Christopher Columbus accepted the funds from Queen Isabella for his voyage west (to actually what is now Bermuda and an island called Hispaniola - not North America as most people think). Queen Isabella is reported to have had a personal relationship with Columbus, but also struck a deal to get 10 percent of the trade that he sold.  It felt amazing to be in this historic plaza.

We then rode to the Catedral in the Gothic barrio,  to the beautiful historic Palau Musica (music palace), then onto the  Parc de la Ciutadella which was first a fort, then turned into a park and a zoo. We stopped for photos before riding to the other side of the city to the La Sagrada Familia Catedral designed by the famous architect Gaudi. It was the first glimpse of this church and left us wanting for more. The style of this church from the outside was impressive, but we only had time to see one side and no time to go inside at all.

On the way to the Barceloneta beach, we rode through heavy traffic to find  lunch at another Tapas bar (Tapa Tapa). The beach was busy on the sunny day and we had time to enjoy our Spanish wine while watching the locals sunbathe.  Paul quickly downed his lunch so he could get some photos of the beautiful beach and perhaps a peek at the topless sunbathers. We finished our ride by seeing the Arc del Triomf, the Olímpica village of Barcelona, the eclectic El Borne neighborhood with restaurants and boutiques, and we finished our tour with the Basílica de la Santa Maria del Mar. We were impressed by the diverse offerings of the city and got a glimpse into the history of Barcelona.

After our ride, we returned to our hotel and spent the afternoon with drinks on the rooftop pool which overlooks the city. We relaxed and then showered and walked to the El Borne area to dine at a Mexican restaurant called La Hacienda. We were thrilled to find a restaurant that offered margaritas, spicy nachos, and fajitas. and ate outside on the terrace to watch the many locals shop in the boutique shops in the area. After we ate, we walked to the Santa de Mar Basilica to hear a concert of Spanish
guitars. As in Budapest, the churches have concerts as fundraisers to provide for the maintenance of the church. The trio of Spanish guitars bounced off the stone walls in the sanctuary and the candle-lit, low-lighting of the church was magical. The Basilica was built by the people in a simplistic style and the construction of this church only took 55 years (from 1329 to 1384). It was destroyed by earthquake soon after it was built and then after restored, destroyed again by fire during the civil war. This historic church is a prominent icon in the Gothic neighborhood.

Saturday, we had breakfast and strolled in the Gothic barrio. We then negotiated the underground trains to go back to the La Sagrada Familia with tickets to visit the inside of the church. We have seen quite a few churches in our travels, but this one was extremely impressive. It is not unusual to build these European church for 200 years. I felt privileged to see this church in progress. They have been building it for over 100 years and expect to finish it in 20 years. It is a work in progress in modern times, but majestic none-the-less.

One side of the church features the nativity of Jesus and the Holy Family and the other side has the facade featuring the Passion. It is impossible to describe the detail involved - it must be seen.  The inside of the church has many facets and the colors in the windows were brilliant. The best feature of this church is the altar area. A crucifix hangs over the altar in a ring of candles. Above the crucifix is an opening in the ceiling that opens into one of the towers. In my mind, this is what the opening of heaven must be like.

I sat in meditation and cried at the beauty of this sacred place as I felt bathed in the Holy Spirit near the altar.  We visited the museum under the church that told of the building of it and featured the design of Gaudi.

We left this area and pondered what to do with the rest of our afternoon. The funicula was broken that takes one to Mont Juiic to get a view from the top of the city so that was not an option without hiking shoes. We considered shopping in the El Born district, but had no room to take anything back in our suitcases. It was too nice of the day to go inside to the Picasso museum and we didn't have enough time to visit Montserrat, a beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat about one hour North West from Barcelona by train. We considered renting a bike to ride along the coast line to the Maresme beaches 1 hour away.  However, Paul had crashed his bike on the ride the day before and his elbow was hurting and his leg still had road rash.

We walked by a couple of Gaudi houses in the area, Casa Battlo and La Padrera (but didn't go to the Parc Guell where more houses are located) and strolled the Las Ramblas to return to our hotel. We returned to the rooftop bar at the hotel to research whether or not we could hear live music at the Palau Musica and they were sold out for the night. We then went back to the same Mexican restaurant for dinner (did I say that the Mexican food was a real treat for us after 6 months without?). We left early the next morning to return to our European home. Yes, we will go back to Barcelona to finish up the final notes to complete this symphony.

Budapest: Renewal

Budapest is the "most foreign" city to which I've traveled. There were many things that didn't feel familiar, the language, the currency, the food, but most importantly -  the feeling that freedom is not something this country has experienced until recent years. We traveled on September 11th and freedom may have been ever present on my mind as we arrived in the city. It was a bit unsettling that week to travel because of the anniversary of 9/11 and the fighting between Russia and the Ukraine had intensified. Hungary is on the border with Ukraine, though the opposite border from Russia.

When we arrived, we walked around the center of Pest - the east side of the city near our hotel and I observed several things: the new Jewish memorial for the Holocaust victims, the beautiful St. Stephen's Basilica lit at night, and the dark vibrant street of ethnic restaurants close to our hotel.

Many policemen and women were near the Holocaust memorial and a woman came up and gave us some literature asking us to please read. The protesters thought the memorial ignored and glossed over the Hungarian government's participation of the Jewish extermination. Instead of looking at the government memorial, the protesters asked us to consider looking at the makeshift memorial that the Jewish families put at the base of the government statue which contained victims' personal belongings and photos. It was indeed a poignant testament to the lives that were lost in extermination camps during WWII.

Early the next morning - in the rain, Paul and I traveled to Szechenyi Baths, a Turkish style bathhouse with 3 outdoor pools and 18 indoor pools with medicinal natural hot spring waters, complete with steam and massage rooms. These baths were built in 1913 and the buildings surrounding the baths were very ornate. We had an appointment for massages and also wanted to relax in the baths. Our massages allowed us to unwind. Afterward we went outside to the hot spring baths to watch some older gentlemen playing chess on the built-in marble chessboards, probably something they have been doing for decades. We spent an hour or two under the fountains and in the healing warm pools of waters to people watch and enjoy.

On the way home, we went by St. Stephen's Basilica - an active Roman Catholic church completed in 1905 named for the first king of Hungary (year 975) who offered his crown for the good of God and the Catholic church. His right hand is a relic located in the church signifying the importance of performing God's works. We found there would be a concert that night in the church with the pipe organ, a trumpet and a mezzo-soprano vocalist. The concerts enable the many musicians in the city to perform and also allows the church to pay for the preservation of the Basilica.

After dinner at a hummus bar, we arrived at the church to a sparsely lighted sanctuary with magnificent artwork and Carrara marble statues. One painting caught my eye by Benczur - St. Stephen offering his crown to the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus. The lighting surrounding Jesus's head was brilliantly white, even in the darkened church. During the concert, the mezzo-soprano vocalist sang three versions of Ave Maria and many other classical pieces that were performed in my daughter Stephanie's wedding last year. The music was extraordinary. Between the darkened environment of the church, the lighted artwork and the brilliant music, I found myself crying during much of the concert as the music washed over me.


Paul and I went across the Danube river the next morning to Buda - the city that was united with Pest in 1873 to see the older part of the city. On our way over, we saw the memorial of the shoes on the river banks.  It honors the Jews who were killed by fascist militiamen in Budapest during WWII. The people were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. This memorial represents their shoes left behind on the bank. I could only imagine the tears that fell into the river that day.

Across the river is the Grand Palace, which is now filled with museums and exhibits since there is no monarchy. The President's offices are also on this side of the river. We walked around the cobblestone streets and it started raining. We found shelter at the top of the hill at a cafe which overlooked the valley below. We drank some Hungarian Budweiser (very different than the US kind) while it rained. We booked a river cruise for the evening to see the city at night from the Danube. It stormed during much of the evening, but we stayed sheltered inside the glass roof of the boat to watch the lightening show over the magnificent city. 

On our last morning there, we returned to St. Stephen's Basilica to go to a Hungarian mass. The mass is the same all over the world - except for the homily - whatever language it is spoken in. It was a chance to be inside the Basilica again - a place that felt like home. We left for the airport after mass and it was still raining. It occurred to me that in coming to visit Budapest, I felt renewed. I don't know if it was the water from the spas, being on the banks of the Danube river, crying during the concert, or just getting wet from the rain, but I felt cleansed. Travel - and being renewed -  allows me to open up to new ways of thinking and feeling and it leaves me with a quiet soul. I am glad I have the freedom to travel.

Berlin - The Presence of Absence

So far Berlin might be my favorite city in Europe. Paul and I decided to go there on a whim when our bike ride from Munich to Prague was canceled the week before we were supposed to go (that's another story . . . ). In Europe you can just jump on an airplane for the weekend easily and cheaply. And so we did. We arrived on a Friday afternoon and stayed at the Hotel Am Steinplatz in the Steinplatz neighborhood of formerly West Berlin. The hotel is decorated with a 1920s theme, There are videos playing in the hallway and lobby that were shot in 1920s Berlin in the neighborhood that we stayed in. Our room had a photo of a 1920s Berlin flapper on the wall. Germany had fought in WWI which ended in 1917, but the videos of the city at that time didn't show any effects of the war.

 We walked around the neighborhood and found nice shops and many outdoor restaurants. The neighborhood had a vibrant feel to it and the restaurant our first night was at a tapas bar called Mar Y Sol. The food was tasty and uniquely prepared. In a funny way, we felt like we were home. Berlin is a green city, the vibe was alternative and edgy, and there were bikes and street musicians everywhere. Except for the language difference, it almost felt like we were in Austin, Texas.

And then we noticed 4 inch by 4 inch brass nameplates
in the sidewalks in front of many houses and at the corner of many streets. These plates had the names of the Jewish person that lived in that house prior to being murdered by the Nazis during WWII. There is a concept called the Presence of Absence, introduced by Micha Ullman when Berlin started to be restored. What used to be there, isn't any longer. The people that used to live there had their lives cut short by evil. And the absence - what was lost by war - is noticeably present in the way the city was rebuilt. One monument had the shelves of a library with no books on them. Hitler had a book burning in 1933 in one of the central areas of town that was known for being an academic area. 40,000 people participated and they burned a total of 25,000 books identified by Hitler as being anti-German. Scars of Nazi Germany still exist throughout the city.

The next morning we jumped on the train and got off in the Alexanderplatz - in former East Berlin where we met a group from Fat Tire Bike Tours to tour Berlin. We met under a TV tower that was built by communist Russia who occupied East Berlin, to show off their advanced technology to West Germany. Communist East Germany had to have it's own broadcasting system to restrict the programming that it allowed it's citizens and to show West Germany that it didn't have a monopoly on new technolgoy. We could see in the sunlight that the shape of the ball at the top allowed for a reflection cross to be portrayed onto the ball of the tower. The West Berliners called this the Pope's Revenge. We were fitted with our bikes quickly and we were off.

Fat Tire Bike Tours is based in Austin, Texas and has a shop also in London, Barcelona, and Paris. Neal, our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the city and was easily able to answer all of our questions on the 3-hour tour. We knew we would be very interested to see how the city has been restored after WWII, both in East and West Berlin and to see the differences between the two parts. We knew the city had been rebuilt after the Russians bombed and pretty much destroyed the entire city at the end the war.

On our ride, it was intriguing to me to see how they rebuilt the city to make it look old. The stone for many building restorations was burnt before it was cemented in place to give it a centuries old look. There were several churches restored after the war, but they were used as museums, not churches in Communist Berlin. Several buildings still had the evidence of artillery fire from the war - 70 years earlier. We saw the area where Hitler's bunker was located. Hitler committed suicide May1, 1945 and he had asked that his body be burned so that it wouldn't be hung in effigy as Mussolini's had been in Italy. There is a dirt parking lot where his burnt body was found. The bunker was later  destroyed and was so thick that it had to be bombed out of the ground.

We visited 2 of the 3 remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall. Like many Americans, I've always just taken freedom for granted.  In Berlin, the concept of freedom,  and how precious it is, permeated just about every block we traveled.  

There is an imprint of where the entire wall used to surround the city embedded in the streets as we rode along. The remaining sections of wall are almost entirely covered with graffiti, some of it very nice artwork. When Reagan said the famous words "Mr. Gorbechev, Tear down this wall", it was not taken down by government officials or a wrecking crew. It was taken down by the people in the streets who were reclaiming their freedom. My husband Paul thought the graffiti on the wall was a bit disrespectful of something historic, but I saw it an expression of freedom by the people that tore it down. A person affected by Communism, who was walled off from freedom, has the right and privilege to be creative on the very wall that restricted him for 28 years. In riding through Tiergarten, a large park and garden in the center of the city, many men were sunbathing in the nude in the open field. This might be another edgy expression of being free. 

We saw Checkpoint Charlie and the site of a museum that stands where the offices of the Stasi (SS) used to be. It's called the Wall of Terror, and is a memorial explanation of what the Nazi SS did in Warsaw, Poland. It's staggering the evil and destruction of so many lives that were caused by the Nazis. He oversaw the killing of 11 million people, 6 million of those were from Poland. This museum let the horrors be known and felt that were the result of the evil of Hitler's empire.

We rode by the Jewish Memorial. From the outside, it gives the impression of undecorated grave markers. To go into the memorial gives a very different experience. The floor of the park is created in rolling waves, and the stones are very tall. To walk along the rows, you get the feeling of not having sure footing and it's a bit disconcerting to not know what is around the corner as you turn. I felt it was a beautiful way to memorialize the Jewish people that were murdered.  Hitler also killed homosexuals, Roma Gypsies, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses, priests, and ministers of all denominations and the disabled. There are several more memorials throughout the city. I have been in many parts of Germany, but I was deeply impressed in Berlin to see the honor, solemn respect, and apology that is given the victims of the war. In the rest of Germany, it is hardly spoken about.

To visit Berlin is to have hope.

The practice of rebuilding, forgiveness, and healing gives Berlin a very unique soul to be enjoyed when visiting. Healing those wounds in history is the central story in all of Europe. Berliners are acknowledging the evil of the past, but are also letting hope, not the hurt, shape it's future.

Going Home

I recently went back home to the place I grew up - northwest Ohio. I've been in Texas 35 years and in Europe  seven weeks. Going back to my childhood home always lets me see the place I came from with new eyes - and lets me see the people there with a new heart. Coming back to where you started is very different than never leaving.

In the span of 10 days, I visited a new grand-niece and grand-nephew and went to my nephew's wedding (I just missed two other niece's weddings). My youngest sister and her husband both turned 50, and we gathered to celebrate them. There were two recent graduations in the family to commemorate and Father's day was a family BBQ with six fathers gathered to be honored.

Seeing family - and really being with them - in small  progressive snapshots of time makes me appreciate the precious nature of this quick-moving life we lead. I hold those moments in both of my hands. My siblings live close to each other and I observe that gathering together seems routine to them. But getting together with family to celebrate all those life's occasions turns simple

acts into dramatic scenes. Small conversations are given more importance because they are the connections that bind
us all together. Just as in "Our Town", I can step outside the ongoing, seemingly ordinary and repetitive conversations and watch the truly extraordinary and beautiful transience that occurs. I see it from afar.

When traveling, I use my map and experience to figure out where I am going. Sometimes knowing how to truly get back home is the better adventure.

Bruges: A Dialog Across Time

I had a friend tell me to be sure to travel like the Dutch do. On our visit to Bruges, we did just that. The Dutch way is to view a few sites, then take a break and have a coffee. Then visit more sites and take a break to have a beer.

It was very good advice and we relished our visit to this medieval city filled with canals and cobblestone streets. There is something very poignant about being in an ancient European city filled with so many young people. The contrast makes you realize the permanence of a given place and the dialog across time. This permanence is not to be taken for granted in Europe where Hitler destroyed so much.


We enjoyed the Half Moon brewery (Brouwerij de Halve Maan) tour  and beers and also the many Belgian chocolate shops. The cafes along the canals were relaxing and made the day even more enjoyable. The town closes at 6pm and that is when we got most of our photos with the best lighting without the crowding of people to disrupt us. We spent the night at a Bed and Breakfast out in the country side and it was very nice. I highly recommend Hotel Stokerij in Oudenburg. Their breakfasts were entirely home-made, even the butter, the cheeses, the pates, and the breads.


We visited the Church of our Lady to see the Madonna and Child, the only Michelangelo sculptures that has left Italy. It was the art piece that was part of the ending scene in the movie The Monument Men. I love the depiction of little Jesus stepping off his mother's lap as she smiles at him. It is carved out of Carrera marble and is very white against the black altar.

To end the day we took our last photo of the four of us as we left the city. With Bruges behind us,  we returned home to savor our photos, our memories,  and our stash of Belgian chocolates.