Iberian Spring: Day 13 Barcelona

Soundtrack: “Barcelona”, Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe

Final day in Barcelona, last day in the Iberian peninsula. Why is it called the Iberian peninsula? I have no idea, I didn’t get around to googling this, I got bogged down in how Portugal and Spain ended up as two separate countries, and how Catalonia considers itself to be a place all of its own. English history is so much simpler than trying to understand European history. England: we had a bunch of tribes, then the Romans came, then other folks came, some king wasn’t ready, then the French conquered, then some flowers fought each other, then Scotland joined with James the one-sixth, the English fought everyone, including themselves, something something Wales, mad Germans, the queen wasn’t amused, there was a teevee show to cover the rest. The end.

Europe, well there were dukes and kings and most of the time there weren’t even countries. Everyone fought everyone, the royalty married each other, muslims came, muslims went, potatoes arrived after they found other people to fight, everyone had a turn at being pope, there was an unexpected inquisition, and no one seemed to really have any sort of borders established until the short French guy with the funny had decided to take everyone over. He got hit with a double whammy of Tchaikovsky and ABBA, and then everyone kept fighting, sometimes with themselves. Spain spent a lot of time being a bunch of other places, and even now those other places kind of don’t consider themselves to really be part of Spain. And Portugal, well at some point they decided they didn’t want to be like everyone else either.

So I don’t know why it’s called the Iberian peninsula. I blame the Romans, I’m sure they had something to do with it.

We had an easy morning, last load of washing, getting organised, that kind of thing. Breakfast was some wonderful shakshuka, tasty eggs, tomato and bread, along with a coffee that was a bit meh. I feel that Spain is a borderline coffee nation, it has a better hit ratio than the UK, but a decent coffee can’t be taken for granted. Then we headed out to shop for last minute presents, wandering past the amazing old cathedral. As we stopped to take a few pics, a guy tried the old con of doing a rough sketch of my face and then tried to sell it to me, I told him I wasn’t interested but he kept following me until I told him, mostly politely, to go away. I ain’t paying 5 or 10 or 20 euro for a sketch of me, and don’t follow me once I’ve said no. It’s all about consent, keep the sketch, put it in your file under cheap bastards who aren’t suckers, and get out of my face.

We had a quick break back at the apartment before heading out for the afternoon’s adventure: the Sagrada Familia. The church that has taken over 100 years to build, that is finally getting closer. The top part is done, so it’s not getting any taller, but the whole thing isn’t expected to be complete for another 10 years. They still need to knock down another block of houses to finish the entry, and a bunch of other things. I’d hoped to get a ticket to go up one of the towers, but the tickets were all sold out by the time I went looking — they seem to be in more demand than the Notre Dame ones. So we settled for wandering around the outside, outside the walls and fences, for a church it’s certainly going out of its way to limit the number of visitors. Id did seem popular, surrounded by hordes of tourists who couldn’t walk in a straight line. Even trying to get out of the metro station was a challenge, as a bunch of numpties wanted to stop and take pictures of it from the station steps.

L thought the Sagrada Familia was pretty amazing. I felt it a little underwhelming. I don’t know, maybe it’s the newness of so much of the building, so it lacks that old timeworn feel; maybe it’s the proportions of the place: it’s huge, and towers above everything around; maybe because it’s still under construction, so walking around it feels like a building site, and jackhammers and dump trucks and workers yelling is the soundtrack; maybe the hordes of tourists pausing traffic to get their instagram shots. Maybe that it’s just that taking billions that could go to helping the poor, compensating the abused, and feeding the hungry. and spending this on a quest to build the biggest penis to god is at best distasteful and at worst an obscenity.

The Sagrada Familia is big, pretty, tall, and very much there. I’d be interested to see if the interest wanes in the next few years, once it’s completed, though with Barcelona one of the most visited cities around I have some doubts.

The next tower that we tackled was a tower of ham. We booked a masterclass at the Jamon Experience, where seven types were paired with 3 wines. Our knowledgeable host J took us through the seven types, explaining the differences, how not only were there the 4 grades we’d previously been shown, but a fifth, serrano, the general farm-raised ham without any Iberian DNA, so so black hoof. There was also a difference between front leg and hind leg, and shoulder versus the rest of the limb. Shoulders are considered the best parts, though cubes cut from near the hoof and bone also made for full-flavoured morsels. We tried them all first with a good Cava, Spanish sparkling wine made using similar methods to champagne, but with bigger bubbles. J explained how Cava and jamon are a good pairing, as the bubbleshelp accentuate the fat in the ham. Next we tried a tempranillo, and a verdejo, with the idea that the ham would generally work better with the verdejo, as the lighter flavour would showcase the ham flavours. Tembranillo on the other hand, being full-flavoured would mask some of the ham’s flavour, except for the cubes from the hooves. And while the wines did exactly that, we just really liked the tempranillo and were happy drinking it with all the ham.

Throughout host J was awesome, informative, and very pleasant to talk to. Her background is Chinese wo we were able to talk about world foods, and Spanish ham traditions and how they differed from other places. It was an excellent hor and a half, and we left both full of ham and a little more relaxed thanks to the wine.

Our wandering back took us past a craft beer bar, run by locals who also brewed the beer. Here I had an excellent porter, though given the amount of roastiness in the flavour it could also be considered a stout. Lots of good flavours, coffee, chocolate, and it went down a treat. L went for a non-alcoholid brewed ginger beer that was similarly excellent, I had a smell and it had a fresh ginger aroma.

We found a couple of bookshops on the way back and had a good look. Spain seems to have a decent amount of bookshops, which has to be a good thing. I still don’t totally get how they order the shelves though, maybe their alphabet has a different order. Some times it just feels random. We’ve seen a lot of different editions of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, it’s everywhere, and Dracula also seems to be popular. We also accidentally found the Spanish headquarters of computer game makers Larian Studios.

Dinner was at a nearby restaurant, out last chance to eat all the Spanish things. Mixed paella, full of chunks of meats, and an incredibly flavourful rice; more vermut, one last feast of pan con tomate for me, how they make that type of bread so crispy is a mysterious miracle. Dessert was a silky smooth creme catalan, and I had a shot of what was described as Spanish limoncello, and while very smooth had very much a flavour of anise or wormwood.

Then it was back to the apartment to get the packing happening. I’ll be surviving the last few days on hand luggage, so need to make sure I’m carrying less than 10kg, and nothing sharp. Fragile presents are all packed for protection, I’ve got enough clothes to get me through, and it’ll just be one last check tomorrow before it’s back to the land of transit.

I should have plenty of time in airports tomorrow, and time in the sky, to put down a few last thoughts about this Iberian place. Overall it’s been great, and out main complaint is not getting to see everything we wanted, so we’d certainly happily come back to these parts.