Playa del Ingles, Gran Canaria

For my stay in Grand Canary I chose to stay in Playa deal Ingles, which translates to beach of the English. In a way it is a very fitting name since English was much more widely spoken than Spanish. Of course I could also have gotten by in German, Swedish, Norweigen, Danish and several other languages as well. Playa del Ingles is a bit dated, there are newer resort communities a bit farther along the coast, but they all share an abundance of sun seekers from northern climates. 

Of of the interesting things to note are the shopping centers. Here they usually contain a grocery store or two, some duty free shopping (the Canary Islands are a duty free zone), restaurants and bars. The closest center to me was the Jumbo Centrium and it lived up to its name, it was the biggest center in the area. Two shopping centers, a load of restaurants, lots of duty free shopping (Michael Kors was the big seller, though not sure if it was real or knock-off) and an abundance of bars. 

Playa has over the years gained a reputation as a gay get away spot so it was no surprise that there were more than a few gay bars at the Jumbo. As I walked about one evening I counted 30 gay bars before I stopped counting. Most were casual sit down bars, but at least 4 featured drag shows of varying qualities including one featuring a little person drag queen. There were also a handful of men only clubs with names like Tom's Cruie Bar, the Celler, Bunker and Construction. And bar life starts late, like 10, 11 or even 12.

One of the big draws is the beach which runs for several miles. It has a great quality of sand, vey fine and comfortable. Behind the beach is a large natural reserve with beautiful sand dunes. Makes you think perhaps you are in the Sahara desert, except with an ocean. Speaking of the Sahara, the Canary Islands are located off the coast of Western Sahara, a disputed territory. Unlike the Saharah which I pictured inhabited by Bedoin tribes with the men in flowing robes and the women veiled, the area of the beach farthest from the town is a Playa Natural. There I was, wandering along as I was created, when a ranger drove by with no sign that it was out of the ordinary. 

The first of my day trips was to Telde, a not so interesting city, and the on to Las Palmas, the capital city. Las Palmas was an interesting visit. There is a nice older section near the Cathedral with some good turn of the century modernist inspired architecture. The Cathedral itself was not that interesting in my opinion. On the way back it began to rain, a rarity as I was told they only get 6 days of rain per year. 

The second day trip was along the south shore. I started in Puerto de Mogan, a pretty fishing village. It's described as Gran Canaria's Venice, but two half block canals didn't make me think Venice. Even though I didn't ride the Yellow Submarine, I enjoyed Puerto de Mogan.

From there I took the local bus back along the coast. Since it is a volcani island, this stretch of the coast is mostly steep cliffs, so not a great route if you have a fear of heights. At many points where a canyon came down to the sea there was anew condo development hugging the cliffs. Some nice looking resorts in this area. 

At one point I got off the bus and strolled along a path that had been built between a new developement in one canyon, to Puerto Rico, an older village in the next canyon. It was a nice walk that must have cost a small fortune to build into the cliff. From Puerto Rico I caught the bus down to the lighthouse on the far end of the dunes. Here there was another large new developement with the largest swimming pool I have ever seen. From there I was able to walk back through the dunes to Playa del Ingles.

My final excursion was to Teror, one of the inland cities. Teror has a nice church that contains Our Lady of the Pines, the patron saint of the island. Teror is a cute little town with colonial homes whose balconies overlook the main street. According to the legend, our lady was found in a pine tree here. How the statue got there is anyone's guess.

In Teror I got to sample two Canarian dishes, chorizo from Teror, sort of a spicy paste that I didn't care for, and wrinkly potatoes with mojo, small potatoes boiled in salt water served with mojo sauce. The potatoes were good, but not something worth a detour. 

As you go around the island, much of it looks similar to the American southwest. Arid with some sagebrushy looking vegetation. Then there are massive plastic covered greenhouse structures that you can't see into to see what is growing. 

Sadly my time here was too short to see how the west was won in Sioux City, a recreation of the American western frontier. Sioux City seems out of place, but perhaps it is the Spanish version of Disney World. Likewise, I missed Hanger 37 where I could have played desert war games.  From the promo commercial playing in baggage claim, Hanger 37 seemed to be a Disney World Verizon of the war in Afganistan, a bit weird for me.

Barcelona - Second Museum Day

Two other museums caught my attention for this trip. One of them I saw a on a banner hanging from a light pole near Sagrada Familia. Who knew that Barcelona would be home to the Hash, Hemp and Marijuana Museum?

It was an interesting collection divided into various subject areas. The first area covered the biology of the plant which was very informative. I never realized that there were male and female plants, and it's the female that is grown for smoking. Also, hash is resin collected from the leaves, I thought they were some how cooked down to make hash.

One of my favorite rooms was one with an audio visual presentation of marijuana in songs. Never gave it much thought, but there are a good number of them. There were also rooms on the commercial production of hemp which has had many uses over the years. Columbus would not have discovered The new world without hemp for the ropes on his ships.

The next museum on my list was the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona, a really nice design museum. There I saw 

a nice display on the development of graphic arts in Spain with some pretty posters for DDT amount some really 

nice tourism posters. 

The highlight of the museum for me was the floor devoted to fashion. Unlike lots of museums that display clothing without much context, here the collection was broken into various periods of styles. The display focused on how fashion was used to reduce, enlarge and elongate the human figure. Each display case included a manquin that showed the changes. Sometimes the waists were very tiny with huge hips built out to the sides. Each case also included a recent designer dress showing the same effect.  What pain men designers inflicted on women with these corsets.

There were also displays on products that were invented in the area and small collections of pottery, glass, wall paper and textiles. Amazing to see fabric that was dated back to the 4th century. I guess that they didn't have H&M and Zara back then with cheap, but not lasting fabrics.

Por Favor by Nahuel Tajan

It is also worth mentioning that most of the neighborhoods in Barcelona have cultural centers that offer classes and have exhibitions. At my local center I caught a small exhibition by Nahuel Tajan that had some thought provoking paintings. 

Museum day in Barcelona

Casa Mila by Antonio Guadi

Barcelona is a city with a great number of museums so every time I visit Barcelona it seems I find another museum or house to visit and this trip was no exception. Thanks to the Bacelona tourism bureau I discovered a couple of new museums, then saw a banner hanging from a street light that alerted me to another unique niche museum. I had visited Casa Mila pictured above, and at 20.50€ It wasn't on the list this year. But I did pause to take the photo to share with you.

The first museum on my list was the Museu del Modernisme. If contained an excellent collection from the period. If back in the day you had a modernist architect design your home, then chances were he also designed some of the furnishing for it as well. The photo above is just a taste of what I saw. There were some incredible pieces of furniture in the collection including pieces designed by Gaudi for Casa Batllo.

There was one floor that was devoted to art which had some really nice vintage posters. There were also some sculptures and paintings. It was interesting that the paintings were displayed in a slightly darkened space and the paintings were spotlighted with filters that lit just the art, not the frame or surrounding area. I haven't seen this done before and it really directs all of your interest towards the painting.

Casa Punxes by Joseph Puig i Cadafalch

Up next was Casa punxes, another modernist building that I have admired in the past. When I saw that it now had a museum that you could visit, I thought it would be good to see the inside of the building. The good news was that yes I got in, but the bad news was you really didn't get to see the house. It turned out that the museum was an audio visual show that explained the story of St. George (Jordi in Catalan.) the show was interesting with the head set playing as you are led through the museum by doors that automatically open as you go through.

The museum did include entrance to the roof so you could enter the seven towers. Each tower contained a theme related to the building.

From there I headed up to see the first home designed by Gaudi. As I headed up the street toward it it looked interesting. As i got closer I realized that what I was seeing was not the building, but intead I was viewing a cover that had been erected to cover scaffolding as they reconstruct the building. Guess I will have to make another trip to Barcelona to see the finished house.

Welcome to Barcelona - Food, glorious food

Display case at la Pastisseria

My flight arrived late morning yesterday and I discovered that the Barcelona metro now comes all the
way out to the airport. While that might have been the easiest way to get into the city, I opted totakethe shuttle bus to the next terminal where I could catch the train. The metro would have been 4.90€but on the train I can use a T-10 metro ticket, 10 rides for 9.95€. My hotel then was just a short walkfrom the station. After a quick shower and change I was off to the metro.

My first stop was to check the construction progress at Sagrada Familia which put me very close to
my favorite pastry shop, la Pastisseria. All that travel I had been doing needed to be rewarded so I
chose a La Rosa de Sant Jordi from the case and ordered a cappuccino.

Now that I was properly nourished, I could continue on my way. Barcelona is a great city to
explore on foot. It seems that where ever you look there is something new to see. I wandered past Casa Batilo, a modernist building by Gaudi and stopped in to Casa AmAmatller next door to check out the lobby and purchase some chocolate. Casa Amatller is another great modernist design by
Josep Puig i Cadafalch that was built for Antonio Amatller, a chocolate maker. I purchased a nice
box of truffles with a cava (Spanish champagne) filling.

From there I headed down to the visitor center to pick up brochures. As I headed there I made a pit stop at Dino, one of the many ice cream shops. But not just any ice cream shop, this branch of
Dino is one that I can count on to carry Roquefort walnut ice cream. Probably not something for everyone, but definitely for me.



From there I headed thru the Bari Gothic, the old part of Barcelona to the Cathedral. My shorts were apparently of sufficient length and modesty to get me past the door guard who was turning many people away.

After a bit more walking in the Bari Gothic it was time to head back to the hotel. Dinner was a coupon special chicken with peppers sandwich, fries and a soda close to the hotel. Then to bed for a good nights rest since I slept very little on the plane.