Pianist Tete Montoliou was born in 1933 in the Eixample district of Barcelona (where I am staying right now). Blind from birth, he had a brilliant career in jazz, both as accompanist and soloist, in a wide range of styles, until his death in 1997 but is far less well known than he should be. Here’s an example of his work as a soloist, on the John Coltrane classic Giant Steps.
I think I’ve settled in pretty well now. I went for a longish walk this morning and didn’t once have to use Google Maps to find out where I was! It’s a bit cooler today (although still 25°C) so a bit more comfortable walking around. Temperatures are forecast to drop to about 21°C tomorrow, and there’s even a forecast for rain. I might even change out of my shorts!
I’ve been here almost three weeks now, and in my apartment for one. It does feel like I’ve been here longer, actually, but I suppose that’s because so many nice and interesting things have happened.
Anyway, on my way around I dropped in at Come In, a very good English-language bookshop. You can see how good it is by the quality of the books it sells…
It has a very wide range: new books and classics, fiction and non-fiction, and books for children. I suspect quite a few of its sales are to students of English, as well as tourists and migrants such as myself. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re here. The staff are very friendly and helpful too. I bought a couple of items there, of which more anon.
Oh, and I also passed by La Casa Milà, which is quite close to my place of residence…
Today (12th October) is a national holiday in Spain, Hispanic Day (Día de la Hispanidad) or National Day (Fiesta Nacional de España). The date commemorates when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas in 1492, and its colonial overtones make it a bit controversial. I only found out about this holiday yesterday so I had to do a quick dash to the shops last night because the vast majority are closed today (as they are every Sunday, incidentally).
The Department being closed today, I pottered around the apartment this morning. Late on in the morning I heard an unusual amount of beeping of car horns from the street and, when I looked out, there was quite a bit of traffic congestion going. The Gran Via de les Cortes Catalanes is a busy main road but usually the traffic keeps moving. Looking more closely I noticed that there was no traffic at all going along the Gran Via and all the congestion was in the orthogonal direction. I surmised that some diversion was in place.
I went out for a walk and established that I was correct. A very large parade was heading towards Plaça de Catalunya a few blocks down and the Gran Via was closed there to allow it to pass. The congestion was caused by cars trying to find alternative routes.
Anyway, I walked down towards Plaça de Catalunya and found the parade. I only caught a small part of it, but it was fun. Lots of different groups from different Latin American countries dressed in colourful traditional costumes were dancing their way through the city. My favourites, from Bolivia, are featured in the last two pictures. They had brought their own brass band along, which made a change from the recorded music accompanying most of the other sections of the parade, and made it feel much more authentic.
Passeig de GràciaPasseig de GràciaPasseig de GràciaPlaça de Catalunyapigeons!Passeig de GràciaPasseig de GràciaPasseig de GràciaPasseig de GràciaPasseig de Gràcia
Anyway, it is another warm day (27° C) so after walking around for a couple of hours, I beat a retreat to my flat to cool off and have a short siesta. Bona tarda!
Just after I arrived in Barcelona, I posted a piece about the telescope in the foyer of the Physics Department:
Grubb TelescopeCaption
I’m indebted to Vicent Martínez for the following information and the picture:
Howard Grubb et al.
Ignacio Tarzaona bought the telescope in 1906 for the University of Barcelona from the Grubb factory in Dublin. Sir Howard Grubb (son of Thomas Grubb, founder of the Grubb Telescope Company) and Ignacio Tarazona actually knew each other well. In this photograph taken in Berrocalillo (Spain) on May 28, 1900, we can see both of them. The man farthest to the right of all, standing and wearing a “Catalan barretina” is Ignacio Tarazona and Sir Howard Grubb is sitting in the front row, fifth from left with his Panama hat on his knee.
Much to my surprise, my plan for relocating to Barcelona seems to be working out nicely. I booked a hotel initially while I looked around for an apartment for the bulk of my stay. I had a few disappointments with possible properties, and feared I might have to extend the hotel reservation, but then happened to be looking on one of the letting agency websites just as an ideal place in la Dreta de l’Eixample appeared. I got in touch with the agent straight away and had the chance to see the landlord the same day. We did the deal and so I have a place.
I had paid for 12 nights in the hotel (due to check out today), but my apartment was empty yesterday. The landlord was kind enough to allow me to leave some things there yesterday evening, before I returned to the hotel for my last night there. I checked out of the hotel and took the rest of my luggage to the apartment this morning. The apartment is only about 20 minutes away from the hotel, so it was easy to move my stuff.
A Room with a View
I did enjoy staying at the hotel -in particular it’s nice not having to get your own breakfast in the mornings – but it would be way to expensive there in the long term. Moreover, I like cooking and one can’t do that in a hotel room. The kitchen in my new place is small but fully equipped. The only problem is that the shelves are bare, for now, and I’ll need to buy quite a lot of ingredients before I can do anything complicated. My plan for the rest of today, therefore, is to cook something simple and relax with a bottle of the local wine to celebrate a mission accomplished.
The Arc de Triomf which can be loosely translated as “Arc de Triomphe”…
I was doing another tour of Barcelona today in the blazing sunshine, when it suddenly struck me that (a) I’ve been here for a week already and (b) it’s October! It certainly doesn’t feel like a normal October with not a cloud in the sky and the temperature at 27°C.
The tourist crowds were out in force. I always find it quite interesting listening for different languages as I go around. There are a few British and American, and of course Spanish, but the language I’ve come across most often among the tourists is French. That’s not surprising, of course, given the proximity to the border and, e.g., train services to and from France.
A bit of advice for people visiting. Many of the interesting locations (museums and art galleries, for example) are very busy and one can’t just turn up, buy a ticket and go in without a very long wait. The best way to do it is to buy a ticket online with a specific time on it, then you can bypass the queues and go straight in at the appointed hour.
The main that to have struck me while I’ve been here is that the cost of living is so much lower than Ireland. The grocery stores and supermarkets are stocked with a huge range of fresh food at prices much lower than back home. The choice of good quality wines for less than €10 per bottle is astonishing.
Eating in restaurants – even in the touristic areas – is generally inexpensive (although there are of course expensive places). In the area I am living in, every street corner seems to have a place where you can get something to eat and/or drink. I’ve sampled a few in my neighbourhood, and most have been very good indeed. There are, of course, some that aren’t so good.
Actually, I’m eating rather a lot less these days. I have a hearty breakfast but usually skip lunch and often only have a light snack or tapas in the evening. I think the temperature has reduced by appetite (at least for food….). That’s not bad, actually, because I could do with losing a bit of weight.
I’m still in my (very pleasant) hotel but will be moving to an apartment later next week, assuming nothing goes wrong with the contract.
It being a Saturday, and the weather forecast suggesting a temperature of around 30° C, I made an early start this morning to beat the tourist crowds and the heat as I walked around. I managed the latter but not the former. My aim was to visit the famous landmarks associated with architect Antoni Gaudí, the Casa Botlla and the still unfinished Sagrada Familia. Here are some pics I took on the way there and back.
Casa Batlló Crowded HouseApproaching La Sagrada Familia Closer view, with crowdsEntranceHere’s another church they did earlier…
I didn’t actually go in either establishment because of the cost and the crowds. I’m told things will get a bit quieter later in the year so I might try again in November or so. Incidentally, if you’re interested in visiting the Sagrada Familia then be careful as it is quite difficult to get to: there are a lot of roadworks nearby associated with a new tram track so it’s best to walk there than try to get near it by car. It’s also quite expensive to get in – €34, no less. The other church (in the 6th pic) I passed on the way is, I think, this one.
The approach to the Sagrada Familia triggered some memories of my last visit there 30 years ago but the surrounding area has changed quite a bit. The fifth picture, entitled ‘Entrance’, was the best attempt I could make at recapturing an old view:
19932023
There is a busy main road now where there was a dirt track back in 1993 and I didn’t want to get run over by bus taking my picture so I couldn’t get close enough to reproduce the angle. Note also that the tower to the left in the old picture now has a new structure in front of it.
Anyway, I had a nice walk around, ending up by the harbour where there was a jazz-and-cocktails event going on but it was getting too hot by then so I went and ate an indoor pizza then retreated to my hotel for a siesta.
Last week, discovering how warm it is here, I decided to buy a new pair of shorts (Bermudas). That turned out to be trickier than expected. Many stores here are selling their autumn range rather than summer gear, but when I tried a nearby El Corte Inglés I found the remnants of the summer short range were on sale at half price. Sadly I was then flummoxed by the sizes and confounded by the lack of a signal so I could check using my phone. When I did find a conversion table from UK to Spanish sizes I found it was wildly inaccurate and had to try on three pairs of increasing size until I found a pair that fit.
Fancy that. Inaccurate information on the internet! Who would have though it?
After posting yesterday about the sizeable differences between Maynooth and Barcelona in terms of Physics, I stumbled across an Irish connection in the foyer of the Physics Department.
Grubb TelescopeCaption
I’ve posted before about the famous optical instrument manufacturer, the Grubb Telescope Company, founded in Dublin by Thomas Grubb and later renamed Grubb Parsons after its relocation to Newcastle upon Tyne. I’ve posted about other connections too. The presence of this telescope in Barcelona is further evidence – as if it were needed – that, in its time, the Grubb Telescope Company really was the world leader in optical instrumentation.
I spent quite a lot of this morning trying to get my internet connections to work and trying to sort out an office key, not with 100% success. I am currently in the office of a member of staff who happens to be away today instead of the office I was allocated, and my email address here is not yet activated – probably because I did something wrong in the registration process. I’m hopeful that these minor issues will be resolved tomorrow. Even Eduroam acted up for a while before finally letting me connect. Such is life.
Anyway, my first impression on arriving in the building was of a huge difference in scale in Physics activity here at the University of Barcelona (UB) as compared to Maynooth (and indeed the UK Physics departments I have worked in). That’s not just the size of the building, which the Faculty of Physics shares with the Faculty of Chemistry. Physics and Chemistry also share a building in Maynooth, in fact, so the sharing was not in itself a surprise. The Science Building in Maynooth is very small, however, and it was a bit of a shock seeing how much space there is here compared with Maynooth, and also finding out how easy it is to get lost among the 7 floors. The sense of space is very refreshing, actually, as cramped accommodation is a constant reminder of financial and other constraints.
That’s not the only difference, though. There is enough activity in Physics in the University of Barcelona for it to be an entire Faculty. The UB Faculty of Physics contains Departments, covering the following areas: Electronic & Biomedical Engineering; Quantum Physics & Astrophysics; Condensed Matter Physics, and Applied Physics. It is also home to ICCUB, an interdisciplinary research institute that sits outside the Department structure and some of whose staff are paid from external agencies rather than the University itself.
In Maynooth there is a Faculty of Science and Engineering that covers all disciplines represented in the list above, and more besides. It would amuse my colleagues back in Ireland to see that Electronic Engineering is considered a small subset of Physics in Barcelona, whereas in Maynooth it is a free-standing department which is larger than Physics.
P.S. I just thought I’d mention another difference: that it is very warm here (26° C) so I may need to stop for a beer on the way home…
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In the Dark 