Barcelona

1st April 2017

Barcelona is an exciting city. The feeling here is of excitement, friendliness, a vibrant city. Features such as la Rambla, the long pedsestrian mall with eateries all along it, squares with eateries all around them, buskers, jugglers, a tangle of different fashions, races, tourists and locals. We have spent 2 days here and really enjoyed it. 

Gaudy was an artist here a century ago. He was known for his eccentricity and brilliant colours. (I wonder if this is the origin of the English word “gaudy"?). He designed a cathedral (La Familia). This cathedral seems to me to be the opposite of reverence. In fact the spires here look decidedly irreverent to me - more like I would expect to see at a circus!

We have been pleased to find vegan outlets that we came across by accident. Our favourite place is a square where there are at least 5 cafes, and even a deli exclusively vegan or offering significant vegan options. Here you can sit in the sun with a glass of wine, great vegan food, and watch people. The  deli offers vegan sausages, cheeses, donuts, mayonaise, seitan steaks, tofu burger patties, various luncheon “meats"…  We also stumbled upon a vegan artisan beer bar, with burgers, wines, beers, all vegan. 

 

Last night we went to a Jazz Club. The trio performing was obviously very passionate about something, with interesting music but I’m sure we would have enjoyed it better if we could have understood the words,. But the words we did understand included “Syria", “support", “resistance” and the music evoked pain and aguish. I think we know what it was about, and we found it encouraging that the whiole world has not gone mad!

 

We saw a beggar today. He had both legs enormously deformed. Both knees were hyperextended, and the tibias deformed and different lengths. He could barely stand and had great difficulty moving about. He stood there patienty while masses of people walked past. Occasionally soneone stopped and gave him some coins. Joe couldn’t resist him and went over with his donation and asked about this story. He is Romanian. Four years ago he was involved in a 4-car pile-up on a highway in Hungary. And here he is. His orthopaedic outcome is disastrous by anyone’s standards and certainly unheard of in Australia where we have free public hospital treatment for all. It’s hard to imagine the impact of such as disaster on his life and that of his family.

He is not the only beggar we have seen though. There are people begging who are clearly immigrants/refugees. Most of them however seem to be trying to earn a living, by selling umbrellas, selfie sticks, flowers, or other random merchandise. They seem to be very polite, not pushy. On the trains we have seen people stand up and tell their story (in Spanish) and then walk around with his cup or hat. Some people have given to them, most haven’t,  but there was no anger or threat. And generally they seem to  be well dressed and groomed.They didn’t feel threateneing as the beggars seemed in Paris last year. And around the city we have seen stickers saying such things as “refugees welcome here” and T-shits saying something similar or urging “care”.

There are racially mixed couples around the streets too. It is quite intriguing to see a very black man and a blonde woman, with a stroller and chocolate coloured kids. Aside from a theoretcial fear that the world will one day be full of grey coloured people it is quite an intesting sight, and one wonders how the parents and grandparents of those involved have adjusted. 

 

On our last evening we attended a flamenco show. WoW! But it was not what I expected. I expected sensual, sexy dancing. But it was fast, dramatic, angry, with foot stomping, clapping, angry gestures. The story being acted seemed to be about the death of the family patriarch and the anger of his widow. Then there was some fury by the daughter and son - in - law. And the Flamenco guitars were amazing- so fast, and so accurate with the notes. 

 

It was however difficult to photograph, in low light and wth such fast movement. And they only gave us a few minutes for photos. ….

We enjoyed Barcelona.

 

Andorra - tiny but great

Friday 31st March

Andorra is a tiny country completely inside Spain. It is mountainous. These photos are looking towards the mountain ranges in Andorra.

 

 

 eco

 

One of the first things we noticed about Andorra was a different architecture. There was little of the ancient stone buildings of France and Spain. 

 

  

 

   

 

And different art works in the street. 

 

We soon learned that Andorra’s economy visibly benefits from its high altitude and the consequent extended skiing season. In fact it snowed during the  night we spent in Andorra la Vella (the capital city). There were skiiers everywhere and an apre-ski culture in full swing, at a time when the snow has melted in southern France and in Spain. The elevation here was over 2000m.

 

  

 

  

 

Outside the city the architecture changed again, with more stone buildings, but these were modern, and almost invariably of very dark stone. No doubt this has advantages in a place covered with snow for most of the year. 

 

   

 

 

It also has cheaper goods than the surrounding Spain and probably benefits from Spaniards and French people coming in to buy cheaper goods such a wine. We found a place selling wine and spirits by the 5 litre plastic bottle, out of huge casks. When we were leaving Andorra, crossing in to Spain, there were police stopping cars to search for alcohol, presumably to ensure the import duty was paid. 

 

We liked Andorra. There was a young and energetic vibe there and friendly locals. Worth a visit particularly if you enjoy snow sports. 

 

Languedoc, Tautavel man, and Salvador Dali

28th March. The countryside is beautiful, and it is clearly a wine growing district. 

 

  

 

Vineyards as far as the eye can see (which admittedly is not so far).

 

We are here to see the museum of ancient man. This is Tautavel, home of Tautavel man. There are a number of caves in this area with ancient human remains, and incredible detail revealed about their lives. What struck me is that humans (defined as bipedal and tool-making) have been living in this area for 1 million years! There were rhinosceruses, elephants, and big cats living here too.

 

They don’t look too different to us do they? In fact I think I can see some family resemblances…..

 

  

 

They had almost complete jawbones with teeth on display. Now do these look like carnivore teeth? Most of the displays had them with animals, but I understand that this might not be a true representation, and these teeth certainly don’t support their diet being mainly carnivorous in my opinion. What do you think? Grinding or tearing teeth?

 

  

 

and in a restaurant in the town, this display of the descent of man….

 

   

 

29 Th March. 

 

We have crossed the border into Spain!

And we are passing through Figueres, the hometown of Salvador Dali! So of course we have to see the museum devoted to him. While we were looking for a parking place we saw Dali’s influence on the town. 

 

  

 

Full of expectations of melting clocks, and eggs we found ournway to the museum - which coudn’t be mistaken for an ordinary building.

 

 

But once inside - “weird" is an uderstatement. “Dark" is another appropriate word. Most of the display I found too weird for my taste. 

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

I am not going to inflict the madness onto you. We both left the exhibit feeling depressed and disappointed. There was not  single melted clock!

 

But one exhibut I did enjoy. This was a room- sized exhibit designed to be seen from only one angle. 

 

  

 

However, a couple of days later in Andora we did find a clock, so I’ll show it to you here so you are not as disappointed as we were!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midi-Pyrenees, Languedoc, France

26th March

We have left the Provence area of France and are travelling roughly southwards towards Spain. The weather is superb again and shows off this wonderful green countryside.

 

 

   

 

Here we see this incredible bridge, near Millau. 

 

We are on our way towards the township of Roquefort, home of the iconic cheese. You could suppose that this is an unusual destintion for a vegan, and of course you would be correct. However the production of a vegan version of this cheese is high on the vegan agenda, with one recipe recently being published on the web, using the same mould, Penicillium roqueforti with a cashew cream instead of dairy milk.  My daughter and I have both been making this cheese and are on the lookout for refinements to make it better. You might be surprised how much it does taste like a reasonable blue cheese, but not up to the standard of the original roquefort.

 

 

 

Here we are at the entrance to the caves in which the cheese is made. 

 

 

         

The nails are to make holes for the air to get in. The mould requires air to develop. The mould is definately visible on the outside of these cheeses. At this point they wrap them in foil to stop the growth of the mould. Perhaps that is where we are going wrong with our cashew based versions.

 

 

Here is a photo of my cashew blue cheeses.. They could do with wrapping I think! They don’t look so great on the outside, but they did taste good.  

I learned a number of tips in the caves here which I will use at home, so it was well worth the visit.

 

  

 

 

 

Next stop Carcassonne, a very pretty and very large old town. 

 

  

 

And yes this is a pile of dung. There are many, many such piles of dung which has accumulated over winter in the sheds where the animals are kept. The stench is incredible even just driving past. We saw this all over Europe last time we were here, and also in Japan. I think it has implications for climate change. So far animal agriculture has received very little attention despite being responsible for a large percentage of greenhouse gasses. It seems to me that a ot of the gasses from this dung could be captured with some sort of scrubber during the winter while the animals are housed. And given that they are housed for months each year that would save a significant amount of greenhouse gass.

 

But forget the dung. Cafe Matilda popped up again in the evening at our camp-site on a lovelly lake.