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Hop-on Hop-off Barcelona

12/27/2014

Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor (Church of the Sacred Heart)

One of our favorite (and often-passed) intersections.

After Rasquera, we had the chance to see Barcelona en route to our next house sit. To this end, we utilized a great tool to maximize our tourist efficiency: the hop-on hop-off bus tour! This is a very clever concept. You get to ride the whole day, and the route provides a great overview of the city, stopping at major tourist destinations and popular neighborhoods.

Up top with great air & views

The ticket allows you to get off and on as many times as you want. So you can see the sights from the bus as long as you'd like, and when a stop interests you, you disembark and go check it out. Then you return to the same bus stop and a new bus magically appears in 0–20 minutes. Occasionally the main attractions are not visible from the bus anyhow, so if you're feeling a bit lazy but really want to check something off the list (yes we've been there), sometimes ya just gotta get off the bus!

We've used this service in several places now, and while we first thought it would be super cheesy, we are now total converts. They even give you headphones and a selection of various language for the guided audio tour (including culturally specific Muzak during the down time). Of course the tour doesn't replace the authentic feel you get from wandering the streets of a town on foot for hours, but it definitely serves a purpose.

One fascinating area of Barcelona was the Gothic quarter (Barri Gòtic in Catalan). This district is the center of the old city of Barcelona, with many of the buildings dating back to Medieval times, some even back to the Roman settlement of Barcelona. We walked around this area for a while, mesmerized—especially by this huge Gothic church:

Magnificent Gothic church

[Obligatory mention: Barcelona is very famous for its Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi and his many ornate buildings and churches. His Sagrada Familia is an elaborate church and UNESCO World Heritage Site that draws loads of attention. Gaudi worked on it from 1883 until his death in 1926, leaving it less than one-quarter complete—the expected completion date is 2026. For some reason we lost a batch of photos, including our shots of the Sagrada Familia, but you can see some great shots of it here.]

Danielle being a gardening junkie, imagine her happy surprise to find that many of the street vendors on a busy shopping avenue were seed sellers. How cool is that?!

One of many seed sellers

Beautiful place for a leisurely stroll

Here is the street where we stayed in an AirBnB room. AirBnB is a great option for saving money compared to a hotel room, and for staying with a local and getting a better feel for regular life in a place.

Carrer Martínez de la Rosa

You can barely see the corner of a Catalonia flag (upper left). These flags were all over the place, this being Catalonia. We learned some of the history and politics re Catalonia while we were here. Many Catalonians are separatists who wish to be their own state apart from Spain. The language is different from Spanish though similar. I was caught by surprise, thinking my Spanish would be enough to get me by in Spain (at least, enough to get me to the train station exit)! Fortunately the people who identify as Catalonian also understand Spanish.

A highlight to our visit was this viewpoint overlooking the city and surrounding area. Whenever we go to a new city we like to find one of the best viewpoints to take in the big picture (and to get some cool pictures).

Thanks for following along. Tune in next time to hear about our Ibiza house sit!

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Live and Let Olive

12/22/2014

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Though we both had previous experience with house sitting and related activities, this autumn we took the plunge and started house sitting full-time. Our first sit on this mission was deep into olive country in the extremely beautiful Tarragona province in Catalonia, Spain, on an off-grid property near the town of Rasquera, a couple hours southwest of Barcelona.

The owners, from Germany, have been developing this beautiful piece of land as the Cha Nala retreat center and have offered us the opportunity to do events there in the future. They host workshops and retreats in topics such as permaculture, sustainable building, yoga, and meditation. They are also an organic farm and a WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) host. The property has an olive and almond orchard and an organic vegetable garden, as well as a chicken pen with two roosters and their four lady chickens who produce fresh eggs daily.

View from the front door

The fort is held down by loyal canine companions Charlie (hunting hound rescue) and Nala (Great Dane puppy). Backup is provided by their darling feline friends Yoda and Frieder (kittens).

Charlie & Nala

Yoda & Frieder (aka Ball of Fluff)

Each morning and afternoon, we'd take the dogs out for a long walk. This "chore" turned out to be the biggest blessing. The property is adjacent to many miles of mostly gravel roads that are excellent for walking and have beautiful expansive mountain vistas. The only cars are the occasional hunters coming through and the rare resident. Many of the orchards and homes in this area have been abandoned, and others are used occasionally as vacation homes. Rarer still was the actually full-time-occupied residence. There is a lot of wide-open space, and we experienced such peace and joy on these long walks.

Slideshow: Our Daily Walks

One interesting element is that our walks were through prime hunting grounds for wild boar. Twice a week was "hunting day" where men would come into the valley with trucks full of dogs and spend the day hunting (and barking). We made sure to walk earlier in the mornings and later in the afternoons on those days, and to keep dear Charlie the hunter—the more adventurous one—on a leash so he didn't go join the party. (As a side note, there was fresh ham and sausage for sale everywhere, sometimes entire stores devoted to its sale.)

Frieder's sunbathing rock

An added delight to our daily walks was that oftentimes, one or both of the kittens would tag along. Even though we walked for miles, they were determined be part of the group. It was mostly Frieder who made the trek, and at times when he was lagging behind I would often pick him up and walk with him for a while—a cute sight, I'm sure.

The morning walks would start off a bit chilly, but partway through the adventure the sun would make its grand appearance, and near the end of the loop we would often stop in an abandoned olive orchard to lounge in the sun for a while.

Charlie & Torsten catching some rays in an olive grove

The Rasquera area is a bit off the beaten track, and we are so glad we had the opportunity to spend time there. It's not a place we would've known to check out, but the mountain vistas are simply stunning, and the miles and miles of olive and almond orchards are mesmerizing. We thankfully had the use of our host's car, so we were able to get out a bit and explore the area.

View of Miravet Castle from River Ebro

One day we put on our tourist hats and went to Miravet, a castle and village overlooking the mighty river Ebro. Miravet was founded by the Moors and rebuilt by the Knights Templar, who converted it into a fortress-monastery after the conquest of 1153. It's said to be the largest fortified complex in Catalonia (and we believe it), and "one of the best examples of Romanesque, religious and military, architecture of the Templar order in the whole Western world" (J. Strickland, Knights of the Cross, p. 163). The drive there was a bit daunting due to the extremely narrow, windy, steep cobblestone roads that are typical for towns in this area, but it was worth it. A neighbor had brought us earlier to an old crossing point on the Ebro (there's still a small ferry in tourist season) for this lookout onto the castle.

Whenever we venture forth into a new land, we do our best to research what fruit will be available there. We knew it would be citrus season in Spain—and we were not disappointed. There were bags and bags everywhere of beautiful, delicious navel oranges—one of our favorites—of various sizes, quite cheap, and wonderful. And there were citrus groves all over the place—mostly along the river because the citrus trees need more water in the soil (whereas olive and almond trees can manage in drier soil). The oranges were bagged up in large red-mesh bags, which gave a sort of Christmasy feel to the whole production. We ate oranges for breakfast every single day.

Standing in a citrus grove

Another culinary surprise was that wild arugula was growing everywhere. We picked several handfuls fresh daily for salads, from the fields along our walking routes.

Field of wild arugula

Not to be missed in the heart of olive country is a glimpse into the production of olive oil. At a local agrobotica (store selling local produce and other wares), we stumbled across these huge vats of oil. Needless to say, olive oil was very affordable here.