EXPLORING SPAIN—
We have baguettes wrapped in paper, slices of Gouda cheese and a two cheap bottles of wine between us. Bikes race along the walking street at a sunny pace. A man on a Segway spins in circles, blasting pop music from a speaker on the front.
The Barcelona coastline is narrow in the winter before floods of tourists flock to the artificial beaches. It’s windy, still too cold to even think about swimming in the ocean. Vendors walk the sand with woven beach blankets and mojitos on silver trays. A woman in a gray visor offers a shoulder massage “for five euros, only five euros!”
To the right is the W building, a shark fin against the skyline. Boats drift in the harbor around the corner and seagull kites sail in the wind. The mountain Montjuïc, rugged, fades in the sun’s glare. At the top is a fortress where the red and gold striped Spanish flag flies, and throughout the mountain gardens grow, some serene with fountains and Grecian statues, others wild with cacti and brush.
From the view at the top of Tibidabo, I can see the Sagrada Família and the orange cranes that surround it. It’s too far away to pinpoint the detailed exterior, colored like a sandcastle but so intricate in sculpture and pattern that my eyes strain to take it in. The interior is a blend of rainbow light streaming from stained glass windows into white columns designed to mimic trees in a forest.
To the northeast of the city is Montserrat, a mountain composed of sheer gray cliff face. A monastery rests on top, as well as the Stairway to Heaven, as series of blocks spiraling into the sky. My knees shook as I climbed the steps, and at the top, I could turn and see what felt like the world.
Southeast along the coast is the Delta de l’Ebre, where I ventured out on a quest to see large flocks of wild flamingoes feeding in the water between the rice fields and the beach. When I arrived, I was met with biting winds, bitter cold, dead rice and all of 20 flamingoes so far in the distance that I could barely make out the details on their long and lanky figures.
But the parrots that congregate in the palm trees over Barcelona perhaps make up for the disappointing bird-watching experience. In the trails surrounding Parc Güell, two hikers walk with miniature cages fashioned to their shoulders and chirping parakeets inside.
