Farm life in Spain feb 19, 2014

In mid febuary the Spanish schools close for a week so everyone can go skiing.  They call the holiday week, samana blanca, white week.  we decided to stay close to barcelona and see some local sites.   one day we went to visit an old downtown arena built in the 20's, when we arrived we realized we had gotten our wires crossed.  the arena had been refurbished and turned into a mall.
another day we went to tour "Freshinet," a large, famous cava (sparkling wine) maker outside barcelona.  that turned out to be far more a "marketing" tour then seeing them "make and bottle" cava tour,  and we forgot to bring a camera.  enough said about that day.  except it was a very nice train ride.
One day we visited a sheep farm. big hit. we, and another family, took a bus an hour outside of barceliona,  where a farming family shared there day with us. it was a small, organic farm.   Sheep where fed and brought out to pasture, baby sheep where looked after, tractors were ridden, and horses too.  chickens were tended, goats were milked and, most importantly for corrinne,  dogs were played with.  They had a dog that got so excited that it jumped three or four feet strait up in the air, over and over.  it saw us coming from block away and just went off with the jumping.  obviously corrinnes favorite.  the thing would not stop jumping.  they kept him on a leash because he kept freaking out the sheep.  hysterical.
they where nice enough to serve a farm-house lunch which i could have done without because I was not sure what I was eating half the time.  the other family pleaded vegetarian at the last minute. CB & Corrinne were hiding  things under artichoke leaves on their plate.  I was sitting next to the farmers wife, and the farmer who had come in from the fields for his lunch.  I couldn't politely get away with  not eating whatever I was eating.  sometimes it sucks being the man in this family.
It was a very fun day, and we now have two goat horns on our balcony.

clucker

sheep food

out to pasture

can you tell when Cindy's mad at me.  you'd think I was the one that gave the goat her shoe.

sheep babies

goat babies

farm family

milking goats

Yah

kissing dogs

jumping crazy dog

This is a video of the crazy jumpster, sorry it is so small.   if you click on the little "square box shape" bottom right, it may get bigger

don't ask me?   some sort of dog worship or something.   

Jerome sees the Holy See jan 22, 2014

My favorite pizza shop in Barcelona is called “La Formata.”  They serve a roman style (square) pizza that I have come to favor.  Very light crust (slow 72 hour rise), very tasty toppings that we in America would not normally think to use, cut to any size you request, and sold by weight.  After a bit of research I discovered it was the chef, Gabriele Bonci, in Rome, Italy who inspired  the owners of La Famata, and may have even trained them.  This Roman style pizza has been around for generations.  Gabriele Bonci has just taken it up twenty notches to appeal to a more sustainable, health conscious, foodie generation.  His storefront in Rome is very small, fits maybe 10 people standing.  The line is out the door.  Turns out Senõr Bonci gives pizza lessons to those who sign up first. 

Jerome decided to visit at the same time I was signed up for Bonci's class.  O what ever will we do.  sad solution: Lisa said he would  have to go to Rome with me for the Bonci pizza course. bam! 
off we went to Rome.  
I have been lucky enough to have visited Rome a few times. It is one of my favorite cities.  What’s not to like?  During the day we saw the sights and at night we made pizza.  how could it get better than that?  We visited the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps (where I proposed to CB), a lot of very large, ornate churches, and of course Vatican City with St. Peters Cathedral, the Vatican museum, and the Sistine Chapel. 

Jerome making a wish at Trevi fountain

interior of Colosseum,  neither of us took a photo of the outside.  go figure

Jerome in front Saint Peters square.  if he looks troubled it's because he just found out that, hundreds of years after St Peters Cathiedral was built,  another architect decided to put another facade on the front of it, partially covering up the famous dome.  He's still trying to get his head around that one.

The Spanish steps,  way up at the top left Cindy said "yes"

side view of St Perters square

St. Peters at night

inside St Peters Cathedral.   famous Michelangelo sculpture "Pieta"

vatican museum 

My mother arranged tickets for us to join Pope Frances’s weekly Wednesday visitation.   We were lucky to be seated in a special section not 30 feet from the Pope.  There where about 10,000 people in the general assembly.  When the Pope showed up the place went crazy.  This guy is a rock star.  The people love him.  It took over thirty minutes to drive the Pope Mobil around the crowd.  He gave a nice talk, then blessed all of us, and our family and friends (if you are reading this you were probably blessed without knowing).  Around the end it started raining and St. Peters Square became a field of color (umbrellas).  I wish for a photo from above.  It was a fantastic display.

Pope Francis

working the crowd

wish I had a picture of the whole square.  this was fantastic in person

The pizza course was great fun.  Two Americans, 14 Italians, and 30 pizzas.  Gabriele Bonce is quite a well known character in the Roman pizza circles, and he is a regular on food shows in italy.  he has been making pizzas for many years and is still coming up with new topping combinations.  He decides most of the toppings on the fly, so even he did not know what he was planning to make.  my favorite had a base of pureed chickpeas, topped with sliced artichoke, italian cauliflower, and prunes (yes prunes).  several times the class came to a halt while he and his staff took pictures of one of his creations that they especially liked and wanted to replicate at his store.  Another excellent one had a base of pureed salted rock cod,  pickled broccoli and sweet onion. 
The secret of course is in the ingredients.  You have to start with the best to end up with the best.  We made some great pizza.  We will see if we can mimic this success in our own kitchens.

This is Bonci,  he decides ingredients on the fly.

pizza paparazzi

italian cauliflower and sausage

four yummy cheeses

chickpea, pickled cauliflower,  greens (can't remember)

potato, artichoke, & pig bacon

JP showing Bonci how its done in America

Jerome with our interpreter and some of the pizzas.  no one left hungry

Gaudi statue Feb 15, 2014

I have mentioned that Eusebi Güell was a consistent patron to barcelona's most famous architect Antoni Gaudì.  Güell was very wealthy, and commissioned Gaudì to design and build many building in Barcelona.  The apartment that we live in happens to be located on land that was once one of Güell's estates.  when the estate was sold off and developed,  they saved the front gate/wall/entrance to the original estate that had been built by Gaudi, and they added a life-size Gaudi statue.   it is now on the tourist maps for Gaudi enthusiast to come visit.  many a day I look out our back window and watch someone jump out of a cab,  take a few photos hanging all over the statue,  jump back in the cab headed to the next Gaudi monument.

Corrinne with her friend Gaudí.  our apartment building is in the backround

the wavy wall symbolizes a serpent or snake.  most of Gaudi's designs took the form of something in nature

 walls and roof look like scales.     the large opening with gaudy, cb & cm, once had large gate that opened for horse drawn vehicles.  pedestrians just walked through the bulbous gate on the right. upper right hand corner you can see our apartment window.  i would be hanging out of it, but i was taking the picture.

sometimes he's lonely

till corrinne shows up

JP visits barcelona jan 19, 2014

Jerome P. Hoban turned 40 years old December 21, 2014.  His wife Lisa’s birthday present was a trip to visit the Barcelona Hobans.  A fab gift for JP and even more fab for CB, corri and myself.  Thank you Lisa.  It was nice to have someone from home and a good time was had by all.   It was pre-arranged that after meeting us in Barcelona for a few days he would travel with me to Rome.  Main reason for visiting Rome was to take a pizza course given by a famous roman pizza maker, Gabriele Bonci.  Relax,  I am well aware that there are a few other reasons to visit Rome.  we will get to them too.

Corrinne fixed up her room for him with all the hotel conveniences, soaps, shampoo, and a paper electronic key that needed to be swiped across a paper reader to gain access to his room. If you did not make beeping noises as you swiped, it did not work.             

When traveling east to Spain from California  you get a bit jetlagged. Add to that,  a multi hour flight delay = one tired JP.  He slept pretty late the first few days.  Pretty easy guest as far as we were concerned.   When he was up and around we showed him some of Barcelona.  We walked around the oldest area of barcelona and ran into a bubble artist at catalunya square. 

JP contemplating bubble formation

Corrinne in the middle of it all

Catalunya square

 Jerome is a do-it-yourselfer, fixer, builder.  Like many of my sibs, he can build just about anything.  So interesting/unusual architecture  would be of interest to him.

ENTER, Barcelona’s own:  Atoni Gaudi.  Famous, early 20^th century, naturalist architect   who put his stamp and personality all over Barcelona. Gaudi designed structures using the natural forms he found in nature.  Many of his homes looked like something you would find in a Dr. Seuss children’s book.  Seriously,  Horton the elephant would not be out of place in Güell park.  

A quick park Güell history: Señor Güell was a wealthy industrialist that hired Gaudi to design and build many structures in Barcelona.  In 1910 the two of them set out to build a new home development  in the suburbs of Barcelona.  Gaudi completed several homes and outdoor spaces before the development lost steam.  Gaudi lived out the rest of his life (1927) in one of these homes.  After his death the development was abandoned and went into dis-repair.  In the 1970’s the buildings and market were renovated and the development was made a historical site/park named Güell park.  Barcelona has grown and Güell Park is no longer in the suburbs, but part of Barcelona proper.

One of the completed houses @ park Guëll

entry to the outdoor market Gaudi built in Guëll park

 

famous salamander

house

another house

under the canopy of the market.  each ceramic designs on the ceiling are unique 

We have seen many Gaudi buildings around Barcelona, but have not gone inside. We were waiting to go with out-of-town guests who might be interested in touring them. 

I was a fan of Gaudi’s work for its art value, but did not think I would enjoy living in one of his creations.  I thought it might get tiring, living in a comic book.  Not so. Not so.  
With Jerome we toured the Batlló family home on Gracia ave. Gaudì’s inspiration for this home was the “ocean.”  And everything in it took on a nautical theme.  it was awesome.  Everything he builds took on a naturalist form without sacrificing function.  He thought about every detail of the residence, windows were facing a strategic direction, they opened in strange ways (but easily), even the window latches were custom carved to fit a persons fingers.  He designed unique arches to support the building, custom woodwork to fit each room, custom tiles, and paint through-out. He even designed the furniture for each room.  I stood corrected.  I could live in this house, but it looked looked like a carnival from the outside

Casa Batlló,  behind my head is the window that corrinne is looking out in the next photo.

I wish I could find the daddy,  i'm a little afraid of being alone in this Dr. Seuss house!

fire place sitting area in living room

back patio

CB calling her friend to come check out this cool door.

one of severel chimneys on the roof

attic

we also visited the Gaudi designed, Sagrada Famìlia Basilica (Holy Family ).  Close to 100 years of construction and still not completed.  This cathedral with its garish, busy exterior is Gaudi’s interior masterpiece of light.   Here he reaches his goal of lifting the human spirit to the heavens.  A conversation with this man would have been interesting.

the cathedral is huge, so this is just one section of the outside.

Now for the inside.  night vs. day.  light and spectacular inside

taking a break