Tibidabo!

Barcelona’s Tibidabo is, hands down, the best amusement park I’ve ever been to.  To get there, you either drive, or take the bus WAY up the mountain and THEN get on a funicular, which is basically the old Partridge Family bus hoisted up the rest of the mountain by a cable.  The same guy who sells you the funicular tickets drives the funicular up, up, up.  You get off and you are high above the entire city, at the level of the Norman Foster telecommunications tower, in Wonderland. 

Although we have had many visitors, Jim and Raquel are our first visitors with children, so it seemed like an opportune day to go.  The day was a bit overcast—not quite nice enough for the beach—so we made our way up the mountain.  If you saw Woody Allen’s Vicky, Christina, Barcelona, you may remember a scene that takes place in an amusement park—that’s Tibidabo.  The setting is spectacular—the park is set within the woods on the mountain and the whole place has a low key, old fashioned feel.  The kids were crazy happy to be there.  We went from Ferris Wheel to Log Flume (see photos below) to Tea Cups, to roller coaster (I opted out) to bumper cars.

The thing is, I’ve never been much for amusement parks.  Even as a young child I took a purely pragmatic stand on the whole thing—why would anyone pay good money just to feel like throwing up?  Or worse, actually throwing up?  Give me the cash any day.  And, given the siting of the park on the side of a mountain, several of the rides are designed to make the rider feel as if she is hurling off of the side of it only to plunge into the city below. I realize I’m in the minority here, and I am a happy spectator.  The log flume almost did me in.  The kids had a fabulous time on the roller coaster with their dad while I cheered them on from below.  When the three of them do things without me, they call themselves “The 3 Marauders.” I am fine having been excluded from this club.

After we had our fill of the park, we road back down the funicular, and then the bus, and then the FGC to hit the Casa Battlo, which may be my favorite Gaudi building.  I first saw it after being stranded in Barcelona as a result of the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano that grounded so many planes last spring.  I was here alone, looking for an apartment, and was about to pass through security on my way home when the airport closed.  I returned to my hotel and called Alec, frustrated at not being able to get back to Brooklyn.  “Face it, Lisa,” he said.  “You’re going to be there for a whole year, but you won’t have a whole lot of time by yourself, without two children.  Get out there and enjoy yourself.”  So I did, and the Casa Battlo was the first stop on my fun tour of Barcelona.

The entire house consists of curves, wavy lines, shapes can colors that evoke the sea.  I just feel good inside that space.  I even like the tile floors (see below).

I was happy to be in my office today, reading and phoning around to my Slow Cities contacts.  I finally got a good person on the phone for awhile, and I think she may be the key that helps us unlock the network.  To be continued…