a few more thoughts on life in Spain

Dear Friends and Family,

We’ve spent the better part of the last three months outside of Barcelona and thought we’d each write a little bit on a few of our impressions/experiences here (this is Karen writing now).  During the week Michael and I have been working (research, writing, grant proposals, lots of Skype calls with colleagues & graduate students, etc.) and Travis has been going to school.  On weekends Travis has soccer games on Saturday mornings (so that hasn’t changed) and then we’ve been doing various local outings.  I have given several seminars at various Universities in Spain which has given me an opportunity to also visit some habitat restoration field sites.  Spring is approaching and the trees have leafed out here.  Michael and I have been enjoying being able to bike 30 min. to the University all with dedicated bike paths (quite a change from our bike commute route in Santa Cruz). We also appreciate how easy it is to get around by foot and public transit here.  

As any of you who have traveled in Europe know one of the things that is most striking is the difference is the ages of the buildings.  A couple weekends ago we were attending a calçotada, a uniquely Catalonian social event, where people eat large quantities of green onions roasted on an open fire (calçotes) and served with a tomato-based sauce and other food, and drink wine.  The event was held at a farm of the family of one of the graduate students in the department where we are based; the farm had been owned by the same family since the 13^th century!

Calcotada - onions on fire and Michael demonstrates proper calçotada eating technique with mandatory bib

Another weekend we were hiking at the Costa Brava which is an hour and a half northeast of where we are based and along the coast.  We were hiking through some hills with a view of the Mediterranean on one side and the snow-covered Pyrenees Mountains on the other.  The vegetation looked much like coastal scrub in California (always fun to see examples of convergent evolution) with many of the same plant genera (for the plant nerds reading this - e.g. Quercus, Mimulus, Rubus, various brooms in their native habitat).  One big difference as we were hiking, however, was that we came across ruins of churches and fortresses, and a monastery dating back a thousand years.  The day before we had visited a site with both ruins of the Greeks (~200 BC-100 AD) and the Romans (~100-400 AD).

Costa Brava - Greek ruins at Empuries (above) and view of monastery and coast from hike (below)(photos courtesy of the Spanish tourism department - we accidentally left our camera at home)

But, we haven’t just seen old buildings.  Yesterday we finally made it to the La Sagrada Familia church designed by Gaudi.  Construction was started in the late 1800s but it’s definitely still a “work in progress” (with three cranes and much scaffolding on the site) and isn’t slated to be completed until 2026.  I had just hit the point of “I’m not sure I can visit another church” as we've seen so many.  It is, however, a truly amazing structure both respect to the size (designed to hold 13000 people and rising ultimately to a height of 170 m) and the level of detail both inside and out.

La Sagrada familia - exterior and interior ceiling (looking upward, below) - photos courtesy of Wikipedia (ours didn't really do it justice)

Michael writing now - For me, one of the most amazing things has been the time scale of things here.  In North America we have amazing spatial scales in our deserts, prairies, and mountains (which I suspect may be one reason why German tourists are often in awe of the desert vistas of the US southwest.)  Here, I have been constantly amazed by the age of buildings, monuments, art, and other things that date back to the Middle Ages, or Roman times, or even earlier (such as the Greek ruins at Empurias that Karen mentioned above).  I have taken to touching (whenever or wherever possible) old columns, walls, stones, etc. and try to think about the nameless and faceless worker who placed the stone in the wall, and when.  I have been wondering about questions such as “How many rainstorms has this wall experienced?  How many people have walked by this church over the ages?  How long will this column last? Has this place where I am currently standing really been sacked by legions of Romans, boatloads of Vikings, and marauding Visigoths?”

In high school I took a history class in which we learned about Greek and Roman times which included some architecture (things such as the differences between Doric and Corinthian columns.) I enjoyed the history but was only slightly interested in the architecture.  This trip has started me thinking much more about architecture and how certain structures were designed and built, particularly given the lack of “modern” methods for transporting, lifting, and cementing large stones in place. The aqueduct in Segovia, Spain was really eye-opening in this respect.  The aqueduct is huge (813 meters long), tall (~30 m tall), and contains 88 arches. It was built in the 1^st century AD, and it still stands, despite being held together entirely by gravity.  The ingenuity that went into building something that massive and that has stood the test of time is truly mind-boggling to me. How did they figure it out?  How did they transport the stones, and lift them into place?  How did they stabilize arches or tall walls while under construction? Before we traveled to Spain, we saw a documentary on TV that showed the engineering that underlies load-bearing in tall, narrow arches in cathedrals, and how flying buttresses work to maintain the forces bearing downward on their walls (and not out, which would cause the walls to bow out and collapse.) So, perhaps part of what amazes me is that the science and engineering was done without our slide rules, calculators, or computer models. Likewise, the architecture in Morocco amazed me for the Islamic influences, the lack of figures (human and animal), and the preponderance and similarity and yet variation of geometric shapes and patterns. And, trying to imagine the time and skill required to attain the level of detail and workmanship still causes me to wonder how it was all done and how long it must have taken. P.S. I now know the difference between a Romanesque and Gothic arch! 

Now Travis’ turn - A few weeks ago we went to a Barcelona (Barça) soccer game. Being the Loik-Holl family we arrived to the game 1.5 hours early. The stadium in Barcelona fits just over 100,000 people inside. The day we went there were 67,000 fans at the game because the team they were playing was a team that was in the middle of the league. It was raining the whole game, but we were lucky and had seats under the overhang. Barcelona won the game 3-0 but their goalie got injured in the first half, which means Spain’s national team is without their starting goalie.  They will be without their starting goalie for the World Cup, so they may not be as good.

Barca vs. Celta de Vigo.  

Some things that are different at my school in Spain are: first, every Friday we get on a bus and go swimming for 35 minutes. The second thing that is different is that the school has sports teams for elementary grades. I am on the school soccer team and we won yesterday. Another thing that is different is that the school is trilingual so some classes are in Catalan, some are in Spanish, and some are in English. One other thing is you must learn French or German. Another thing that is different is that the teachers come to our classes. Instead of having one teacher we have multiple teachers. The final thing is everybody has to play a musical instrument.

(All of us) We have two more months here left (boy time flies) and have a couple trips planned before we return to the US in early June.  Despite our adventures here we are looking forward to seeing everybody and our pets when we get back.

Karen, Michael, and Travis