When I was a little boy I thought that taxis could only be yellow and black. Later I discovered that in most cities they are white, and many of them have a colored stripe so you can detect them. Even later I learned that there are other cities where taxis share colors with ours, as Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Mumbai, but they are an rare.
In 1906 the first motorized taxis appeared in Barcelona, with one single station in La Rambla, and they coexisted with the old horse carriages. Motorized vehicles finally prevailes and at one point it was decided that they should show a yellow, blue or red strip in the back, depending on the rate they charged. In 1934, though, it was necessary to organize the sector, and rates and colors were unified, so yellow was adopted as a common hallmark. this is the origin of the color of our taxis, with yellow doors while the rest is basically black.
As a curiosity, let me tell you that the person who took all this measures was Jaume Vachier, a municipal councilor, who tried to arrange the chaotic traffic of Barcelona in the 1920's, and planned underground car parks, promoted the first crosswalk of the city (at Balmes-Provença) and also the first traffic light at the same intersection.
Currently there is an EU directive that suggests that taxis should be painted in ecru color, as they are in Germany. For the time being noone is paying attention to it. Can you imagine the disappearance of the yellow and black taxis of Barcelona?
I used to live in a large apartment in the neighborhood of Sant Gervasi, with a beautiful sunny terrace. In the center of the terrace there wa a bench which had, in its back, a sink with a faucet. The point is that this bench/fountain had been covered using the Trencadís ceramic technique.
You can still find Trencadís in Barcelona in many existing buildings, although it is really a typical technique of modernist architecture. It was first used in the latch of Güell farm in Pedralbes Avenue, almost out of necessity, since the sinuosity of this latch forced to break the tiles into small pieces to make them fit. I must say that even though Gaudí is considered the inventor of the technique, it was actually developed and improved by Josep Maria Jujol, who collaborated with Gaudí himself in the design and construction of the benchs of Parc Güell, for example.
If you look carefully, you will find many examples of Trencadís in Barcelona, in public and private elements. It is just another of the marks that Modernism has left us and we have incorporated almost as a sign of identity.
One of the good things people often mention about Barcelona is its nice weather, especially its soft winters. This is basically true, but sometimes we are visited by a phenomenon that makes the beaches empty of bathers and surfers. I am talking about storms coming from the East.
The northern wind known as Tramuntana is renowned for its vigour and intensity, but the east wind, which is more constant, sometimes gets mad and destroys beaches and boardwalks of our coast with heavy its rains, low temperatures and strong waves. Sometimes this combination even makes snow pop up near the coast of Barcelona.
There are storms like this throughout the year, but the most common time is for them are spring and fall. One of the most famous is the one that happened during Boxing Day 2008, but in 1911 there was one that affected the entire Catalan coast and Barcelona and caused 28 deaths only in Barcelona. As the singer Raimon says, rain doesn't know how to rain in our country...
To protect the beaches and prevent regression caused by eastern storms during winter, the municipality built between 2006 and 2010 three dams that stabilize the shoreline.
The storms, however, continue visiting us.
When I pay a visit to someone who tells me he lives on the first floor, I usually walk up the stairs. Sometimes there is no choice, since the building has no lift. But then, often, especially on the floors of the Eixample and Ciutat Vella, this first floor easily ends up turning into a third!
The stairs of the buildings in Barcelona are full of semi-floors, mezzanines and main floors (principals). Moreover, in the past the heights of these floors were greater, so it is not strange that you have to climb considerably to get to that "first floor".
Previously, the most wanted floor was the first one, in order both to avoid the discomfort of the street and to not having to climb too many stairs. Up from this floor you could progressively find the families with more limited purchasing power.
This way, it was most prestigious to live on a first or a second floor than on the fourth floor. Naming the first floors as "mezzanine" and "principal", the third floor suddenly happened to be the first, and so gradually. Thus, all social classes could be at the same time in the same building, the city's social hierarchy was translated to the distribution of families in the buildings.
One of the most visited post of the (short) History of this blog is the one about Ulysses the Orca, that I wrote and published about a year ago. The visits to the Catalan and Spanish version of this post has almost three times the ones to the next one, about the chocolate of Petritxol street, in second place.
Ulysses the orca has probably been the second most famous resident of the Barcelona Zoo, in dispute with the elephant may Avi, the first one to come to our zoo. They both are defeated, and I think there's no doubt about it, by our white gorilla, Snowflake.
I remember seeing Snowflake on several occasions when I was a kid, and I must say that I loved him but he was not specially friendly. I always attributed this to the fact that he knew he was special, and that many of us visited the zoo just see him, so he was aware he was quite famous. Perhaps it was just my imagination.
Although he had 22 children before dying in 2003 at the (approximate) age of 39, none of them inherited his albinism. Maybe that's why the zoo of Barcelona continues to receive letters asking to clone him, something that is theoretically possible because there are the samples of his DNA. What do you think? Would you like to have another Snowflake through clonation? Perhaps the new one is a bit more humble :)
Sometimes, we are so used to something that we take it for granted. In Barcelona that happens often. We walk without paying attention next to architectural wonders, as if they were the most common thing.
Although the intention of this blog is not to list the main attractions of Barcelona, that does not mean that sometimes I have to stop at buildings that leave astonished to both tourists and barcelonians. And if they are celebrating an special date, like La Pedrera, which celebrates its centenary.
The Casa Milà is one of the most famous modernist buildings of the architect Antoni Gaudi, who designed it when he was in his artistic summit, and where he showed without any complex his admiration for the organic shapes of nature, in addition to applying innovative structural solutions.
Did you know that the point where this building was built was the exact boundary between Barcelona and Vila de Gràcia on Passeig de Gracia, the main axis of the new bourgeoisie of the time?
Did you know that the people of Barcelona named it La Pedrera (quarry in Catalan) due to its appearance?
Did you know that it is a World Heritage Site since 1984?
I have mentioned a couple of times on this blog the fact that the pastry counters in Barcelona change depending on the season of the year, and there are some sweets that have "starring" appearances during only a few days, as the "coca de Sant Joan" or the Easter Cake.
On November 1st the undisputed star is the panellet, that will be eaten together with sweet potatoes and chestnuts. This year it looks that the weather is quite appropriate and we are not celebrating the "Castanyada" in short sleeves...
In case anyone wants to try to do panellets, it is never a bad moment, and HERE you have a recipe. If you try it and make some, please let me know...I love them and I haven't had any yet!
