48 hours in barcelona

Walking into the past: a family
at Killhope; and Auden (inset)
David Williams/Killhope; Hulton
Archive/ Getty Images
TRAVELLER’S GUIDE
NO RT HUMB E R LA ND
Ty n e
e
n
n
Alston
Moor
Bolt’s
Law
Rookhope Stanhope
D
n
U
A
a
We
M
Te
es
10 miles
s
9
GETTING THERE
The main rail hubs are
Newcastle and Durham
(National Rail Enquiries:
08457 484950;
www.nationalrail.co.uk).
Car hire was arranged through
www.carrentals.co.uk (0845
225 0845), which offers
discounted prices from major
companies such as Hertz and
Europcar. Prices for one-week
rentals in the UK from £110.
is underground at Plaça
Catalunya on the Corte
Inglés side of the square
(open 9am-8pm daily, 00
34 93 285 38 34; www.barce
lonaturisme.com).
STAYING THERE
26
£40, and affiliate membership,
which allows a whole day’s
skiing, is £10.
More information at
www.ski-allenheads.co.uk.
Most of the North Pennines
area is covered by Ordnance
Survey maps 307 and OL31,
priced at £7.45.
MORE INFORMATION
North East Tourism:
0906 683 3000, calls cost
25p per minute;
www.visitnortheastengland.com
Enjoy England: 020-8846
9000; www.enjoyengland.com
The writer stayed at the
Lord Crewe Arms, Blanchland,
County Durham (01434 675
251; www.lordcrewehotel.com).
Doubles from £120
including breakfast.
Batlló (4), Domènech i
Montaner’s Casa Lleó
Morera (5) and Puig i
Cadafalch’s Casa
Amatller (6).
VISITING THERE
is just around the corner
from Macba, Barcelona’s
museum of contemporary
art. It’s quite ornate for a
two-star (reflected in the
price), and some rooms
come with a terrace.
Doubles start at ¤135
(£91) including breakfast.
A modern, stylish
three-star that often has
lower prices is NH Les
Corts (9) at Travessera
de les Corts 292 (00 34 93
322 0811;www.nhworld.com), which has
doubles starting at ¤86
(£61) excluding breakfast.
TAKE A VIEW
Find the most sweeping
view of Barcelona high
above the city on Tibidabo
mountain, where Norman
Foster’s communications
tower, the Torre de
Collserola (10), sits. The
glass lift zooms up 288m
in less than two minutes
to a 360-degree viewing
platform. Open Wed-Sun
11am-2.30pm and 3.307pm, entry ¤5 (£3.60).
Take the metro from
Plaça de Catalunya (1) to
Vallvidrera Funicular via
Peu del Funicular, then
take the 211 bus.
Sebastià (11) tower via
Torre Jaume I (12) to
Montjuïc (13). It opens
noon-5.30pm and 10.30am8pm from next month.
One-way tickets cost ¤9
(£6), return ¤12.50 (£8.40).
TAKE A RIDE
Catch a lift on the cable
car that crosses the
harbour from Sant
TAKE A HIKE
A stroll is more in keeping
with the atmosphere of
the Barri Gòtic, the oldest
The Killhope Lead Mining
Museum, near Cowshill, County
Durham (01388 537 505;
www.durham.
gov.uk/killhope).
Open daily from
1 April to 31 October,
10.30am-5pm;
adult tour £6.50,
children £3.50.
For daily automated
snow report at
Allenheads, call
01661 860 689.
Single membership for
a year is £20, families
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CHECK IN
The Hotel Casa Fuster
(7) at Passeig de Gràcia
132 (00 34 932 553 000;
www.hotelcasa
fuster.com) in the leafy
Gràcia area just above the
Eixample is a superb
example of Domènech i
Montaner’s Modernisme
style. Built in 1908, it was
originally the home for
the rich Fuster family,
then a cinema and, since
2004, a luxury five-star
hotel. It has a Gaudi-like
bar, rooftop pool and its
elegant rooms start at
¤250 (£168) per night,
excluding breakfast.
The cosy Hotel Mesón
Castilla (8) at Carrer
Valldonzella 5 in Raval (00
34 93 318 2182;
www.mesoncastilla.com),
H
C U M B R I A
GETTING AROUND
GET YOUR BEARINGS
From Plaça de Catalunya
(1) La Rambla runs
towards the sea. The treeshaded boulevard bisects
the lower half of the city,
separating the medieval
Barri Gòtic from the
rougher but fascinating
Raval quarter. La Rambla
comes to an end at the
monument to Columbus
(2) beyond which is the
old port, Port Vell, next to
which you will find
Barcelona’s main beach
at Barceloneta. North of
Plaça de Catalunya (1) is
the Eixample, a 19thcentury extension created
in an innovative grid
system to relieve some of
the squalid overcrowding
of the lower town. This is
where you will find many
of the audacious
structures concocted by
the Modernistas,
including Gaudí’s La
Pedrera (3) (also known
as Casa Milà), his Casa
R
e
TOUCH DOWN
British Airways and
Iberia fly from Heathrow,
Gatwick and Birmingham;
easyJet flies from
Gatwick, Stansted, Luton,
Newcastle, Liverpool and
Bristol; Jet2 flies from
Manchester, LeedsBradford and Belfast.
From London, fares of
£105 return are available
through www.opodo.co.uk.
Barcelona’s El Prat
airport is 13km southwest of the city, and a 15minute taxi ride to the
centre costs ¤20-¤30
(£13.50-£20). Trains leave
every 30 minutes; the
25-minute journey to
Plaça de Catalunya (1)
in the centre costs ¤2.20
(£1.50). The airport bus
goes to the same place
every 12-13 minutes and
costs ¤3.45 (£2.30).
The main tourist office
erwent
Allenheads
i
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
WHY GO NOW?
Spring comes early to
this part of the
Mediterranean, where the
temperatures are already
nudging 20C. In the
absence of summer
crowds and searing heat,
the extraordinary
architectural creations of
Antoní Gaudí, Lluis
Domènech i Montaner
and Josep Puig i
Cadafalch can be enjoyed
at a more leisurely and
enjoyable pace.
North
Sea
Sunderland
Blanchland
The weather is already hotting up in the
vibrant Catalan capital, which is crammed
full of amazing architecture and the
finest tapas, says Mary Novakovich
Newcastle
upon Tyne
r
10
INDEPENDENT TRAVELLER 21
P
n
BARCELONA
48 HOURS IN
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Graphics: John Bradley
Poetry in motion
23
FRANCE
10
What better way to mark the 100th anniversary of W H Auden’s birth this month than
to go to the source of the poet’s inspiration, his beloved North Pennines?
Frank Partridge follows in Wystan’s footsteps
PORTUGAL
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20 INDEPENDENT TRAVELLER
20
100 miles
Barcelona
Madrid
S P A I N
Medit
e
ea
r ra n
nS
ea
7
3
O
ne afternoon, in the summer of 1922, a 15year-old was tramping across a deserted
moor in County Durham when he happened
upon two tall chimneys and some abandoned mine workings. Intrigued by the discovery in such a remote place, he idly picked
up some stones and dropped them down the shaft. Far below,
they splashed into the water that had collected at the base.
The schoolboy was Wystan Auden, on holiday with his
parents in the North Pennines. The location was almost
certainly the Sike Head shaft, on the slopes of Bolt’s Law,
a windswept hill rising more than 1,500 feet above the village
of Rookhope. Sike Head was one of numerous lead mines
in the area that had been forced to close because, from the
early 20th century onwards, lead, silver and other precious
metals, mined in these parts since Roman times, could be
imported more cheaply from abroad.
By the time Auden arrived, most of the Pennine miners
and their families had abandoned their high, weather-beaten
villages for a new life in North America, Australia or New
Zealand. But Auden was more interested in the machinery
than the people who had operated it. And at Sike Head that
day, a remarkable thing happened. As he heard the distant
splash of the stones, the budding poet had a vision of the
future. From that moment, he saw himself as a creative
being: “In Rookhope I was first aware/ Of Self and Not-Self,
Death and Dread:/ There I dropped pebbles, listened, heard/
The reservoir of darkness stirred.” (“New Year Letter”, 1940)
The two stacks on Bolt’s Law survive today – smokeless
sentries half a mile apart, guarding their ruins. Auden saw
them reaching for the sky, pointing “the finger of all questions”. The B-road leads on to Blanchland, nestling in a deep
river valley just over the Northumbrian border. It was – and
is – a privately owned village originally built around a
medieval monastery and restored in Victorian times, its cottages forming an L-shape on an Italian-style piazza.
There’s nothing quite like it in the North of England. The
Blanchland estate was bought by Nathaniel, Lord Crewe
in 1708, an event commemorated today by the Lord Crewe
Arms, a friendly hotel with log fires, a Jacobite ghost, a bar
in a 13th-century crypt, and outstanding cuisine.
Auden was drawn there in 1930, at Easter, when he
surprised the regulars by getting tipsy on martini, calling
loudly for champagne, and sitting at the honky-tonk piano
to bash out some Brahms. Later, he and his companion
swam in the freezing river Derwent. “No other spot,” he
wrote, “brings me sweeter memories.”
Throughout his life, Auden often returned to the North
of England, both in imagination and in person, creating a
place – part-real, part-fantasy – that became sacred to him
and formed the source of much of his poetic imagery. For
years, he had a map of Alston Moor, just over the Cumbrian
border, on the wall of his study in America, and called the
Pennines his “Mutterland”, the German for “motherland”. This expanse of moorland, stretching from Swaledale
in the south to Hadrian’s Wall in the north, was his earthly paradise: “I could draw its map by heart,/ Showing its
contours,/ Strata and vegetation/ Name every height/
Small burn and lonely sheiling…” (“Amor Loci”, 1965).
The North Pennines remains one of England’s few unplundered treasures: mile after mile of untamed, sparsely
populated upland, dissected by dales and escarpments,
erupting every springtime with displays of subalpine wild
flowers. Waterfalls and brooks feed the three great rivers,
the Tyne, Tees and Wear, that define the north-east coast.
Auden was clearly on to something: in 1988, the region was
declared an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty by Unesco,
becoming Britain’s first Geopark.
The dramatic landscapes certainly played a part in
9
Weird and wonderful:
La Pedrera, also
known as Casa Milà,
is one of the
highlights of the
Modernisme trail in
Eixample
4 6
5
1
24
15
25
8
22 16
14
17 21 19 18
gothic style – not
surprising, as it took only
55 years to build. Open
daily 9am-noon and 4.308.15pm.
2
26
13
12
11
espadrilles to dance their
national sardana.
turning Auden’s head, but it was man’s endeavours below
ground that set his creative juices flowing. As a journalist
commissioned by American Vogue, he toured the region by
car in 1954 and wrote: “Derelict shafts, abandoned washing floors, decayed water wheels, solitary chimneys sticking up in the middle of nowhere … they had a melancholy
fascination, a wonderful desolation and a quiet isolation.”
Using the dereliction to symbolise lost belief, these qualities underpinned some of his most evocative verse: “The
smelting-mill stack is crumbling, no smoke is alive there,/
Down in the valley the furnace no lead-ore of worth
burns;/ New tombs of decaying industry, not to survive here/
Many more earth turns.” (“Allendale”, 1924)
The more the earth turns, the more the weather warms
up, and the folk of Allenheads have been complaining about
it for years. “We haven’t had a proper winter since 1991/92,”
said one, cradling a hot drink in the village café. Allenheads,
another former mining community, is one of England’s highest villages, and the unlikely base of the British Norwegian
Ski Club, whose members erect two rope tows every November in a field above the village, and start praying for
snow. Auden visited Allenheads in the summer of 1926, when
the lead mine was still productive, describing the life of the
miners, toiling “to place a roof on noble Gothic minsters”.
Global economics would soon put an end to that; now, global
warming is frustrating its hopes of becoming a miniature
skiing resort. By the end of January, they’d managed half
a day’s skiing all winter: 30 years ago, the season would last
for four or five months. “Absolutely no queues!” the Ski Club’s
website guarantees. How they wish it were otherwise.
On the A689, heading west towards Auden’s beloved
Alston Moor, the defunct mines at Killhope and Nenthead
have been turned into heritage centres, eking a little tourist
revenue out of the seams. Killhope has two working water
wheels, one in the tunnel that carried miners to the seam,
which visitors can explore. Auden would be in his element:
“Tramlines and slagheaps, pieces of machinery,/ That was,
and still is, my ideal scenery.” (“Letter to Lord Byron”, 1937)
Passing through Auden Country one last time, on the
B6278 between Blanchland and Stanhope, I glimpse the two
stacks near Bolt’s Law, and spot a marked path (the Lead
Mining Trail) heading in their direction. On a bright winter afternoon, with only grouse for company, I gather stones
as I walk, hoping for an Audenesque splash of revelation
when I drop them down the shaft. But when I get there, I
find the site fenced off, the shaft sealed up. I scatter the
stones in disappointment and head for home. Where once
there was magic and poetry, now there is Health and Safety.
part of the city where the
Romans settled around
27BC. From Plaça de
Catalunya (1) head south
on Avinguda Portal de
l’Angel through the
narrow streets and
remnants of Roman walls.
Soon you come to
Barcelona’s cathedral
(14). On Sunday mornings
Catalans slip on their
OPODO
ol C
LUNCH ON THE RUN
Superior seafood tapas
are served in the most
unprepossessing setting
at El Mundial (15) in
Plaça Sant Agustí Vell (00
34 933 199056) in La
Ribera, where octopus,
squid and razor clams can
be had for less than ¤15
(£10) per head.
WINDOW SHOPPING
Drop into La Boqueria
(16), the city’s main
market on La Rambla
Sant Josep 89, or pick up
some delicious Iberian
ham at La Botifarreria
de Santa Maria (17) at
Carrer Santa Maria 4 in
La Ribera.
AN APERITIF
There’s a distinctively
Basque flavour to Golfo
de Bizkaia (18) at Carrer
Vidreria 12 in El Born (00
34 93 319 2431;
www.golfodebizkaia.com),
where the hot and cold
tapas (or pintxos as they
are known, because of the
accompanying pintxo or
toothpick) hail from the
north. Nibbles range from
¤1.35 (90p) to ¤2.20 (£1.50),
and just tot up the
number of toothpicks to
pay the bill.
DINING WITH THE
LOCALS
Away from the tourists in
the Gràcia area, Sureny
(19) in Plaça Revolució de
Setembre de 1868 17 (00
34 932 137 556) does
wonderful things to tapas
including goat’s cheese,
suckling pig, tuna and
ravioli with mushroom
and gambas.
SUNDAY MORNING: GO
TO CHURCH
You can join the hordes
and coach parties at
Gaudí’s famously
unfinished Sagrada
Familia (20)
(www.sagradafamilia.org;
open daily 9am-6pm and
until 8pm between AprilSeptember; ¤8/£5.70), or
you can find peace at the
splendid gothic Basilica
de Maria del Mar (21) in
Carrer Montcada in the
Born area. It’s
Barcelona’s only church
entirely in the Catalan
OUT TO BRUNCH
Join the hungover
musicians at Dos Trece
(22), a lively restaurant at
Carrer Carme 40 in Raval
(00 34 93 301 7306) where
brunch includes
pancakes, French toast,
omelettes to order or
even a fry-up. Main
courses from ¤8 (£5.40).
A WALK IN THE PARK
It’s not hard to think that
Gaudí went a little mad
when he created Park
Güell (23) for his patron
Eusebi Güell in 1914. It
was inspired by English
garden cities, but few
such places will contain
two houses straight out of
Hansel and Gretel, a
sinuous mosaic bench
that slithers along
dragon-like for 152m and
100 palm-shaped pillars
that form a roof.
CULTURAL
AFTERNOON
Two of the city’s famous
sons, Pablo Picasso and
Joan Miró, have their own
museums. But for a
knock-out experience,
visit the Palau de la
Música Catalana (24) at
Carrer de Sant Francesc
de Paula 2 (00 34 93 295 7
200; www.palaumusica.
org). Europe’s only
concert hall lit by natural
light, it’s a marvel of
stained glass, tilework
and sculpture created by
Domènech i Montaner in
1908. Guided visits are
held daily from 10am to
3.30pm, cost ¤9 (£6).
WRITE A POSTCARD
Just east of the old city is
Parc de la Ciutadella
(25), home to the zoo,
Natural History Museum,
an enormous statue of a
mammoth and an
enchanting ornamental
fountain called the
Cascade. Grab a drink
from the little café
between the Cascade and
the boating lake and enjoy
a surprisingly relaxing
part of the city.
THE ICING ON THE
CAKE
If you’ve had your fill of
Catalan architecture,
broaden your horizons at
Poble Espanyol (26) in
Montjuïc (13) (Avinguda
Marquès de Comillas 13,
00 34 93 508 6300;
www.poble-espanyol.com).
This open-air museum,
built for the 1929
Exhibition, has examples
of architecture from every
region in Spain, as well as
shops and restaurants.
It’s very touristy and a bit
surreal, but it’s beautifully
done. Open daily from
9am, adults ¤7.50 (£5.40).