A Parade of Humanity and Bicycles!

Zany Street Performers And Barcelona's Palace of Light 

On Friday we decided to take a tour of the Palau de Catalan Music (Palace of Catalan Music). This theater is designed for chorale singers and breaks every imaginable rule of acoustical design and theater planning. Aside form the spectators and their seat cushions, every surface is hard (ceramic tile and ornamental ceramic castings). The hall is almost totally lit by daylighting. Most performances here are actually scheduled during the daytime to experience the magic of performing in a magically lit space. Performers from around the world comment how nice it is to perform in a space filled with light instead of darkness. To achieve the lighting there are frosted and stained glass panels on all the side wall and the ceiling is a reversed dome of elaborately stained glass ceiling of simply incredible proportions. Merely walking into the hall  brought an immediate gasp from me. It was just that beautiful.

The Palau

I just don't know how a spectator could fully concentrate on the music in such a wonderful environment. You will all have to plan you own visits here as we could not take photos on the inside. Next trip we will plan to see a show here.

We then made our pilgrimage to stroll down the Las Ramblas. This is Barcelona's wide, beautiful, tree lined boulevard famous the world over. It is lined with flower and animal stalls (selling birds, tortoises, bunnies, and chickens). There are also human sculptures all up and down the street. Some obviously spend many hours perfecting their costumes.

During summers Las Ramblas is so busy with throngs of tourists and locals that it is frequently hard to walk. This time of year it was nearly perfect. We strolled from almost the very top (Plaza Catalunya) all the way to the Sea. On Las Ramblas you can literally walk for miles and never really notice it. There is just so much to see  every where you look. 

Sadly, the crowds make for easy pickens for pickpockets and thieves. And locals confirmed that night time is no time to be walking Las Ramblas. After being warned about the street crime problem, I did some homework on it. Good thing too, over the course of five days, here we experienced three different incidents where we were being scoped for pickpocketing. I'm preparing a separate posting about that.

KIds Checking Out A Human Sculpture On Las Ramblas

Another thing we loved was the grab-it-and-go bikes all over the city. Basically the system works like zipcar, but with bikes. Once you pay your small monthly subscription you can pull a bike off of any rack and drop it at any secure rack. Between the subway, the on-street trams, the buses, the funicular railways, aerial trams, and the Renfe heavy rail trains Barcelona has arguably the most complete and diverse public transport system anywhere. It was on time and clean. Add the bikes to it and the need for a car is pretty small.

If we had one complaint it was that barrier-free access is limited in the historic areas.   

Racks of Take-It-And-Ride Bikes Are Everywhere

While sunny, it was very cold and very windy, so we decided to bag our last intended Friday night destination; the Magic Fountain near Plaza Espana. Somehow, the thought of freezing our tooshies off while sitting outside watching a big colored water display could not stack up against sipping some really good armangnac in the executive lounge of the Hilton.

Roadboy's Travels ©2010

Sunny Days in Barcelona

Nothing Prepares You for Gaudi!

As the sunshine came out to play in Barcelona on Wednesday, we jumped on the open top hop-on, hop-off bus to sightsee from the top deck.

After a day of ducking in and out of the rain, what a revelation.

The View From the Top Deck! 

We found out that by the turn of the century Barcelona was already a pioneer in City planning with its L'Eixample district. This plan created new neighborhoods with beauty, order, and modern access. They also were composed to allow natural light to the street. When compared to the medieval layout and seeming chaos of the Gothic Quarter, the wisdom of the planning of the L'Eixample is stunning. 

The City also has huge parks (the hilltop Montjuc) and plaza's. The very heart of the city is the Plaza Calalunya. it is a lovely open space filled with fountains, families, and lots (and lots) of pigeons.

The Plaza Catalunya

When I was in college one of my best mates was a fellow named Roger. Roger had an architectural hero named Antoni Gaudi. I remember him taking the time to show me some photos of Gaudi Building's and being astonished that anyone ever got hired to design such seemingly bizarre stuff.  

First off Gaudi's work was designed and built mostly in the late 1800's and just at the turn of the 21st century. So (to a college kid who was very much into Mies, Charles Moore, and SOM) Gaudi's era seemed pretty danged old to me. After all, Gaudi was in the thick of the Art Nouveau (or Modernisme) movement (i.e. think dazzling classic Paris "Metro" stops).

But Gaudi's work goes a few train stops past anything anyone else was doing at the time. He designed his buildings in Barcelona with sinuous lines and amazingly complex looking structures. Yet the structures were all based on catenary curves which he determined were extremely stable minimizing structural support. He put lots of mythic imagery into everything he designed. Which included parks, sculpture, gates, and buildings. He had a thing about straight lines, avoiding them whenever possible.

Tuesday on the bus we saw many of Gaudi's buildings and then toured two on Thursday; the stunning Sagrada Familia Cathedral (still actively under construction - strictly using donations over 100 years later), and the last housing project he built before his death - the 1906 Casa Mila apartment block.

The "Silly Sand" Sagrada Familia

The two major facades at each end of the transept of the Sagrada Familia represent the life of Jesus (below - which unfortunately had pretty bad light for photographs) was the only facade completed in Gaudi's lifetime. The other side depicts The Passion (above) and terrors of hell (above) was finalized in a much more stark style.  

The "Gaudi" Side

The interiors of Gaudi's buildings were like nothing I've ever seen. I include two photos, one that shows the structure and one that shows some of the windows.  The scale of the building is huge (the choir loft alone seats 1200 choristers) and the steeples of the cathedral can be seen from almost anywhere in Bareclona. Yet the highest spire is yet to be built!

Gaudi is buried in the Church.

   

The Stained Glass Windows 

     

The Interior of the Nave With its Tree-like Columns

Gaudi Determined the Proportions of His Catenary Curves
By Hanging Chains Upside Down 
Noting the Natural Shape They Produced

The progress on the Cathedral over the past twenty years is remarkable, but it still probably won't be completed in my lifetime. If it is, I'm coming back to see it.  

The cathedral has had its setbacks including being burned, sacked, and terribly damaged in the 1930's by the mobs during the Spanish Civil War.

The Casa Mila is vastly different. But it shows remarkable foresight. It has two light wells that allow almost every room in every apartment to be flooded with natural light (even storage rooms). All units were reached by a lift (again 1906!), and it contained an underground garage! All of the rooms in each apartment flow one into another. Its attic even had a use (for servants to dry clothes without unsightly rooftop clothes lines).  

Needless to say it owners have always been from the very privileged classes.   

Casa Mila

The Roof Top

(All the little windows below the roof allowed for needed  ventilation to dry clothes in the attic)

The Entry and Auto Drive Lane to the Basement Garage

Casa Batllo

(Did not get in to tour, just walked by at night)

What an amazing couple of days. Seeing Gaudi's work had a profound impact on me and will undoubtedly affect the way I view the built world for the rest of my life.

Roger was on to something.

Still to come Friday's shots of the Palace of Catalan Music and random shots from Saturday (including some shots of candy stalls at La Bouqeria La Ramblas). 
 

Roadboy's Travels © 2010

Barcelona!

Futbol, Gaudi, and Catalan Charm

We arrived into Madrid's spacious and beautiful airport. I was surprised to find out it is Europe's third busiest airport! From there we puddle jumped to Barcelona and ogled its equally spacious and beautiful airport. Had a bit of rain on Monday and so after hours, and hours, and still more hours of flying, we just crashed at the hotel. 

Madrid Terminal 4

Barcelona Terminal 1

(Look at That Beautiful Floor!)

Tuesday it was still raining, so that made it a good day to go to a museum and a Mercato! The curvy roofed Mercato Santa Caterina was wonderful (why can't we get fresh food like this in PHX?). The amazing thing is it is completely built on stilts to preserve the ancient foundation walls of the Santa Caterina Monastery (that it is built right smack dab on top of!)  After much directional confusion we then found the lovely Picasso Museum. It fills two ancient mansions in the Gothic Quarter (Bari Gotic) of Barcelona. Nice architecture so I was happy. 


Personally, I think Picasso's work reflects the efforts of an ambulatory schizophrenic, but traveling with an art scholar has certain obligations. I actually have to admit that I loved his early work (before he got all cubist). I am a simp and really like knowing what the heck it is I'm looking at. 

The Roof Over The Mercat Santa Caterina

The Crisp Clean Stalls in the Mercat

What the Mercat is Built OVER!

The Courtyard To The Picasso Museum

(The ONLY part they let you photograph)

Typical Streetscene in the Gothic Quarter

Wednesday the sky could not have been a more brilliant blue. We had breakfast looking out over a shimmering section of Barcelona's 12KM of public beaches! We then went off for 4 hours of open-top bus touring. We learned many things. Barcelona is beautiful beyond words. Barcelona LOVES its Futbol (the FC Barcelona stadium seats well over 100,000!) Barcelona is huge. Barcelona is surrounded by mountains. The people of Barcelona are some of the friendliest people in the world. People in Barcelona dress very chic and they eat very well. 


So, everything fits pretty much in Roadboy's "like it" category. 

Roadboy's Travel's © 2010

Roadboy's Trip to Spain

Timing is Everything!

OK the internet checks us in for our flight, but the weather channel is saying that a "Big Storm" is bearing down on the east coast.


So, I finally call the airline. First on the regular line and am confronted with the "your call is very important to us, and we will answer sometime in in your lifetime". I decide to call back on the uber frequent flier "Private Line". I get a human being who speaks fluent english in three rings. After an informative chat with the very nice reservationist, we decide it would be a very good idea for Team Roadboy to take an earlier flight from Phoenix to Philadelphia (where we are scheduled to connect for our flight to Madrid).  Madame reservationist advises that Instead of allowing 2 hours of cushion time between flights, on snow days, we should probably allow 4. 


It means losing our upgrade to Philadelphia, but, hey, an exit row is open, so how bad can it be? I ask and it is a 757 (which is the most uncomfortable aircraft ever perpetrated). 757's have multiple exit rows, but only one row really has the extra leg room I covet. This is the Boeing product that made me come to realize airbus might have a future.   


A bit later as I drive home I hear Mayor Fenty of DC on the radio pronouncing that this storm has the potential to be the "biggest storm to hit DC in modern history".


Crap.


So just before I go to bed, I check the internet to see how far the storm is and yessir, the flight from Philadelphia to Madrid has already been cancelled (together with just about every other flight to or from Philadelphia on Saturday). Strangely, only the flights to Orlando and Las Vegas are still listed as a "Go"?! 


Man, some sort of irony there.


I count to ten. My months of logistical efforts had taken into consideration lots of alternative plans, but "Biggest Storm in Modern History", well, that was not in my playbook anywhere.


So, with Snowmagedden standing between Roadboy and Spain, I figured it is best to just take a cue from Gumby and Pokey and remain flexible. 


Knowing that all of those cancellations would result in crushing the system on Sunday, and that there would be few options available by the the first light of morning, I spent the wee hours rebooking airfare both in the US, Spain, and the hotel in Barcelona. Got to bed by 5 AM. 

THe upshot. We lose a day in Barcelona (bummer) and we throw away a non-refundable airline ticket for a flight from Madrid to Barcelona for, what will now be, the wrong day. 


But in the grand scheme of things, I guess we sort of came up with our own little "snow day" here in Phoenix. The sun was out. The dogs got a nice walk, I gassed up the fleet, and we all caught up on loose ends.


If you gotta take a "Snow Day", take it in Phoenix in February.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is fast becoming Groundhog Day. But, If all goes well, we will truly be on our way by noon tomorrow. 


So (fingers crossed) the next post should be from Barcelona on Monday or Tuesday.

Roadboy's Travels © 2010

The Ultimate Car Auctions

Sweet Rides and Hurricane Winds


Updated for 2014
For those that would like to see all prior Car Auction editions of this post see the following:
Roadway's Auction coverage in 2009 Click: Scottsdale January 2009
Roadway's Auction coverage in 2012 Click: Scottsdale January 2012
Roadway's Auction coverage in 2013 Click: Scottsdale January 2013

Roadway's Auction coverage in 2014 Click: Scottsdale January 2014

As Roadboy's friends all know January means a lot more than just a celebration on New Years Eve. It is the time each year when amazing wheels roll into the Valley of the Sun!

This year there were four collector car auctions in town running simultaneously. The Barrett Jackson auction is the biggest, but has kind of bogged down into an endless parade of Shelby Mustangs, Cuda's, and old Corvettes. Not that I don't love them too, its just that the one-of-a-kind cars seem to get lost in the middle-aged, chunky boy, drinkin-a-beer, muscle car extravaganza. 

Live, Internet, and Phone Bids

With Prices Scrolling in Multiple Currencies

In fact this year the top price for a car at Barrett was barely $500K. While over at the RM Auction they sold a 1963 Aston Martin for over $1M. The Gooding auction had the most highly sought after cars with a 1956 "D" Type Jaguar fetching $3.7M. In fact Gooding sold over seven cars that each bid well over $1M.

Russo and Steele this year suffered the effects of a terrible microburst wind storm that literally blew some of their tents away. So much wind that the tent debris closed the nearby 101 freeway for a time.

As is now my tradition here is my report from the "Big Boy", the Barrett Jackson. There were two new tents this year so the number of cars to be sold was much larger than previous years. They had some fun cars too. Sonny and Cher's matching pink Mustangs. Dillinger's getaway car (complete with bullet holes). A later replica of the Batmobile. One of the three original Ghostbuster Cadillac ambulance's. There was a wonderful Loewy Concept Car and a bunch of modern and antique racing cars. The highest bid this year wasn't even for a car. It was for a 1929 "Metalplane" H47 aircraft. 

That is Cher's Pink Mustang 

Complete With A fur Lined trunk!

Dillinger's Getaway Car

Because of the rainy weather there was a lot more action in the big auction tents this year. I think the jewelry and trinket vendors probably did better than usual. My favorite stuff is always the neon signs for sale. Neon reminds me of being a kid traveling through the southwest. As we drove at night we'd see the neon signs from miles away. Man I miss neon.

Give Me Neon!

Lots and Lots of Neon!

The race cars were fun this year. I especially liked the 1952 Watson Roadster. What a head turner that big silver bullet would be. The 1959 Cadillac El Dorado concept car designed by Raymond Loewy was very elegant. Loewy is probably America's most famous industrial designer having designed such icons as the blue and white paint job for Air Force One, the curvy coke bottle, the Greyhound Scenicruiser, and the "streamlined" trains. The car Loewy is most famous for was his 1962-63 Studebaker Avanti. The design of the Avanti was so timeless that the car itself continued in production by a variety of independent car makers well into the 1980's. 

America's Most Famous Industrial Designer Raymond Loewy 

The 1959 Loewy Cadillac El Dorado

The 1952 Watson

Course everyone knows my heart belongs to Jags. So I kept my eye on this one. It rolled across at about $71,000. I think somebody got a pretty good deal on that one. I doubt it could be restored for that amount today. When this model Jag was introduced it was the fastest production car available in the world!

How Could Anybody Not Look Great Driving A Jag Like This?

Over the next two weeks Roadboy will be posting from Barcelona, Granada, and Madrid!

Roadboy's Travels © 2010

Buildings As Old Friends

The Mission Inn

We frequently associate coolness with newness. It is easy to do in a technology based world. Every day we use phones, computers, and cars that just seem to get better, safer, and more fuel efficient with every passing year. The immediate horizon beckons with the next generation of technological wizardry including stunning new commercial aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

But, as nice as anticipating the future can be, an awful lot of my favorite travel revolves around seeing how good (and sometimes bad) things were in the past.  

When truly magnificent old treasures are preserved and remain functional in the modern world, it is especially wonderful. 

Lately, I've had a couple of chances to visit one such place; The Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in Riverside California.

Some years back, while working on a project for the City of Riverside, I watched as its then redevelopment director (Ralph Megna), and some leading citizens (folks such as Henry Coil), worked tirelessly to save Riverside's architectural heritage. One of Riverside's first big "win's" came with the re-opening of the meticulously reconstructed Mission Inn. 

There is Only One Mission Inn

I know today Riverside is not on everyones "Must See" LA travel list, but the Mission Inn stands as testament to a time when the Citrus groves of the Inland Empire of Southern California made Riverside the wealthiest city per capita in the US and provided a warm and relaxing retreat for movie stars, executives, politicians, and wealthy Europeans. 

The Inn was a work in progress for its owner Frank Miller from 1903 to 1931. Each wing of this confection has rooms designed in differing styles and fitted with different features. You may want a two story rooftop room that would have made Rudolph Valentino feel perfectly at home. Or perhaps you'd prefer a room near the front courtyard with it big pool and parrots. Depending upon the wing, you can get rooms with fireplaces, prayer niches, and/or stained glass.

The Rotunda

There is an exquisite collection of bells, a fine wood paneled cocktail bar that has served 10 presidents, big comfy chairs in the gracious lobby (including an especially wide chair built to comfortably house President Taft - who weighed 350 pounds), a wedding chapel complete with windows acquired directly from Tiffany and an 18K gold leafed altar. 

The Chapel in the Atrio

I particularly love the California Glockenspeil complete with a life sized Padre Serra, Indian, and a gold miner who endlessly walk around and around every hour on the hour.

The Inner Courtyard With The California Inspired Glockenspiel

A few weeks back a fine meal confirmed that the food services are now at a par befitting the quality of the place. We had a rotisserie chicken that was nothing short of outstanding.

The Inn is the perfect place for a special event, Sunday brunch, or just a delightful get away for Los Angelinos.

Sometime's I note TripAdvisor comments about the Inn where someone points out that lights in a room didn't all work, or the internet was spotty. While I understand their momentary inconvenience, it cracks me up that some spoiled travelers can be so vacuous. Just remember, this magnificent Inn is truly a living treasure. And, like any other really old and unique thing, sometimes everything doesn't work to 2010 standards. 


Personally I say, enjoy the beauty of what it does well. After all, it isn't fair to measure such a place by what it doesn't do, unless you also recognize it offers an experience that cannot be matched by any other hotel in California! 

 A Beautiful Reminder of California's History

I agree with Will Rogers who declared the Mission Inn to be:

"the most unique hotel in America. It is a monastery, a museum, a fine home, a boardinghouse, a mission, an art gallery, and an aviator's shrine" 

Roadboy's Travels @ 2010


PS: Sorry about the quality of these photo's - my cool, modern, trusty I-phone does the best it can, despite me!

The Art of The Deal

Shopping For Hotels During The Recession
Roadboys Great Website Shootout!

Hotel prices will drop a lot in 2010. 

No, I am not clairvoyant, but lets face it they went up too high in the past few years and are no longer sustainable at pre-recession levels.  

The hotel bubble was just like the residential real estate bubble. Years of hotel undersupply was rewarded with skyrocketing room rates, followed by a vigorous hotel building boom. Now those new hotels are in place but business travel has careened into a ditch. The few of us roadwarriors that still exist, after years of getting taken to the cleaners, are gonna get even. 

In 2009 we watched in amazement as the hotel industry desperately attempted to cling to its inflated pricing structure.  

We don't care that you are discounting weekends. We are wise to your ploy of sweepstakes and adding a few inexpensive perks. We have also noticed that you have quietly been taking out lotions, discounting only prepaid stays, leaving us one bottle of water instead of two, and have quietly been sneaking in new parking charges.

Quit moving the deck chairs and just drop your prices. 

Some of the top chains (i.e. Marriott) just can't seem to get it. I've been a Platinum member of Marriott for a decade, but in 2009 every time I compared the room rates between a Courtyard and a Hilton Garden Inn, the (much nicer) HGI was almost always significantly less costly. Hilton seems to be getting it.

So for a recent trip I thought I'd do a bit of comparative shopping. I knew I'd need 4-5 hotel rooms in a few months in San Francisco (which is usually a pretty darned expensive destination). So I started looking early and thought I would then keep tabs on price fluctuations until the date of travel.

Here is what I found.

90 days before the trip I started going online to check all the usual hotel websites. After about three weeks I decided the prices were not going to go down, so I opted for a 4 star hotel from Hotwire. 

Hotwire offers blind reservations. "Blind" means you know the location and the number of stars of the property, but not the name. The hotel name is disclosed only after the transaction is complete. Hotwire transactions are pre-paid, do not qualify for any frequent stay points, and are non-refundable. So I only use Hotwire when I know the trip is "for sure".

For recreational travel I like Hotwire a lot. Since I spend between 150 and 200 nights a year in hotels, I'm pretty picky. When I've had a problem with a Hotwire reservation they have made it good. Example: the description for a Hotwire hotel in Las Vegas offered a free airport shuttle. Now in my heart of hearts I knew the description had to be wrong. Frequent travelers to Las Vegas know that the cab mafia makes darned sure that NO hotel in Las Vegas ever offers free shuttles. While high rollers at the Wynn get a Rolls dispatched for them, the rest of us get a cab. 

So when I got there and confirmed there was no free shuttle, I emailed Hotwire. I told them I would have selected a different hotel (with a less expensive cab ride) if the description had been accurate (all true). They reviewed it, agreed, and gave me "hotbucks" which work like credits to use on future hotel reservations. 

Now for my test trip to San Francisco, Hotwire delivered the Westin Market Street for $89. The lovely Westin turned out to be perfectly located and had heavenly beds. It was a SCREAMIN deal at $89.

So even though I had already booked our rooms, as the date for the trip got closer, I went back to the web a few times to see if deals would have been better if I had waited and booked closer to the date of travel.

Admittedly it was hard to compare websites side by side as not all sites had the same hotels available at each visit. So I tested a few very common properties:

The Intercontinental: 

Expedia $99

Orbitz $119 

Sidestep $119

Priceline $132 

Quikbook $139

Le Meridian

Travelocity $97

Sidestep $97

Expedia $134

Getaroom $138

Mark Hopkins

Priceline $99

Kayak $99

Quikbook $99

The Westin

Hotwire (blind) $89

Non-blind averaged $196

Strangely, Hotels.com (which I usually like) was not very competitive on the dates I checked. There was was also a lot of price spread for the fine local chain (Kimpton).

What does all this mean? Well for a "for sure" pleasure trip Hotwire delivered the best deal. But I also noted that as the date grew closer the Hotwire offerings got pretty slim.  For business travel (where pre-paid non refundable hotel rates are rarely an option) shopping is essential. 


As you see above, although Expedia offered the best deal at the Intercontinental, it was not competitive at the Le Meridian. So, while price sensitivity is clearly emerging, to get the best deal you still have to surf around a bit.

I close by noting that I recently got a questionnaire from Marriott inquiring why I only stayed 67 nights with them in 2009. I thought about it. It kind of made me mad. I happen to think 67 nights in one year is a whole lot of nights. I also think that Marriott's 75 night requirement to achieve platinum is about 15-20 nights too high. 


What was surprising was that the e-mail questionnaire was constructed so that you really could not answer why you were staying less at Marriott. It almost felt like they really did not want to hear what they already know,  that they are just too expensive.

  

So, go ahead and start planning travel for 2010. 


Plan to spend a little time shopping, you'll probably be rewarded with darned good deals!

Roadboy's Travels © 2010