There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone, and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead, and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all
– John Lennon & Paul McCartney

A pilgrimage is defined by Oxford Dictionary as (1) A journey to a holy place for religious reasons, or (2) Journey to a place that is connected with someone or something that you admire or respect. I fear I fit into category two, but with a slight twist:  pilgrimages to new places that have opened my eyes and colored my thoughts as I traversed across the globe. Indeed, the following are places I will always remember in my life.

Dylan Thomas – Laugharne, Wales

“I was born in a large Welsh industrial town at the beginning of the Great War:
an ugly, lovely town (or so it was, and is, to me).”
– Dylan Thomas

No artist commands a deeper place in a Walesian’s heart than poet and writer, Dylan Thomas. Born in a middleclass home in Swansea, Wales in 1914, Thomas moved often in his young life, with his work conveying a unique bond with the people and places on the South West Coast of Wales. A converted boathouse in Laugharne is where he spent the last four years of his life with his wife, Caitlin, and their three children. In an adjacent cliff side Writing Shed he wrote his famous play for voices, ‘Under Milk Wood,’ along with many of his major works: ‘And Death shall have No Dominion,’ ‘Fern Hill,’ ‘The Hunchback in the Park’ and ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.’ A short walk away is the Brown’s Hotel, where Dylan would stop for a daily pint after visiting his dying father at a nearby hospital, which led to ‘Do not go Gentle into that Good Night.’

The Dylan Thomas Trail

Spread across Southwest Wales, the Dylan Thomas Trail showcases quaint small towns, and remarkable land and seascapes which inspired Thomas. The Gower Peninsula features the fishing village of Mumbles and the stunning beach of Rhossili, where Dylan would camp and often walk the Gower cliffs. Two of his best loved short stories, ‘Extraordinary Little Cough’ and ‘Who Do You Wish Was With Us?’ are set in ethereal Rhossili. If you’d like to hike further, the 870 mile long Wales Coast Path spans the entire length of the Welsh coastline

Dylan collapsed outside the White Horse Tavern in New York after having given a reading across the street. He had drunk 18 glasses of whiskey, and died shortly after. His death was mourned by the world’s literary community. His final resting place is signified by a simple white cross in Laugharne’s cemetery. Years later when fellow Walesian actor Richard Burton died, he was buried with a copy of Dylan’s Collected Poems on his chest.

Antoni Gaudí – Barcelona, Catalonia

Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works
collaborate with the creator.
– Antoni Gaudi

Spending 16 hours was far too little time to explore the enthralling  metropolis of Barcelona, the capital of Spanish Catalonia. Peopled by 1.6 million stylish and sophisticated Barcelonés, I was greeted with grand boulevards and welcoming pedestrian malls which wandered to the waterfront. I was particularly enchanted by the cityscape that reflects the lifelong work of Barcelona architect, Antoni Gaudí (1852 1826), considered the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. As a proud Catalander, he refused to speak Castilian and seldom left his beloved Catalonia. Gaudí’s architecture illustrates his profound passion for nature and devotion to religion. Still ahead of his time, he integrated used ceramic pieces, stained glass and wrought ironwork into his architectural style. Seven of his works have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and include the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, the most-visited monument in Spain. A visiting bishop once asked him, “Why do you trouble yourself so much about the tops of the towers? After all, no one will ever see them.” “Your Grace,” replied Gaudí. “The angels will see them.” His faith in the Roman Catholic Church intensified towards the end of his life, with his living in a squalid room at Sagrada Família, frantically attempting to finish his astonishingly masterpiece. Still dressed in his work clothes, he would venture out for walks in nature. In 1926 he was tragically run down by a streetcar. Gaudí desperately waved for assistance from passing vehicles, but was dismissed as a ragged beggar, and died shortly after. Today he is often times referred to by his nickname, “God’s Architect.”

Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky – Coyoacán, Mexico

I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.
– Frida Kahlo

Coyoacán, Mexico was once a serene  village on the outskirts of Mexico City. The urban sprawl  of Mexico City reached Coyoacán in the mid 20th century, but city fathers preserved the former village’s historic center, maintaining its colonial layout, plazas, narrow streets and structures built from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. This is where Coyoacán’s most popular destination rests: Museo Frida Kahlo. Born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón on July 6, 1907, the museum is housed in her place of birth, which now celebrates her life and works of art. Painted in vibrant cobalt-blue colors (known as the Blue House locally)  the house is also was where she lived all of her life, and contains important paintings, including Viva la Vida, Frida and Caesarean and Portrait of my father Wilhelm Kahlo, along with canvases by husband and fellow communist, Diego Rivera. They were both heavily influenced by Mexicanidad, a romantic nationalism that had developed in the aftermath of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The Mexicanidad movement’s mantra was to challenge the “mindset of cultural inferiority” created by colonialism, placing special importance on indigenous cultures. The museum also displays Kahlo’s workspace, Mexican folk art, pre-Hispanic artifacts, photographs and memorabilia. Frida has become the poster child for Mexico Tourism as much for her work as well as for spiritedly overcoming the adversarial conditions of her life; childhood polio, a tragic streetcar accident which left her in a hospital for years, acceptance as an artist due to her gender, and the two tumultuous marriages with womanizer, Rivera.  Long before the term ever existed, Frida Kahlo lived her life as an art form, even selecting her daily wear down to the smallest detail.

There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war.
Everything depends on circumstances.
– Leon Trotsky

The Leon Trotsky Museum is located just a few blocks away from the Museo Frida Kahlo. Trotsky was the second most important member of the original Russian Bolsheviks, and considered heir to Lenin. But was forced into exile,  and then hunted by the tyrannical Josef Stalin regime after he forced his way into power upon the death of Lenin. Trotsky was given political asylum, sponsored by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Along with his wife, he lived in the Kahlo house for a few years. A rumored affair, though, between Trotsky and Kahlo, led to the Trotskys  relocating to a new fortress-life home with watchtowers, as protection from any assassination attempts by Stalin’s agents, in which they knew would someday come.  As I entered the museum I was told that I was to have a private tour by the museum’s director. To my surprise, the museum director was none other than Trotsky’s grandson, Esteban Volkov. A remarkably spry and dashing man in his early 90s with impeccable manners, Mr. Volkov had lived with his grandparents at age thirteen, and was wounded himself as a result of an earlier Stalin operative’s failed machine gun assault. The bullet holes are still on the walls.  He walked me through the museum, patiently explaining in detail the history of photos from Trotsky’s lifetime, his participation in the Bolshevik Revolution, family tree, books and newspapers, and the backyard where he planted vegetables, tended to his rabbits and is buried. The centerpiece of the museums is Trotsky’s study where his iconic spectacles, papers and books are left in the exact position on the very desk where he sat when murdered with an ice axe, by a Stalin assassin who had posed as a friend of the family. Mr. Volkov ultimately raised his own family in the house, and then turned it into a museum on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Trotsky.

The Barbary Apes – Gibraltar

“The establishment of the apes on Gibraltar should be twenty-four,
and every effort should be made to reach this number as soon as possible
and maintain it thereafter.”
– Winston Churchill

Churchill was obsessed with the continuance of the Barbary Apes, fearing that British rule over the Rock of Gibraltar during WW2 would end if they disappeared, a catastrophe that he would not tolerate. In the early days of the war, Winston Churchill had visited Gibraltar, and was disturbed that the population had dwindled down to only seven Barbary Apes. He immediately instructed that five new females be sent to the Rock. Churchill was well aware of the Gibraltar Ape’s symbolic importance to the British people, and feared that the disappearance of the animals would have a detrimental effect on morale – which the British Empire needed plenty of when they stood alone against the Fascists in 1941.

Currently 300 Apes in five troops occupy the Upper Rock area of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve. Due to being tailless species, they are often mistakenly referred to as Barbary Apes or Rock Apes, but, technically speaking, they are actually macaques (Macaca sylvanus). The cute little critters are inquisitive and have no fear of humans. Upon my arrival one jumped on the front of my car’s window shield, and curiously looked me straight in the eye. The biggest tourist casualty is there apprehension of cameras. Foraging for food, though, seems to be their main goal, and they are known to even traverse the capital city below. As a British Overseas Territory, the Rock features 32 miles of tunnels, initially designed as protection from Spanish and French forces in their attempt to take Gibraltar back from the British, when they were at their weakest during the American Revolution.  At the early stages of what was to be a surprise attack, the monkeys were disturbed in the night and let out howls, alerting the British garrison to the upcoming enemy assault. This led to the popular saying, “As long as the Apes remain on the Rock, so will the British.”

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Our umbrellas were out as the full moon struggled to dapple its brilliance through fickle nomadic clouds, casting shadows across walls of brick and stone leaning inward helped by the thrust of time. It was our moment to follow the passageway, comprehending that throughout the ages the uneven cobbled walkway had felt the footsteps of countless travelers, invaders on the prowl their swords at the ready, lover’s hand-in-hand waiting for their moment, and Catalans who were born and raised in the Quarter, nearly all fading into the clutches of time while the stone passageways remain forever. Within minutes the old Gothic Quarter with its eternal sense of place was sending feelings to us by way of voices barely heard.

Walking slowly in the mottled darkness, we came upon a middle-aged classical guitarist sitting cross-legged on the stones, eyes closed, wearing scuffed sandals, and a black-ribboned hat, surrounded by a display of CDs. He was playing delicate heart-warming charts, his right hand agile and melodic. Stopping for a moment we perceived a spine-chilling voice in the distance, two octaves above the guitar passages, a voice that seemed to be floating skyward echoing off the buildings and passageway, for a moment in concert with the nearby bells of the massive Barcelona Cathedral ensconced in place in 1298 when ground was first broken.

We walk a few yards further to discover a small, passionate group of people some holding umbrellas, wedged tightly in a small area just off the passageway amidst unlit buildings, cheering “Brava, brava, brava,” while an exceedingly skilled opera singer, possibly touching her mid 40’s with perfect pitch and no microphone, performed La Traviata, Macbeth, Rossini, and Bellini, in Spanish, Italian, and German. Wearing badly faded ripped jeans, and accompanied only by a young flautist reading from a music stand, she offered her voice as a gift of musical beauty from the heavens.

Occasionally illuminated by threads of moon light and performing the stage choreography she fell hard to her knees on the stones, her dramatic facial expressions enlivening her voice and the opera characters she was performing. This single coloratura soprano with a vocal range and breathing that extended her voice to the sixth octave, and a full, vibrant vibrato echoing through the Quarter, created an astonishing ecstatic moment, sounding like a recording from Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu, one of the largest opera houses in the world.

An older gentleman with shades of gray hair spontaneously stepped forward from the group of opera aficionados and in the lower register, mid-chart, keeping within the tempo and in Spanish sang a duet with the opera singer. His voice, once grand, is now on pitch but fragile and time has taken its toll. Unfazed, her voice alive and fervent, she carries his passion until he bows and steps back into the shadows. It all felt illusory and imaginary; the Gothic Quarter closed tight around us, the rain tangled amongst the buildings that seemed edgy and wanting, our legs weakened and eyelids frozen, as we watched the small group of listeners, many of whom were familiar with the lyrics, drop coins and bills into a small, crumpled, paper basket placed askew on the stones.

The opera singer faded into the night as did the listeners, some pulled away by restless dogs on a leash. No one spoke to her. It seemed like an abnormal musical vision in the heart of old Barcelona, a momentous spiritual awakening. We walked in silence through the darkened passageway, past the guitarist, who was still in his own world, eyes shut, fingers moving, to our apartment on Carrer Ciutat. The language of opera, an art form as old as the Gothic Quarter joined hands on a rainy, May night in a loving embrace, the singer’s voice lifting the Old Quarter off its Roman foundations, until the ills of the world faded into the mist if only for a moment.

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The attractive Catalan language drifts through Barcelona, an ancient port city built atop Roman ruins with bits and pieces of 4^th century architecture proudly standing tall amidst the mad crush of 21^st century tourism. With its countless tree-lined streets and glorious architecture, Barcelona appears to have been blessed by a goddess from the World of Art who draped her large silk scarf over the city to ensure an artistic bent.

Always an impressive dining city, it boasts an assemblage of 23 Michelin starred restaurants and myriad artistic chefs whose soaring vitality and dedication to a creative culinary experience create traditional Catalan and Mediterranean cuisine with flair.

Executive Chef Jorg Lehmann, working on SeaDream II, a sea-worthy yacht which often calls on Barcelona said, “I admire Catalan cuisine, the city and the chefs. Tapas and small bites have been copied world-wide, Spanish soups are wonderful, as is wine pairing with the cuisine, but I know if service is not up to par it doesn’t matter what the chef is doing in the kitchen.” Frequent dining visits for this feature were unannounced and regardless of award-winning cuisine, we agree with Chef Lehmann that service is a high priority.

Sensi Bistro, tucked away in the Gothic Quarter on Carrer Regomir, a small passageway off Placa De Sant Jaume, is a joyous dining experience where willing Catalans wait patiently outside on Regomir for one of 32 seats in the narrow room with scarcely enough space for the smiling staff to pass between.

Creativity rules here and the menu features Sous Chef, Lionel Goitia, 31, cooking elevated classic tuna tartar tapas, the tastiest seafood paella in Barcelona, and small cubes of roasted potatoes splashed with a spicy Peruvian sauce and a touch of light garlic. Reservations advised.

Orio, located in the Gothic Quarter on lively Carrer Ferran, presents a taste of Basque cuisine with large Basque-style tables and an extended tapas bar showcasing seafood and vegetable pintxos (toothpick tapas) that add to the animated ambience. The tab is cleverly compiled by the number of accumulated toothpicks. If time is short, Orio is nicely located, and an intriguing choice for lunch.

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MariscCO is ensconced in an 1879 building in historic Placa Reial where, in the same year, the great Antoni Gaudi designed the attractive Placa lampposts, now a favorite pigeon post. Near Las Ramblas, MariscCO is encircled by some 15 competing dining choices all with alfresco tables. Greeted by a colorful seafood display, the open kitchen restaurant is decorated with historic black and white photos, including a large print of Dali riding a baby rhinoceros who looks deep in his cups. Chef Victor Izquierdo brings to the table a creamy seafood soup, grilled lobster, king prawns, a goat cheese salad, a platter of grilled farm-fresh vegetables, and a selection of Spanish wines. It is ideal for an early dinner while indulging in the art of people-watching.

7 Portes, one of Pablo Picasso’s favorite Barcelona restaurants, has a designated Picasso table positioned directly by the entrance below an invaluable, signed and framed work of art by Picasso himself. The oldest restaurant in Barcelona, 7 Portes was established in 1836, and has remained open to this day. Spiffy, formally attired servers speak knowledgeably about authentic Catalan cuisine, cold garlic soup, and traditional paellas thoughtfully prepared with fresh fish and seafood and house-made stock.

Overseen by Executive Chef Jaime Perez Sicilia, the menu of grilled beach prawns from Palamos and a wine list with more than 100 selections is something that Hemingway would have perused during his Barcelona visits.  Tourists should wear their finest travel clothes for dinner in this elegant restaurant since the Catalans certainly know how to dress for an evening out.

Black Remedy is a lively welcoming breakfast room and a great way to begin a Barcelona day. Close by if one is booked in a hotel in or near the Gothic quarter, Black Remedy is just steps from Placa De Saint Jaume, on Carrer Ciutat, which is right in the heart of the city, and on the same passageway as Sensi Bistro though the name changes. Catalans dine here en masse, making room for a scattering of visitors. House-made blueberry and mango muffins, avocado toast with feta cheese, and eggs Benedict are created by a formidable cook in an open kitchen with flair. Great for lunch, too, with fresh salads, stir-fried zucchini, specialty coffees, and wine.

Sola, a hidden Barcelona gem that is well known by Catalans who live or work in and near the Gothic Quarter, is found near Sensi Bistro on the identical Regomir passageway. Sola, the current matriarch and namesake of this small, family-owned bakery that has operated in the same location for 100 years, is eager to share an old black and white photo of herself, standing in the bakery as a young girl watching her grandfather and uncle prepare the specialties of the day. The bouquet of freshly baked begets, sweet rolls, cookies, bread, cupcakes and croissants, fills the air and warms the heart. With a smattering of Spanish, ask Sola and she will show off the old baking ovens and tools used by her family throughout the ages.

Chefs Not to be Missed

Executive Chef, Andrea Tumbarello, was born and raised in Sicily, married a striking Spaniard from Madrid, and with immense care and preparation opened Don Giovani on the ground floor of the NH Collection Constanca Hotel in the center of the financial district on Carrer de Constance in 2014. Tumbarello, leaning on his Italian heritage, has developed a following of Catalan diners who allege his masterly Italian cuisine is the charm of Barcelona. Tumbarello works with premium quality truffles and is noted for his linguini al tartufo, burrata pugliese, and spaghetti alla carbonara l’originale, and a menu that evokes memories of Venice, Rome, and Sicily. www.nh-hotels.com

Executive Chef, Marc Gascons, a Michelin Star honoree, and his team create fresh, long-established, and contemporary Catalan dishes at Informal, an admired restaurant in the 28-room Serras Hotel in the Gothic Quarter overlooking Port Vell. Cooking with seasonal and local produce, and merging the finest of Catalan haute gastronomie with refined service and elegantly balanced plates, Gascons has made his mark at Informal which was recognized by CNN in 2016 as “One of the World’s Best New Restaurants.” www.hotel/theserrasbarcelona.com

Catalonia Recommendations

More than twenty additional dining choices were avidly recommended. Here are five of the most repeated suggestions: Viana, Tickets, Vivant, Bambarol, and Somorrostro. For those who take pleasure in inspired cuisine, Barcelona is a winner.

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