The gathering of a select group of fashion lawyers from around the world that I organize every year was about to begin, this time on a pleasant, sun-washed afternoon in Barcelona, the coastal capital of Catalonia, in eastern Spain. We had the usual frets about whether to cover the goodie bags with a table cloth until given away (we didn’t) and where to place the podium no one ever uses. This time would be different, however. I was staying at the Hotel El Palace, one of the greatest in all Spain, and we had also rented a function room that, as people came in, was correctly compared to something from the kind of romantic movie in which the earnest but dashing prince courts the reluctant princess under spreading chandeliers. Waiters served a formal tea in the English manner as four attorneys from three continents made brief and effective speeches on the art and craft of fashion law. When everyone left, I received, as if in one voice, the comment, “What are you going to do to top that next year?”
Answer: Some experiences in life are without peer, and that is what a grand hotel in the style of the El Palace quietly reminds you it can provide. As the 11,000-strong legal convention that drew us all here continued, lawyers kept arriving. During my stay, I took several of them to the hotel’s rooftop, there to have lunch, tapas, drinks, take a dive into the outdoor pool or just take in the view of the city. They all commented how lucky I was to have secured the best venue in town.
Luck in hotel selection during a convention is what happens when you know where to go and book earlier than everyone else. That is especially true in cities such as Barcelona, where the convention center is far removed from the center of anything you would leave home and family to see. Last-minute hotel bookings can lead to interesting surprises, but when it is luxury and convenience you are seeking, properties such as the El Palace are few and demand is high — so foot off the brake and sign up early, even if you end up paying a bit more to do it. It will certainly make you popular.
The next thing to do if you are in a highly desirable city is to leave time for fun — and to invite others to enjoy it with you. That is how, bearing timed entrance tickets wisely booked online by the El Palace concierge, a veritable delegation of us — this time all Americans and Germans — ended at the Sagrada Familia, the cathedral-sized masterpiece of a church still under construction from plans by the architect Antoni Gaudi, the greatest exponent of Modernisme (the Art Nouveau of Catalonia). Ground was broken in 1882, and the building will be finished perhaps by 2026, which marks the centennial of Gaudi’s death at the age of 73, after being struck by a tram.
People who have been there just a few years before say the difference is striking. Inside, at least, it looks about finished.
Traditional church architecture in the Gothic style is referenced in the building, but its columns and spires brush past the commonplace, twisting and rising like trees in a fanciful forest. The sun comes through stained glass of orange, yellow and blue as if filtered through the feathers of an aviary of exotic birds. To see the Sagrada Familia is to see Christianity in a different way, as something closer to an East Asian religion in its strive for harmony with nature and as an invitation for spiritual meditation.
Gaudi is a cultural hero of his native Catalonia, where his major works are to be found, but Picasso moved here as an adolescent, when his father accepted a position teaching art at a local academy. The Museu Picasso, which opened during the master’s lifetime, maintains one of the largest and greatest collections of his works, most notably pieces from the early, formative stages in his career that are underrepresented in museums elsewhere.
Picasso’s contemporary Joan Miro was born in Barcelona, and many of his works are now housed in a museum that translates as Miro Foundation, Center of Studies of Contemporary Art. It his housed in a Modernist building on a verdant hilltop overlooking the city. Although, an art critic, I am not as engaged by Miro’s works as I am by those of Picasso, I could not imagine a better setting in which to understand more completely his contribution to Modern Art.
On a Sunday afternoon blessed with cloudless skies and mild temperatures, townspeople formed into a half-dozen circles, holding hands to dance the finely choreographed sardana, the performance of which is seen as a statement of Catalonian pride. Each dancer would arrive and change into flexible shoes called espardenyes, carefully fastening each around the ankle with two long strips of fabric, store possessions in the center of any circle not yet grown to capacity, and then join in. An 11-piece band, known as a cobla, played for all from atop the cathedral’s steps, the different circles of dancers moving slowly, gracefully clockwise, like gently turning gears designed always to synchronize, never to mesh.
Local pride goes beyond speaking Spanish with the distinctive lisping sound that turns Barcelona into Barthelona and gracias into grathias. Catalan is co-official to Spanish in this region, but it is the first language on signs and museum wall labels (typically followed by classical Spanish and English); it reads, to my untutored eye, much like a shorthand Spanish with an infusion of French.
And so it went through days of perfect weather, meeting after meeting held (quite deliberately) at or near the El Palace, with time to pass through the food stalls of an historic market, Sant Josep de la Boqueria; a visit to another Gaudi masterwork, a mansion called Casa Batllo; and, this being Spain, to do a buy at one of the Zara shops that are as ubiquitous as Starbucks in Seattle. (Fashion lawyers enjoy a bargain as much as anyone.)
In an event familiar to conventioneers everywhere, the last night of our international gathering was a party on Platje de la Barceloneta — the beach. We had exclusive access to a row of darkened waterfront taverns into which, after waiting in long lines, crowded thousands of attorneys grown too exhausted to have anything fresh to say to each other. That could only mean one thing: it had been a successful conference, all in all. Small streams of us departed early, removed our shoes and splashed our toes in the Mediterranean Sea. On the breezy walkway behind us, strange men selling what might have been tablecloths, each held down by four sandbags, were ordered by the police to pack up and scram. The sky turned black from royal blue and the sea rolled gently, clearly until the night swallowed all but flashes of moonlight on the peaks of low waves.
Credit: Alan Behr
Credit: Alan Behr
IF YOU GO
Staying There: Maybe it is my map-reading skills, but the convention center of Barcelona appeared to be somewhere in Portugal. I virtually ignored it during my stay, having booked the Hotel El Place, in the refined center of town. With that as my base, everything on a demanding business trip went quietly just right. Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 668. Reserve from the USA and Canada through The Leading Hotels of the World: www.lhw.com; 1-800-745-8883. Hotel Tel.: +34-93-510-11-30.
Toy Story: If you are away on business and if you have children, you are not going home before you do this. The Imaginarium chain has five locations in Barcelona; gift wrapping is free, and instead of a bow on top, you get a lollipop.
Dining: We had great meals upstairs and downstairs at our hotel. Picasso and many other artists ate at Els Quatre Gats (also written as 4 Gats), meaning the "Four Cats." We had pre-beach-party tapas at modest prices in a sensitively restored revival of the cafe, which began serving in 1897. Carrer de Montsio, 3, tel.: +34-933-024-140. For Catalonian specialties, also without great expense: Casa Alfonso, Carrer de Roger de Lluria, 6; tel. +41-79-437-78-72.
Money: Spain is on the euro. Compared to other European cities, prices in Barcelona are very reasonable all around.
Keeping Your Money: Pickpockets in Barcelona are, as one local put it, "magicians." The way to stop them is to keep anything of value in a buttoned inside pocket. If you have a great butt, show it off; that is, rear trouser pockets are usually the most vulnerable, so leave them empty. Or just look like an ornery New Yorker (to some of us, that comes naturally), and thieves will know enough to let you alone.
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