November (1995) (continued):
Even I Could Recognize Gaudi
I had come to Barcelona to speak at the NAB’s European Radio Operations seminar (Managing Personality Radio and Building A Winning Morning Show).
This was my first trip to Spain. For a change, I actually found some time to do a little exploring. On Sunday afternoon I wandered around Barcelona for a couple of hours.
I took particular delight in recognizing the buildings of Antoni Gaudi… because usually I can’t really tell one building (much less one architect) from another. But my guidebook to Spain (which I perused on the airplane) talked about his work — which is so distinctive that even I was able to recognize it.
Inside Palau de la Generalitat
After Monday’s sessions, the city of Barcelona put on a reception for us in the 14th Century palace, Palau de la Generalitat, that serves as headquarters of the government of Cataloña. Here’s what I remember of that event:
1. It was a very impressive locale for a reception.
2. No food was served (even though the reception was held at diner time).
3. Some local government official welcomed us with an incredibly long, boring speech. (All of us were standing throughout, immediately in front of him. So politeness required us to appear to be attentive.)
The sad thing about his speech was not that it was long and boring but that he obviously had nothing he wanted to say to us. Clearly this was his stock speech; he simply substituted “radio” where the previous week he might have said “software development” or “banking”:
“We are especially pleased to welcome you members of the banking industry, because banking is a very important part of all our lives….”
4. A stairway led from the reception room down to floor below; from the railing one could see the lower floor was simply an empty chamber. Feeling a little restless (actually, I was feeling hungry), I wandered down the stairway.
In one corner of that empty chamber was a doorway.
I peeked in the doorway and discovered a deeply descending, narrow, twisting dark staircase. A 600-year old staircase that led to…?
If I had had a flashlight with me, I would have found where the stairs led. Even today, I wonder….
Next Installment: My Barcelona encounters with two superficial Hollywood icons…and a bunch of kittens.
