Wellfleet, Mass., June 27, 2007: “Barcelona’s genius loci is unexportable,”
said the New Yorker art critic, Peter Schjeldahl, after viewing “Barcelona &
Modernity” this spring at the Metropolitan Museum.

The show was the first American exhibition of the artists who positioned the
Barcelona as Spain‘s cultural capital at the turn of the 20th century. The
Gaudí works alone, he said, ought to provoke, “an immediate call to a travel
agent.”

“There’s really nothing like seeing these pieces in Barcelona,” says Teresa
Parker, one travel planner who is ready for those calls.

Parker’s new “Barcelona & Modernity” tours were as much inspired by the show
as by responses like Schjeldahl’s. Parker knows that a Gaudí bench is far
more magical in the swirly, swanky-utopian setting of Casa Batlló than it
could ever be in a museum exhibition hall.

“I feel the same way about Catalan food,” says Parker, who trained as a chef
in Barcelona and now runs the small group culinary tour company, Spanish
Journeys. “Some of the best flavors are definitely unexportable.” She
mentions Palamós shrimp tasted while sailing out of that harbor.

Although Spanish Journeys usually pursues the city’s culinary arts, the
Metropolitan Museum show spurred a collaboration with a Barcelona-based art
historian for this itinerary. The idea is to curate travelers’ experiences
in a city that is now so popular and bustling it can feel overwhelming.

Parker says that by combining great food and art with routes that reveal
landscape and history, “travelers will leave with something that can be
brought home: a deeper sense of Barcelona’s creative spirit.”

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The “Barcelona & Modernity” tours, designed for lovers of food and art, will
be offered three times this fall: September 15-22, October 13-20, and
November 3-10. Details at: http://www.spanishjourneys.com/modernity.htm.

Trips include:

– 6 nights double occupancy in a simple, stylish hotel;
– All breakfasts, 4 lunches, and 2 dinners"”excellent Catalan cuisine, both
traditional and innovative;
– Selected wines paired with every meal;
– Great tastings, chocolates at a shop run by Ferran Adria’s pastry chef and
brother Albert; cava at a wine bar specializing in Spain’s best bubblies;
– Daily private walking tours led by an artist and an art historian who have
in-depth knowledge of Barcelona’s art, artists, and the stories behind their
works;
РPrivate excursion to the Costa Brava, Sant Pere de Rodes, Cadaqu̩s and
Figueras;
– Entrance with your private guide to 11 museums;
– All ground transportation (except the short taxi ride from and to the
airport);
– Travel medical insurance MedEx TravMed Abroad.

The trip price is $2695 per person; single supplement, $300. Limited to 16
participants. Travelers must book and pay for their own air tickets. The
tour starts and ends at your hotel in Barcelona. Details and registration
at: www.spanishjourneys.com.

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Spanish Journeys offers custom culinary tours in Catalonia and Barcelona.
Company director Teresa Parker, a bilingual chef who trained in Barcelona,
arranges the food experiences on this trip, while a local artist and art
historian serve as our city guides.

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