Vic, Just Vic
Vic was a town mentioned to me by my friend Michael, though, to be honest, I don’t remember the context in which it came up. Suffice to say the name stuck in my head so I said, why not? And since we call Victoria, BC, “Vic” for short, it just seemed like I should go visit. I also never say “no” to another train ride.
Riding out to Vic was a slightly different experience than when I went to Girona. This time, not only was I going on the local train, I was, technically, still in a Barcelona TMB zone, albeit the furthest one (6th). The Barcelona transit system is amazing, as I may have mentioned before. It is fast, efficient, easy to use, inexpensive, and very large. Zone 1 has a radius of roughly 15km from Plaça Catalunya (which most people consider the heart of Barcelona). That doesn’t sound like much when you compare to say, Vancouver, where that’s about the same as going from Downtown to the centre of Richmond or Metrotown. In Victoria, that’s the equivalent of downtown to Langford. The difference here, of course, is that in that 15-20km or so radius, the administrative region, Comarca de Barcelones, has about 2.1 million people in residence, and not the scant 1.2M that make up Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, and the North Shore. This administrative regions includes Barcelona proper, Badalona, l`Hospitalet de Llobregat, Sant Adria de Besoms, and Santa Coloma de Gramenet. Zone 1 of the TMB extends beyond these to Castelldefels, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Montcada i Reixac, and Montgat. That’s roughly 2.5 million people who live in TMB Zone 1 and pay something like €1.13 to get to the anywhere within the zone in 75 minutes. Yes, the ticket is valid for 75 minutes and you can change as often as you need to, from the bus to the tram to the metro to the funicular … If you take transit all the time, you buy an unlimited monthly pass for about €40 with various groups of people getting discounts on this price, of course; the Zone 6 pass costs €113.75. Discounts apply to the usual classes, the elderly and students, but also for heads of single-parent families, people who have low incomes, the disabled. Clearly transit is very encouraged here and it shows.
My trip to Vic in Zone 6, one of the furthest communities on this map, cost me €8.55 each way but that would have been reduced by almost half if I bought the 10-trip ticket. Oh, and Vic is about 80km away from Plaça Catalunya … that’s about halfway between Abbotsford and Chilliwack from Downtown Vancouver or Ladysmith from Victoria. If you lived in Vic and wanted to work in Barcelona, you could be in town within an hour and a half riding a fast, comfortable, commuter train; compare that to a bus ride from Abbotsford to downtown … about 3 hours on 3 buses. Now do you see why I love transit (and trains) in Spain?
OK, OK, enough about transit. I think I’ve made my point! Back to Vic … this lovely little town, population about 45,000, lies nestled among green hills almost directly north of Barcelona. Its motto appears to be Vic, Ciutat a la mesura humana, which translates to Vic, a city at a human scale, a sentiment I saw repeated everywhere and one with which I definitely agree. It really does feel like the perfectly sized town. Its old quarter is old and quaint, its residential areas bright and clean. The main square, Plaça Major (every town seems to have one of those), looks like it often hosts various events, cultural and commercial … though when I got there it was quite empty but it had the sense of “just wait, we’re getting ready for something, you just showed up at the wrong time.” I would have loved to see what a farmers’ market would look like there, … and I know those happen, of course they do, just not on a Wednesday.
Just a few steps away from the Plaça Major, there is a Roman temple, tucked away next to some apartment buildings. The juxtaposition of the old and the new is really jarring. How weird it must be to look down from your relatively modern apartment at a structure that has been there for almost 2000 years! Maybe folks here become blasé about things like that but I don’t think I ever would.
My wandering feet took me through the narrow streets, this way and that, until I saw a sign for the famous Pont de Queralt, though what made it famous, I’m still not sure about. It is a bridge over the Riu Mèder but at the time I was there, the river didn’t look so much like a river but rather like a stinky slough … but sure, let’s call it a river. The bridge is an example of romanesque architecture, so I guess that makes it worth looking at, and maybe if the river was running fuller it would be even more picturesque. As it was, I found it a little disappointing. What did catch my eye, however, was the building (if you can call it that) just a bit downstream (if you can call it a stream). All I could think was “why isn’t anyone developing this amazing structure?” My imagination went nuts seeing the potential; its location alone is magnificent. I really should have become an architect or developer at some point in my life … too bad I’m so far down another road to change paths now … maybe I would then be in a position to bring a ruin like this back to life!
Since walking around town in 28°C is thirsty business, I eventually found my way back to the main square and had a lovely cold clara and a cup of café con leche which, for some reason, got a raised eyebrow from the waiter. What? You’ve never been thirsty and sleepy at the same time? After that I decided it was time to search for a postcard since I get postcards from everywhere I go. To my dismay, the town on a human scale has no postcards anywhere. It surprised me a lot, especially since the town of Vic is rather famous for being THE place for hot air balloon rides and, of course, that bridge … but, alas, no postcards anywhere. Disgruntled (just a tiny bit), I hopped back on the next train to Barcelona. In the end, I really did enjoy my time in Vic; if it were a tiny bit closer to the sea, I would definitely put it on my list of towns to consider long term.
PS: One other thing I learned on this trip was that Catalonia is very green. And very hilly. So many of the little towns and villages have something quaint and welcoming about them. As we were passing through La Garriga and Granollers I really wished I had a car so I could make detours through some of them … just to get a quick look or a lunch break. As much as I love the trains, there is something to be said about being able to spontaneously go down a road you didn’t plan on. Train, I’m afraid, are something you need to plan.
PPS: If only I had had someone to take a balloon ride with me! I would never in a million years do it alone but with a buddy crazy enough to do this with me, you bet!
