Barcelona 3 July 2009

Barcelona - Day 2


We wake at around 9am to a full continental breakfast at Ally's Guest house and feeling a bit more as if we want to actually see the sights! The children are in better moods but it will still take a couple of days to recover from the initial trip.

We set out using the very efficient underground system (we are using two day card bought yesterday from the information place at the airport). I say efficient - the city is well covered by underground stations, but when you want to change from one to another there is invariably a long (and I mean around 500m) passage way that you have to walk along. Its as if the second station was invariably an after thought!.

First stop was a cathedral nearby and while we did not actually go in (entrance 12 Euro for Adults and 6 for kids - 11 and over), Guy did get to buy his spanish soccer shirt from the surrounding sales people

We arrive a the Ramlas area and make our way to the Picasso Museum / gallery.

I have previously visited the Van Gough museum in Amsterdam and this gallery is reminiscent of that visit. I find it fascinating to see how an artist develops from his early works to where he finally ends up. Picasso started off going to the relevant schools and learning about painting but you can see that as he gets to around 18, he paintings start to become less ordinary / real with non standard colours being experimented with and less replication.

I am still not convinced that in the long run, a lot of his paintings were not produced so much for love of art but more for generating income, but being a mere engineer, I's sure I'd meet with a lot of opposition!

Anyway the museum took up most of the morning and we then headed to the Gaudi park. Again it was necessary to make one of the long distance changes and the first underground was the most crowded we have experienced. As we reached the end of the passage, I realized that my wallet was no longer. I went back along the passage to check dust bins but tno avail. It was a hard lesson on top of what we'd already been through. No credit cards, and no drivers license and the trip has only just begun!

The Gaudi park is impressive. Basically he had been asked to design it for the rich and famous but the rich and famous had run out of money. Unlike today's developments, he had started with the main building first and built two houses. The circular designs are fascinating with no corners and windey staircases. The view of the city from the top of the park is amazing. The main building (which was to be the local market) is designed with numerous pillars and now has musicians busking to the huge turn out of tourists.

We took the underground to the general vicsinitiy and then had to walk up a steep hill to get to the top of the park where there is an impressive view of the city. (Fiona and Guy decided to miss the last part as the walk to the park had been pretty hectic and stress levels were up after the loss of my wallet)

We spent a couple of hours there and then headed back to the Ramblas area to buy some more clothes - it was now fairly clear that our back packs were not going to arrive any time soon! Only got to the Ramblas by around 8.30 and the shops were starting to close by the time we found the correct area but in the end we still found a few things to keep us going.

Then back to a restaurant that had been recommended to us for supper. Unfortunately the place was packes so we walked the 2 Kms or so back to the one we had gone to the night before. Exhausted and stressed, the walk wasn't what the kids were looking to do so tempers were up although the tapas calmed things down.