Museum Day-Barcelona

Tuesday- feels like Thursday...

Up early, if 8:30 am counts as early. 

Off to the Picasso Museum. Without breakfast... I was starving the whole time! The museum was interesting and had an interesting collection of Picasso pieces. Not the famous ones you would expect. More like his personal collection that he donated himself or his closest friends and family members donated. It was interesting seeing more of his process and earliest and oldest works. 

LUNCH TIME!!!! yay... We found a little cafe and order the bocadillo del dia, sandwich of the day,  without the slightest idea of what it was... Well luckily I was starving and would eat anything because it was a sausage link sandwich with tomato paste something as a dressing. It was certainly not something I would have thought was appetizing any other time. Luckily it was really cheap. 

Next stop: Catedral de Barcelona 

A very lovely church. There was mass going on in a side chapel. I stepped in for a little bit. It was really refreshing to be listening to mass even if it was in Spanish. Mom and Abie, you would be so proud I understood what was going on for the most part. I recognized the Padre Nuestro, Our Father, from my many years with Senora Walling at Memorial. 

Palau Musica

A concert hall in the middle of a neighborhood. It was built with the hopes that the residential areas would be torn down, but they never were so the front facade is very difficult to see and take pictures. of. The inside was very elaborating decorated with mosaics and stained glass. Parts of it were meant to imitate an outside garden and there are flowers and large windows everywhere. We just happen to be there when an orchestra was rehearsing and we got to hear them practice. It was neat hearing music in the actual concert hall. Our tour guide was precious too which makes the experience all the more worth while. 

After the Music House we continued the tour that Bryan and Jess were leading through Barcelona. We walked around looking for Casa Botella, a house designed by Gaudi. Finally arriving there we found out it was 13.50 euros and Ben and I decided to go to the National Art Museum instead. We had both been wanting to see it from the day before when it was closed. 

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

There are multiple great exhibits. The first one we went into was one of my favorites and full of Spanish art. The paintings were huge and took up the whole wall. They were also full of bright vibrant colors. They were very inspiring and made me want to pull out the oil paints. The Modern Art exhibit was also very inspiring and full of great pieces. There was a room full of Picasso's as well which were a few of the more famous and well known Picasso's. It was an overall nice museum to wander through. 

After we left we went back towards home and walked through Mercat de Boqueria and went looking for a good restaurant. It was strange because there weren't many restaurants open around 6 and then when we went back around 8 there were twice as many restaurants open and all looked lively. We ended up eating at Mama Cafe and which was really good. 

Dow Jones Bar

Drink prices change like stocks in the stock market. There weren't that many people there since it was a Tuesday night but we still had fun. It usually draws a lot of Americans but it was a pretty cool atmosphere. This was another place recommended by everyone who gave us information about Barcelona. We ended up walking home but it wasn't too far. Our motto was just walk down hill and we'll get home...ha