Couple in Plaza del Catalunya
Culture
By the third day in Barcelona we were ready for some culture. What is a trip to Europe without cathedrals and museums? Picaasso lived in Barcelona for several years before moving to Paris. The largest Picasso museum is in Paris, and some of his most famous works like Guernica
reside in Madrid. However, the Picasso museum in Barcelona has a huge collection (3,500 hundred pieces in their permanent collection) that focuses on Picasso's early work (including his school age drawings) up to his blue period and rose period. The museum is housed in 5 mansions in an area of the city that dates to the 12th century. Although Picasso is most noted as the founder of modern Cubism, he was actually a child prodigy. A quote from Picasso (paraphrased here) says that he knew to paint like Rafeal by the time he was 10 and took the rest of his life to learn to paint like a child. This would seem like bragging, until you see his early drawings and paintings that show he had the master's touch at a very early age, he was simply stating fact. As for the last part of the quote, by seeing Picasso's early work and then his more famous work, you clearly see his effort to deconstruct to his work to its simplest componants. In my opinion, this desire for art to be in its simplest form led to his criticism of Barcelona's other favorite son, Gaudi (more on him below).

Gaudi's famous Sagrada Familia church

After a breakfast of Churros con chocolate (Barcelona's famous breakfast of hot chocolate and deep fried cookies - ours were too greasy to eat) we did some walking, and walking and walking.

From the Picasso Museum we walked to the waterfront to see Bacelona's most famous tourist attraction, La Rambla. La Rambla is a giant tourist trap with open air markets selling everything from soccer jerseys to parrots to pornography. It is lined with tourist restaurants whose wares are hawked by aggressive waiters. It is also a known haven for pickpockets. What's not to like? We bought some donkey stickers for $3.50. The bull is the symbol of Spain and the donkey is the symbol of Catalan independence. You see a lot of cars with donkey stickers in their windows in Barcelona. You also see lots of funny T-shirts with donkeys beating up bulls.

Do the kids who ride this know they are making a politcal statement?

We did stumble on an amazing outdoor food market on La Rambla, however. It was massive (almost as big as Philadelphia's famous market). Fruit, vegetables, meat and fish were all on display. We could not believe the prices. Two pineapple for about $1.25. A pound of strawberries for about 85 cents. We should have skipped the Churros con chocolate.

After La Rambla, it was time for more culture. So we walked to La Familia, Gaudi's famous unfinished church. Little did we know that the walk was over 5 miles. and we had already put 3 miles on our sneakers. Gaudi worked on the church for the late 1800s until his death in 1926. His crypt is on site. Since then, it has been worked on intermittently through private funding and museum admissions. It is not expected to be finished for 50 years! Commenting on the length of the project Gaudi said "My client" (God) "is in no hurry."

La Familia under construction

La Familia was crowded with school kids so we high tailed it out of there for some more hot Gaudi action. Parc Guell was built in 1900 by Gaudi and financed by his patron. It was a commercial flop and abandoned in 1914. The Parc is on a hill on the far edge of Barcelona, so we expected some peace and quiet.

As a fan of extravagent failures, I wanted to see it myself. Apparently no one told the hoardes of cigarette smoking and soccer playing teenagers that this was a flop.

Parc Guell entrance

It must have been a day off school for kids, because everywhere we went there were kids with parents, groups of kids and teenagers. The Picasso Museum, La Familia, and Parc Guell were all inundated with kids.

Parc Guell

One kid at Parc Guell kept yelling "Happy Hour" in his Catalon accent. No matter where were on the grounds, we heard "Happy Hour" every couple of minutes. I don't know if he liked the sound of phrase, was calling for his newly nicknamed amigo or was advertising a local cantina, but suddenly I was thirsty.

We went to a little hole in the wall off La Rambla. No tourists, no English, just old formica
counters and soccer on the TV. We ordered tapas and the fried eggplant was excellent. We also had sangria for the only time on the trip. It was good, but we really didn't see that much sagria in Spain. Maybe Spainards only drink it in the summer. Maybe it is more popular in other areas of Spain. Maybe only tourists drink it. Anyway, we went to bed early since we had an early flight to Jerez.

Karen at Parc Guell (Note view of Barcelona)