Parc Guell

We woke up early to avoid the line up, and got there at around 10, but we weren't allowed in the paid area until 11:30.  Visitors are assigned a time slot during which they can go into the paid are, section with the mounments; this was done to limit the number of guests in the paid area because it can get really tight in there.

We didn't have time to visit the History Museum of Barcelona (Museu d'historia de Barcelona MUHBA), so that was our first stop for today.

MUHBA (History Museum of Barcelona)

This museum has a wealth of information, and I felt like I have just taken a history lesson on Barcelona and Spain!  The coolest part was that this museum was built right on top of an archeological site which dates back to the Roman Empire.  There was a whole building devoted to wine making and another one for dying clothes.  There is also a public bath building with a cold bath, a warm bath, and a hot bath.  The hot bath was built with an underground heating system (kinda like our radiant heat system in houses, but with hot air instead), which I was quite amazed to know that this kinda of "technology" existed for people at that time.  The people also developed techniques for dying and setting dyes in fabric.  Who would have thought urine was used to set dyes at that time?  Women, AND men, at that time all seemed to be very concerned with their looks as both genders put on make-up to whiten their faces.  Overall, I really enjoyed exploring the archeological site underground at this museum.  The rest of the museum housed different artifacts and displayed historic information as we move through times from the past to present.

MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Arts)

I personally would not re-visit this museum.  The art in there just didn't sit right with me; they are actually quite disturbing with a lot of political content.  It's definitely not my kind of art.

Guell Palace

This building is Antonio Gaudi's work from start to finish.  Guell respects Gaudi's work and he got Gaudi involved in building not only the Guell Palace, but also Park Guell, which we will visit the next day.  During the planning of this trip, I read reviews about all the places that we will be visiting and this one about Guell Palace sticks with me, "It's Dr. Seuss came to life", and so I have been anticipating this visit to the palace.  Well, it did not disappoint.  

The most exciting part has to be the roof, the chimneys were of different designs, one remined me of an ice cream cone and gave me the idea of taking a picture of it from a distance with me licking from "the cone".  Well, that attracted a lot other tourists doing the same thing.  A couple from Boston saw what we were doing and asked us to help them take a picture doing the same thing.  They were really nice people and we were chatting about where we have been in Barcelona, and they forwarded their itinerary for Lisbon to us because they were just there.

It was here that I thought, if Gaudi, Tim Burton, and Dr. Seuss were born around the same time, they could be really good friends.  Just a thought.

The highlight of the day was that we found a really good restaurant in the neighbourhood.  It's called Cera 23.  It's hidden in a sketchy area, and it looks like mostly locals would go there.  We came across many Middle Easterners and convenient shops owned by Middle Easterners on the way to the restaurant.  The restaurant doesn't have that many seats and we tried to call and reserve but no one answered, so we thought we will just head out there before it's open.  We were lucky enough to be the only ones who were able to get a table (even though it's only for 1 hour) without reservations.  There were many others who showed up later without reservations and they were all turned away.  

The best dishes we had there was the black seafood rice (paella made with cuttle fish ink) and the  beef cheek with white truffle sauce, and the white truffle sauce trumps it!  They also have really good mojitos, I had mango, and Cindy had the famous black berry.  We had a very enjoyable meal there and the restaurant owner was very friendly and gave us free shots after dinner.  =)

Montjuic

With the 2-hour delay, we arrived later than expected.  We took a taxi to the hotel and the taxi driver was friendly even though we weren't able to communicate much as he speaks little English.  We then walked to the Montjuic park.  It was a longer walk than we had anticipated, and a hike uphill!  We were grateful to have ran into some tourists who were pointing at the map discussing about taking the cable car up to the Montjuic Castle.  The view was fantastic going up on the cable car and on the Castle, but the castle itself was quite a yawn.  There was also no shade in the area, so we were tired and dehydrated.  It took us about 2 hours to tour around the castle just becase it was so big.

National Art Museum of Catalonia

The place was really grand!  It was on the itinerary, but we kinda stumbled upon it as we took a detour through Fundacio Joan Miro and Joan Maragall Gardens.  We were thankful that we finally found some escalators on the way up.  The entry way and the front of the building resembles that of a palace, with the Magic Fountain in front of the entry way.  A lot of tourists were taking pictures there.  We didn't get to go in because they were closing by the time we got there.  We did however get to go inside and check out the lobby and the great hall as those places are free.  It was a really lovely building.

We were both really tired yesterday, so we both had a good sleep, which works out well with our long itinerary for today.

Santa Caterina Market

We headed here first for brunch/breakfast.  This place reminds us both of Granville Island; it almost looks exactly the same minus the food court.  Spanish people seems to be really into seafood and internal organs; it shows in their cuisines.  There are a lot of fresh seafood being sold at the market, scallops, octopus, monkfish, razor clams, mussels, and other fish that I can't name (they are so lucky to have so much seafood!)  There are also stores specialized in selling offal, with skinned heads of lamb (eyeball attached!) and lamb brains!  I seriously think that Chinese people may really get along with Spanish people, in terms of food choices.

Picasso Museum

Having the Audio guide really helps with understanding his background and the ideas behind his paintings.  The museum has a good collection of his early works.  He rose to fame when he was only 15, winning gold medals in competitions with paintings done in styles that were conventional at the time.  It appears that he went through different phases of self discovery, in an effort to develop his own style.  He tried different things as there were paintings done with brush strokes that are reminiscent of Van Gogh's style.  One of his paintings has a potted plant and it reminds me of Van Gogh's sunflower.     He did a re-interpretation of the Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez and it reminds me of drawings by kindergarten students, which is totally cool, I think.   I would definitely use those paintings as examples for my students in art classes, telling them that there is no such thing as a bad drawing.

Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar (St. Mary's church?)

There are a lot of churches in Spain, and there are a lot of "St. Mary's" churches in Spain.   This one is special in the sense that its completion only took 55 years, within a century, so the style is consistent.  It is all built in the Gothic style (which I need to study about).   We walked up the spiral stairs to the roof with the guide, and he gave us a little history lesson on all the signifcant buildings we saw up on the lookout.  I was told that this church has the biggest rose window in Barcelona.

We had a two hours delay at the Toronto Pearson airport.  We initially boarded a plane that was really stuffy, which was kinda expected as we were flying with Air Canada Rouge and the planes were really old.  I was surprised to see that an 8-hour flight has no TV screen whatsoever!  Both Cindy and I were a bit worried about the safety of the flight and we prayed together about it.  It is amazing how quickly God works; right after we said "Amen", the flight captain announced that we will need to board a different plane for safety reasons.  Hence, the 2-hour delay as the luagges needed to be unloaded and reloaded onto the other plane, and the flight crew had to set up the cabin of the other plane.  We still didn't have any TV screens on the new plane, but that's okay because we spent most of the time sleeping anyways.