We arrived at Barcelona, Spain today at 12 noon. We had arranged to tour the Picasso museum and Guadi’s La Pedrera, since we were in Barcelona about 4 years ago therefore we skipped the city sightseeing. The Picasso museum is very large and encompasses four buildings that used to be mansions in the old part of the city. The part of the museum we viewed was only the early works of Picasso. This was quite interesting in that we saw paintings and drawings he had done as young as 9 years old. It was also interesting to see how his artwork evolved from very detailed portraits to the cubism that he is well-known for today.
The second part of the tour was the apartment building La Pedrera that Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect in Spain, designed in the early 1900s. His style is based on nature, hence his buildings are very ornate with the use of flowers, vines, animals, and plants. This apartment building was very unique for the times with the inner courtyard being open all the way to the top of the 8 story structure and a most unusual roof top terrace. We had seen many of his buildings on our last visit including the Sagrada Familia Temple. This grand church still has not been completed, but is very unusual, grand, and beautiful at the same time. He has had many critics over the years who do not like his creations, but Tin and I find them most fascinating.
After our tour, we embarked on a stroll down the La Rambla, which is a wide pedestrian thoroughfare. It is lined with shops, street mime artists, and many restaurants. We stopped for tapas and local wine before returning to the ship. The weather was a little cool, but it was a beautiful sunny day and when we returned to the ship we were treated to a local folkloric show of flamenco dancers. Tin was also happy as we went to the late night buffet and they had Paella. It truly was a fun-filled day.
Tomorrow we will be at sea and then arrive in Gibraltar on Tuesday morning.
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