Today was our last touring day in Barcelona and we had a plan. We got up in the dark and had breakfast so that we could get to the Picasso museum before the crowds. We succeeded. When we got there we were within a couple of metres of the entrance. It was a 15 min wait for the doors to open. In the line we got talking to an Italian couple roughly our age. They were from Milan and had driven over to Spain with a car load of food goodies for their son who lives and works in Barcelona. The guy had been to Melbourne for work. He sells big printing machinery and one of the things he remembers about Australia was the curious system of BYO wine.
The museum was fantastic. It was spread across 5 interconnecting medieval palaces originating in the 13th and 14th centuries. The collection included painting and drawing, engraving, and ceramics. There was a big focus on the early years of Picasso’s artistic life, and the Blue Period. The thousands of work came together as a result of gifts to the museum from Picasso, his family, and his friends. I loved seeing all the development work, the drawings and oil sketches that went into the planning and execution of his works. There was SO much to see. You could see Picasso developing his skills as he tried to reproduce and then appropriate elements of the paintings of some of the artist greats that came before him.
Half way through our time at the Picasso, we needed a coffee fix but even though there were signs to it it was impossible to find. one of the guides recommended a little hole in the wall café just down the lane. Sabor was a great little cafe up a side street. GREAT coffee and cake, jazz swirling about and the owner was called Jose...perfect.
When we finished at the Picasso we made one last attempt to get to Pintoxo Bar at the market. We looked for people that looked like they were finishing and hovered the way that Bella sits quiet but hyper alert when we are having a chicken dinner. A couple of elderly Spanish ladies could see what we were trying to do and called us over to the other side where a family were waiting for their son to finish his cake. As soon as they were up we pounced! The wait was worth it. I had a big plate of chick pleas with pine nuts and sultanas. Johnny has the beans with octopus. Both were fantastic and the beer washed them down beautifully. The bar boss saw us wiping the juices off the plates with our fingers and kept bringing us chunks of bread. We marvelled at the staying power of some of the locals that were washing their lunch down with a full bottle of Rioja! After waiting so long for the seat we decided to make the best of it by having a coffee as well. This went really well with the liqueur cherry chocolates we'd bought earlier.
We took a walk down La Rambla, past the statue of Columbus pointing out to sea in the direction of the new world to the port area. Port Vell was the place to be. There were some magnificent old buildings belonging to the port authority and a floating bridge over to the shopping and restaurant area. The wooden suspension bridge with its wavy pattern, symbolized the connection of the city with the Mediterranean. Columbas' column (70 metres high and surrounded by a cluster of allegorical figures) stands at the opening to the port and is much larger than life. Like the zealot he was he ignores the ant like activity of the tourists scurrying about below him and he points out to sea and the new world he believed lay out there. Though he was from Genoa, the people of Barcelona have adopted him as their own as a result of his monumental discoveries and the fact that he left from the port of Barcelona.
The old tired headache was coming back so we took a pitstop on the wharf and watched the blue of the sky being shredded by the criss crossing of jet trails. There was a chair lift that you could take over the sea to the cliffs on the opposite side of the bay. This was certainly not for me.
When my head steadied, we walked on to the maritime museum. The area where they restore the boats for exhibition is behind a big glass wall. We saw models of the port area from centuries ago. The cathedral, Santa Maria Del Mar (built in the 1400s) that we visited yesterday was a lot closer to the sea. It looks like over the years a lot of the seafront has been reclaimed for building.
Getting back to the hotel we walked through the Indian and Arabic area. This was also a rambla or pathway of a river once. This area looked a lot shabbier but it was interesting in other ways. In the middle of this area there was a gigantic brass sculpture of a cat (honestly it was the size of a semi trailer). I wondered at its significance.
We spent a couple of hours resting back at the hotel rather than running ourselves ragged as we had on Thursday. We decided it was best to do slightly less and enjoy it more. It was also an opportunity to get into the reading. I'd already finished Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and was making headway with The Bookseller Of Kabul. It's been ages since I've read for pleasure and I was loving it. Johnny (god bless him) dealt with the forward bookings (trains and hotels) for Madrid. It was a bit tricky filling out the online forms which were in Spanish!
Britt and the suitcase made it home safely. The flight has left her feeling like she is coming down with the flu. Unbelievably the weather in Dubai is 20 degrees and cloudy. Molly is curled up on the bed, wrapped in a jumper and shivering with the cold!
Our last night in Barcelona was celebrated at Loria Restaurant. After an afternoon sleep we were rested and really looking forward to it. We started off with a Camembert fondue with truffled honey. It arrived with toasts that we used to scoop out the heart of the cheese round. Then John had rice with cray and cuttlefish. I had the pasta with prawns and scallops. Lovely. Rather than having coffee in the restaurant we went back to the hotel for coffee and muffins we sourced through the day. It was a really lovely day from beginning to end. Tomorrow after breakfast we will be taking the fast train to Madrid. Adios!
