Barcelona, Spain: We had tickets for the Picasso Museum at 11a, so started walking that way before ten o'clock. The weather was just a bit chilly when we began, and warmed to only 67 degrees in the afternoon. Mixed sun and clouds, but no rain.
Our route began along the wide boulevards I wrote about yesterday, and as we continued walking towards the sea, the streets became narrower. When we reached the Picasso Museum area, only small pathways covered the neighborhood. We were late for our timed ticket slot (we wander too much!), but they still let us in. I was able to purchase senior tickets online weeks ago for 7€ - such a deal.
Before Picasso died, he left much of his work to the City of Barcelona, and the city is now custodian of most of his art. As we had just seen Las Meninas by Velazquez in Madrid, I especially enjoyed Picasso's "copying Las Meninas" phase.
Nothing left to the imagination if you know Las Meninas. There are 58 pieces in this selection - most feature only a character or two in the painting, and there is a lot of canvas devoted to the Meninas (the five year old princess).
Many paintings are presented along-side the original sketch:
Picasso designed for a exhibit of his paintings.
After visiting the Picasso Museum, we wandered around the nearby Santa Caterina Market, an open food market, with vegetable, fruit, fish, meats, spices, chicken, olive oil, cheeses, olives, eggs and everything one would need to create a delicious meal.
of free-range chicken with delicious meat.
- getting ready for Palm Sunday tomorrow.
Again, here we are at 1p with nothing except hotel espresso machine coffee for fuel. I needed food and we were well-over 10000 steps. Walking up the touristy La Rambla street back to our hotel, we found a little (what else?) tapas bar and each had one little tapa and neither of the tapas were this tapa (photo below) we had to stare at the entire time we were eating our mini-lunches at the bar.
I just said no.
Finally back to our hotel and a good siesta! Much later we ventured out searching for more tapas (when in Rome!) and visited one of the most popular restaurants in town, El Nactional. The restaurant is actually four (or maybe more) different dining rooms, in one massive tent-topped pavilion. There is a bistro (mostly serving meats), a seafood section, a pasta section and a tapas area. In the middle is a huge wine bar.
Their website said no reservations were necessary, but two of the restaurants were already full - with waiting lists at 8p, but the tapas area seated us immediately. I think the Easter holiday is the cause of the crowds. We had three things:
And one olive.
grilled peppers (one of three chops).
Tapas can sneak-up on you. Just a few bites here and there and you are suddenly so full. We walked back to the hotel and noticed an Easter eggs on steroids display in Vicens . Don't show this photo to your grandchildren - they will want massive Easter eggs!
There was a private event at the roof-top bar in our hotel last night, but tonight we were able to get a table and have a yummy sangria. I asked the server what was in the drink and he said only wine. No, really? A few minutes he came back to explain there was wine, red vermouth, vodka and brandy in their sangria. Also lemon slice, orange rind and a strawberry.
More excitement planned for tomorrow.
Pedometer: 15,773 steps. Gonna feel all those steps tomorrow. Today, I had a message from my pedometer telling me to take it easy, that I was getting more than my usual steps. Thanks for noticing.
Until my next update, I remain, your artsy correspondent.
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Weather in Barcelona