Palace of Catalan Music

We visited the Palau de Musica Catalana in 2010, and, despite its being one of the best sights we've seen, ever, anywhere, I would only have mentioned it this time in passing...except that now, in 2013, bucking a continent-wide trend, they are permitting photography within the great hall. So I have to post a few pix from our Tuesday visit. The Palau is a smallish music hall--so it appears, although it seats more than 2,000--built in the early 1900s, and it is one of the greatest jewels of Modernisme. Its architect, Lluis Monterer, is right up there with Gaudi. We'll see more of Montener's work this visit. Anyhow, the Palau was built originally for choral music, but nowadays one is apt to see most anything musical there, including some of the greatest of the contemporary greats. Barcelonans call it their little "box of light," and the best comparison I can draw, totally unmusical, is with Sainte Chappelle.

Exterior, the prow

Nice prominence for Wagner, whom the builders regarded as
contemporary, contrasted with the "classical" Beethoven

One of the intermission areas

The great hall

The great inverted dome

From the floor

With organ and sculptures

Valkyries flying by

Balcony seating

Detail; hardly a square centimeter not adorned

Side aisle

All through our tour this guy was tuning the piano for a
concert that evening (Brahms and Schumann; pass...); here
he has removed the entire keyboard; we hope he got it put
back together

End of tour: backside of Herr Wagner

Barcelona's La Rambla

We checked into the very nice and reasonable Camping Barcelona Sunday afternoon . The campground is about 20-25 miles from the Barcelona centrum and free buses shuttle you in and out 4 times a day. Smaller shuttles run more or less hourly between the campground and the city of Matoros (120,000), a mile or so away, which has a train station and all the stores you'd need for everyday purposes. 17 euros a day, including electricity and other amenities. Such a vast and wonderful difference from our previous Barcelona visit!

Rain was forecast and delivered most of Monday, so we stayed at the campground, reading, planning, cleaning, etc. But Tuesday we ventured back into the great city, one of Europe's best, and began at the beginning, the obligatory stroll from the Placa de Catalan to the harbor and the Columbus monument along what is to me Europe's best boulevard, La Rambla. We got nearly half way before being distracted, but that's another post.

You'll see more of La Rambla in our 2010 posts; here just a
few sights on and off the boulevard; El Indio, a fabric store
on a side street, on the Ruta del Modernisme; for us,
Barcelona is largely about architecture, Modernisme as
it is called here, Jugenstil in Germany or Austria, Art
Nouveau more generally; El Indio was our first stop (and
we'll skip the farmacia, the Casa Beethoven, etc.)

My favorite market in Europe is La Rambla's Boqueria,
where you can get Kobe rib-eye for 150 euros/kilo (2.2 lbs)
or Nebraska USA for 39.90

But this is Spain, where Pigs Rule

And the really good stuff will run upwards of 200 euros/kilo

In the colorful Peppers & Stuff stall

Another beautiful old store

The China building

At the Liceu they're celebrating Wagner's
200th birthday; also a year-long Wagner
film festival

The Miro mosaic on La Rambla

I've been trying to get into Miro--Barcelona would be the
place for it--but just can't

So at this point we dove into the Barri Gotic, the old city, in
search of a restaurant, Merce Vins, I'd read about on Yelp;
at length we found it and were glad we did--a three course
delight (gazpacho; salt cod, pear for me; steak for Vicki and
the above cake and dessert wine), including bread and 1/3
bottle of wine, all for 12 euros each; then we figured out
that the Palace of Catalan Music, our favorite Art Nuvo
here, was just a couple hundred feet away; and so we'll
finish the rest of the Rambla another day

Cats Love Containers, Episode #9,781

In a shipwreck outside Casa Dali; I tried everything, but he
wouldn't look at me

Casa Dali At Portlligat, 2

Continuing our tour of Portlligat...

Dali's mustache collection: the Kaiser, Stalin, and Phillip IV

Artist's knick-knacks

Snail, a gift from Tiffany's; he did lots of jewelwry

In the one and only bedroom

In a room walled with magazine and
newspaper articles and photos with famous
people (ask and I'll send my pix of photos
with Ed Sullivan, Harpo Marx, Gregory Peck,
Sir Laurence Olivier, et. al.)

Vicki in the Oval Room, Gala's retreat, decorated largely with
mementos of her Russian heritage

Another of the several gorgeous outdoor spaces

Happy Easter, y'all!

Another outdoor pavilion, in which were
playing Dali home movies

Jesus of the Refuse Pile; everything is art (well, potentially)

The pool, a lap-pool with a diving well at one end and a
seating area at the other; being expressive is so much more
fun when you're rich (I conjecture)

Us, pool-side

After the tour, Vicki takes in the interpretive video

Last look at Portlligat; we thought we might continue on for
the hat trick with Pubol; but enough is enough, and it's
always well to leave something for next time; so we drove
on to Barcelona, picking up the N11 near Figueres and
continuing on to Camping Barcelona, near Mataro

Casa Dali At Portlligat, 1

I couldn't reduce my hundred or so photos of the Casa Dali at Portlligat beyond this and the following long post. It was Salvador and Gala's only permanent residence from 1930 to her death in 1982. Granted, they wintered in New York and Paris and other places and generally avoided Spain during civil and world wars. But the place is fascinating, as the personal residence of famous people, as art history, and for its own beauty. Dali left Portlligat the day Gala died and never returned. It is maintained now by the Fundacion Gala y Salvador Dali, which also maintains the museum in Figueres and the castle in Pubol.

Looking from the olive grove down to Casa Dali and the
little harbor/cove of Portlligat; Dali began acquiring and
building in 1929, and was able to keep the area to himself
for many years; the house is a ramshackle assemblage of
fisherman's huts, but beautifully put together and decorated

The house; only ten persons are permitted inside per visit

Their boat,the Gala; he found it a wreck in 1955, and rebuilt
it; she would go fishing in the harbor while he painted (note
it is berthed next to the Queen Mary) 

There are many photographs such as this at the Casa; she
was his lover, wife, muse, artistic advisor, and business
manager; they were never apart after 1929

Lines of sight in the entry, the Bear Room

Library; they were said to have had 4500 books; note low
chairs and sofa

Sofa in another room, said to have been the inspiration for
the Mae West installation

One of many outdoor areas, a terrace overlooking the harbor

The diminutive kitchen; though a very large house, it was
defiantly just a house for two people

There are art history references all through the house, here,
a mirror last seen in van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding; another
mirror is similar to one in a painting by Vermeer, whom Dali
venerated

The artist's studio

Velasquez, taped to the wall

The giant movable easel; Dali preferred
painting seated, at least in his later years, and
the easel could be raised or lowered as
required; when finished, the large canvasses
could be lowered directly through a slit in the
floor for transit

More of the studio