Picasso Museum

The Barcelona Cathedral, which we skipped;

it's hardly the main church in town

Alley near the Picasso Museum

The Picasso Museum has a no-pix policy; Vicki snapped

this in protest; I didn't really think anything was worth

photographing

Old city walls and portal, part Roman

Much of Picasso's formative years were in or near Barcelona, and the Picasso Museum has a great deal of his earliest work. Even his adolecent paintings are striking for their emotion and skill. He was a genuine prodigy and paid his dues in mastering conventional techniques. The museum has holdings up through the Blue period, plus his 1957 Las Meninas (parody? tribute?) but not a lot more. Not our most impressive museum, but then Picasso is not exactly our favorite artist.

Palace of Catalan Music

Vicki had seen photos on postcards of the Palau de Musica

de la Catalan and we resolved to see it--only via tour and

no pix--the next day; of all Barcelona's sights, it was the

most impressive, not a Gaudi piece, although the same

vintage and very Modernista; interior (off the web);

surprisingly, the place seats more than 2,000; it feels far

more intimate

Incredible inverted ceiling dome

Even the coffee shoppe wasn't bad looking

Interior

Exterior view, facade; the building is so

hemmed-in, you can't see much of it from the

outside

More exterior

Plus, they treat Wagner very well

Sagrada Familia By Night

The night was young, it wasn't that far away

(we thought), so we bussed and Metro'd and

walked over to the Sagrada Familia, the

Gaudi church, still under construction (begun

in 1882), all lit up; it too is incredible; they

are not building this church the old-fashioned

way; Gaudi was a 4th generartion metal

worker and saw nothing wrong with using

rebar and concrete

Anyhow, work continues through the night

Note tree and doves above the doors

All-day and -night tourism requires massive

infusions of hot choclate and churros

Park Guell

Barcelona, from the summit of Park Guell

Approaching the park terrace

Gaudi park benches

Vicki on one of the benches

Detail

More of the park

Grill work at the entrance

In the market area; the columns only look

perpendicular

Guadian reptile

From the entrance to the terrace

Gaudi also designed a residential neighborhood and park. The neighborhood thing flopped--too few buyers/investors--and so was scrapped, but the city later acquired the property as a park, the Park Guell (his patron), another Gaudi monument.

La Pedrera

La Pedrera is an apartment building by Gaudi, 4 blocks or so from the Block of Discord (all this is in the Example, the Extension, the new (c. 1880) addition that adjoins the old city from the Plaza de Catalan). It is part Gaudi museum and showplace but is also still occupied by a few (very wealthy) residents and a few offices.  It was just as incredible inside as outside.

La Pedrera, frontal view

Looking up from the entry

In the foyer

There is a furnished apartment on the 5th floor, part of the

museum, all done up in Modernista, that is, art nouveau,

incredibly beautiful stuff

Roof ornamentation

Closer up

More roof ornmentation; as we'll see, much

of his work involves broken tile--they can

be set in curves that unbroken tiles cannot

Gaudi chimneys

From the roof, a mile or so away, the

Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's church, which

we'll see a lot more of...

And the Torre Agbar, which is 20th century,

not Gaudi, but fits Barcelona just as well

Interior structural support for the roof

Pedrera by night

Block of Discord

Perhaps most famous of all Barcelona's many sights are the buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi, who died in about 1926. Most of his work was late 19th/early 20th century. "Gaudi" is pronounced sort of like "Gowdy," as in Curt Gowdy, my all-time favorite sports broadcaster. I mention this in part because I just learned, via a NYT dispatch, that the Saints beat the Colts in the SuperBowl, 31-17. It is the first SuperBowl in history that I have entirely missed. (I caught the last couple minutes of last year's in a sports bar in Te Anau, South Island.) Just a little stream-of-consciousness for your information.

Anyhow, Gaudi is about the most distinctive designer/architect I have come across. I had read a bit about him and his work and was prepared to be repulsed. But it is entirely seductive, intriguing, amazing. I haven't the architectural vocabulary to describe it--except to say it is very organic, natural, colorful, no straight lines, no right angles--so I'll have to let my poor pictures convey what they can. We spent most of the day Thursday seeing Gaudi sites, getting more and more intrigued...first the Block of Discord, which ranges several modernist structures together, most notably Gaudi's Casa de Battlli.

On the Block of Discord

We had our picnic lunch (ask me about goose mousse) on 
a sidewalk bench right here, listening to various professors 
lecture to their classes (and in English, too)

Barcelona book award sculpture?

Advertising on the Block of Discord, well, across from it

Beautiful grill-work everywhere; a lamp post on the Passeig 
de Gracia

Casa de Batlla at night (we had to go back and see all these 
things lit up)

More Ramblin' In Barcelona

About midway down the Rambla, we ran into
the Liceau, the Barcelona Opera

Where they just happened to have been
doing Tristan und Isolde this week; the
only tickets remaining were 192 and 138
euros; so I decided to pass; a visit to
their book and CD/DVD store, the best
opera store I have ever seen, convinced
 me I could own all the Wagner DVDs I'd
ever want for 192 euros!

Opera interior

The Rambla is lined with mimes of every
description; here's one talking to a "friend"

\

The Barcelona Columbus
monument; after the first
voyage, he arrived back here
to greet Ferdinand and
Isabella

"That-a-way" he seems to be saying

The maritime museum, built from the medieval
ship-building structures

We finished up with an exceptionally mediocre tapas and a paella dinner. Paella, in my estimation, is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things.