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| He followed me all from Copenhagen. Can I keep him? |
With the tour of La Sagrada Familia scheduled for the evening, we had most of an afternoon to kill in Barcelona. Could we find things to see?
The problem with Barcelona is that there is too much to see. You can't see it all. You can't do it all. So this first visit is like a reconnaissance mission for future visits.
La Sagrada Familia looks like it should be the Cathedral of Disneyland.
It has a "make believe" look to it, especially from a distance.
But when you walk the Eixample neighborhood, there are plenty of amazing looking buildings, most do not even rate being mentioned in a guidebook or a map. Let's head down Passeig de Sant Joan.
This is a monument. Honoring someone who did something heroic. Once. Awhile ago. A rude Tourist Me couldn't even be bothered to look.
Actually, I did look. It is the Monument a Jacint Verdaguer. It is a memorial to poet and priest Verdaguer i Santaló, who died in 1902. This monument also explains why the nearby metro stop is called "Verdaguer."
This church is incredibly beautiful from the outside. I tried finding its name, but the internet will not reveal the church's secret.
This statue is called Tetuan. Or the park is called Tetuan. Something in this photo is called "Tetuan," I promise you. The nearby metro stop most certainly is called "Tetuan."
Finally, here it is. Barcelona's own Arc d'Triomf.
Closer.
This is Barcelona's Chocolate Museum. I was thinking of going in, but thought twice. What does Barcelona have to do with chocolate?
Soon we were in the La Ribera district, which is like the Barri Gotic (Gothic Barrio in Spanglish).
We had a 1:00PM appointment to get the final hour of our Spanish Civil War walking tour. This was a lecture at a bar (La Llibertaria) in the Barri Gotic about the after-effects of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime. We also got some lunch in the bar.
My chorizo sausage was OK, but let's just say there are better places to eat in Barcelona.
Next. It was time to take the funicular up the side of Montjuic to the Fundaciò Joan Mirò, a museum dedicated to the artist Joan Mirò. I am all about the funicular. All aboard.
This probably was the mildest-sloped funicular on which I have ever ridden. Still, it was a funicular. And, soon, through the wonders of modern funicular technology, we soon arrived at our destination: the Fundaciò Joan Mirò, a single artist museum dedicated to a modern artist whose work I definitely do not dismiss as sucky.
See my little friend from Denmark's Louisiana museum greeting visitors right by the main entrance.
This is the olive courtyard, so named because of the olive tree, not the color of the sculpture.
Forgive me if I mentioned this in the Louisiana post in the Denmark section of this vacation series, but I only recently found out that Joan Mirò is a man Joan and not a woman Joan. "Joan" is a man's name in Catalan, the equivalent of "John" or "Juan." And it's pronounced zhah-AHN, more or less. So much knowledge in this world still to be revealed to me.
Soon I was in the museum. Soon I was told: "no photography." At least in the museum. So I took no photographs and left only footprints. So there will be no more of the art inside. Cool stuff, too, sorry.
Photography was allowed on the roof, which allowed me to get this panoramic view of Barcelona.
We walked through the surrounding garden areas to feel the nature.
And see more Barcelona from the top of Montjuic.
But the shadows were growing long, which meant it was time to start the journey across town to La Sagrada Familia for that tour. First stop: the Montjuic Funicular Station.
Down down down we go.
And the Montjuic funicular is tied into the Barcelona Metro system. Which meant: no extra fee to ride if you Metro-ed to Paral-lel station. Yes, that is how it is spelled: "Paral" hyphen "lel." Those crazy Catalans.
