Barcelona: Dos

I woke several times during the night to the sound of booming thunder and driving rain. When I finally opened my eyes for good and peered out the window, I saw that heavy rain was still pounding into huge, spreading puddles. I'd slept pretty late, which wasn't really all that surprising given the late night I'd had in a different time zone. After reading for a bit, I wandered downstairs to find Ferran. He poured me a cup of coffee in the kitchen, and I looked out the window as I sipped it to see hail bouncing out of the sky. Ferran said it was a good thing I'd seen all of Barcelona the day before. We foraged in the kitchen for a bit, and then a quick online search told me that the Picasso Museum was not only open on Sundays, but free! Perfect for a rainy/hail-y day. 

As we waited for the train, things were clearing up a little bit, though it would drizzle on and off throughout the day. Because the weather was improving, Ferran decided that we should go to the National Art Museum to check out the view for a bit before going to the Picasso Museum. I was glad we did. The museum itself was beautiful, from the outside, at least; we did not end up going in. The best part, though, was the view. It's on top of a fairly high hill, and after climbing up endless stairs, we had a lovely vista of Barcelona with Mt. Tibidabo in the background. I remembered seeing the museum from Tibidabo the day before, so it was sort of cool to get a perspective of the city from the opposite side.

View from halfway up the museum hill. Mt. Tibidabo is the highest point in the range of hills in the distance.

From there, we headed back into the heart of old Barcelona and toured the Picasso Museum. It was pretty cool. His work was arranged by period, and as this was a guy who went through a LOT of very different periods there were lots of rooms and surprises around every corner. I really liked seeing the chronological progression of his career. Everyone thinks of cubism and "Guernica" when they think of Picasso, but when he began drawing and painting his work was very realistic. He ventured into more experimental art only later, once he had pretty well mastered capturing real life as it actually looked. (Contrast his early painting of the doctor and patient above with his later self-portrait below.) One whole room was filled up with Picasso's reinterpretations of Velazquez's "Las Meninas." I didn't know he'd done these, and they were fascinating. Each one was different, and he must have spent months, or even years, churning these out. Google it if you're bored one day - it's interesting stuff.

We finished the evening with beer and authentic tapas, which meant lots of fried things and bowls of olives at a seedy bar. Then we headed back to Ferran's place, where his father had just returned from hanging out at the family's new vineyard/winery. They've owned it for a few years, and it's only just starting to be productive. He brought me a bottle of their very first red, which survived the trip back to the US and which I am excited to try. The next morning, after picking up some manchego and jamon for Ed and the people back at the office, I boarded a plane and was back home in plenty of time to get a full night's sleep before work on Tuesday.

It was a whirlwind trip to be sure, and much like my trip to Paris in that I got a taste of a country I'd like to explore much more. But it was a great taste, and I can't wait to go back!