Sunday in Barcelona

It was cooler today, or felt cooler. We set off to our good breakfast place, then headed off to visit Sant Pau Art Nouveau site…we have been before, but it is quite astonishing, and worth another look. It was built in 1902 as a hospital, on a site where there was one, but this was modern and state of the art medically, though the buildings look nothing like a functional place! It was a working hospital from 1916-2009! It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is now a space for historical and architectural dissemination, the blurb says…

We then went back to put on another layer (me) as just a bit uncomfortable, and Amr remembered spotting a sign that said there would be some Sardana dancing in a park near the Sagrada Familia at noon. So we wandered along, and the band was tuning up, and quite a lot of people gathered, and it started…such fun…men and women, old and young, they hold hands in a circle and do the steps they probably learned in primary school…people would come up and join in the circle, and all their jackets etc thrown in a pile in the middle. We had come across it accidentally years ago in Barcelona…it is a Catalan thing…we are getting quite good at Catalan (reading I mean) lots of bilingual signs, or just Catalan, and quite a few Catalan flags in windows, though not as many as our most recent visit when there were thousands during one of their rebellion times…so that was a fun interlude, and Amr took a short video of the dancing which gives an idea of the vibe…

After that we decided to walk up to the Gaudi park which is quite a long walk, and quite a long uphill…but we need to keep walking, so of course we walked it…we could see it as we approached, very Gaudi decorations on fences and buildings etc, but to our distress, and I think many others, it was full, completo, no room…they could give us a ticket for Tuesday!! It did look crowded, the little bit you could see, but what a pity. We had imagined it was a park that you could stroll through, and admire the Gaudi decor…anyway, no choice but to walk down the hill again, but we had spotted a delightful square on the way up and stopped there for R and R, that being some pimientos de padron, some artichokes and some calamari..washed down with water and rosé…

Our spirits restored, we set off again and aimed for a concert hall (can’t remember its proper name) but famous and down near the arc de triumf area, and designed by the same art nouveau architect as the hospital. Finally found it, very ornate and over the top, but again thwarted, no entrance…maybe closed on Sundays, though we saw people inside probably on an official tour, and we could see a ticket office, but all firmly shut. Again admired from outside!

Then we had a short kindle session, but there started to be droplets in the air, wouldn’t call it rain, but we made our way back, via a cafe/colacao. And now Amr decided this was the moment to go to the laundromat, so as not to take the time in Burgos, and so that we won’t accidentally find ourselves wanting dinner at an unfashionably early hour. We plan to eat at one of the little places near us, as we leave early in the morning, 9.05am train from the main station Barcelona Sants.

Addendum: name of the music hall is Palau de la Musica Catalana, and the architect is Lluis Domenech i Montaner. Also noted that along the road by the Sagrada Familia, where there are literally thousands of tourists, every American food chain we had ever heard of was represented! Plus, we walked 15 kms today.Read more