Day - 57 Barcelona Art & Architecture

Barcelona - big, bold and bustling!! My first full day in this crazy city. Must say that whilst I have an incredible location with my digs - unfortunately there’s a downside - my room stinks. And it’s pretty easy to guess what of. So my sleep was not good and deep. I made several attempts to reduce the smell by sealing up drains in the shower and vanity. Complained about it to the only person around in the morning - a cleaner. His solution a liberal dose of disinfectant down the drains followed by some perfume solution. Not what I’d call root cause analysis and rational problem solving. We did manage to jamb open a window to allow some extra ventilation.
My day was scheduled to start at the Picasso Museum. The earliest entry time I could get was 12:15. So I had a slow start by visiting another art museum called The Mayoral Gallery - had great reviews - only to find again - it wasn’t open!! I then wondered towards the Picasso and allowed myself some little deviations along the way. Blow me down, I stumble across a sculpture in a small plaza - identical to “Laura” (I think that’s its name) at the Pt Leo Estate sculpture park!!
Next I was drawn by the vivid colours of a neat little street art gallery. It was a beaut bright flouro painted shop with poster style original one off artworks over the top of copied prints of famous people. Also many full original works in similar style. They were pretty cool. Me being me started asking the guy about the art - he was Pedro and his English was not too bad. Somehow we got onto the subject of swimming and soon I was giving him dry swim lessons there and then in his shop!! He really appreciated my tips and we chatted for quite a while between his customers. He was one of the artists whose works were for sale. I was keen to buy something 100€ or so - pretty good value - but I would never be able to carry it of course.
The Picasso Museum is a permanent legacy of his lifetime. So a chronological display of his life’s art was carefully curated and well presented in a set of separate rooms. The museum is actually in the old city part of Barcelona - so was really lovely setting and character. Again the numbers allowed in at any one time were well controlled in terms of entry times. You could stay inside for as long as you liked. I just did a self guided tour mainly following the crowd. There were guided tours and self guided with audio devices.
OK time for some architecture now. So I worked out a bit of a walking plan and just went for it. Casa Batllo and Sagrada Familia buildings designed by the very famous Spanish Architect Gaudi. Again - like their art - the Spanish can go to extremes when it comes to form - never mind the function of construction - this is all about complex geometry and seemingly impossible curves and shapes on a scale that is mind blowing. Especially the Sagrada Familia Basillica Church. Very spectacular!! I only walked around the buildings - entry quite expensive and time was of the essence. By now I was feeling pretty thirsty and when I stumbled across a BEER HALL I just had to stop. Styled on American surf and skateboard themes. They didn’t have any Hazy Pale Ales so I settled for an IPA 6€ for a reasonable sized glass. The toilet was full of graffiti - so I left my mark in more ways than one. More walking and wondering in my general direction of my digs and I spot a landmark building in the distance - so I headed for it and a few more photos.
By the time I got back to my digs I was pretty much buggered. A lot of walking today.Read more