October 24, 2018              Barcelona            Monday 22^nd, Tuesday 23^rd & Wednesday 24^th

 

The internet at our exchange apartment was dodgy the first two days of our stay, but as of today it seems to be okay, but it is slow uploading photos.  Anyway this is my excuse for not posting earlier.  We arrived Monday the 22^nd at about 13:30.  We go to the apartment by about 14:30.  It is very nice, and in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, a great location.  After dropping our stuff and buying some cereal and fruit for breakfast we walked down to the waterfront via La Rambla.  On the way back we stopped at a Craft Beer Bar for a cold one.  I picked the better beer, a 9% IPA (I think), Sue got Lemon juice with alcohol, so I had two, and she helped me with the second one.  I took a few photos, none of which are any good.  I have to relearn how to post them.

For dinner we went to one of the restaurants our hosts recommended, Cuines de Sta. Caterina, it was very good.  We did learn that there is no fish on Mondays because the fish market is closed.  This restaurant is actually attached to a fish market, and it was closed.  Sue had squid with asparagus, I had thin sliced Iberian ham with tomato bread, the Spanish/Catalonian version of bruschetta.  It was all very good, as were the Heinekens.  

After dinner we were beat so we were in bed by about 21:30.  I woke up at about midnight and Sue a few hours later.  We fell back to sleep at about 3:00, and the next thing we knew it was 11:00 Tuesday morning!  I can’t remember the last time I slept 8 hours straight.

Monday Oct 22nd
 

Tuesday October 23rd

We didn’t leave the apartment until almost 13:00.  We were off to see a “large” sculpture “Mistos” (Matches) by Claes Oldenberg.  Sue posted a photo on Facebook.  As I am sure I’ve mentioned before, he makes large sculptures of everyday objects.  We have seen about 15 so far.  He has a huge baseball bat in Chicago located at the Harold Washington Social Security Administration Building at 600 West Madison, just in case you want to go see the “Bat Column”.  We took the Metro to see the Matches, and on our return two ladies pickpockets tried to get us.  It happened on the escalator out of the Metro.  There was a young girl in front of Sue, I was behind Sue and it turned out another woman was behind me.  I felt the jacket of the woman behind me touch my leg and I put my hand down to push it away.  I’m pretty sure her arm was in the jacket.  When we got to the top of escalator the young girl stopped to block Sue, and of course me.  Sue told her to move and pushed her out of the way.  I’m sure the plan was to try and get into my pocket during the confusion, but it didn’t happen.  I was wearing my “Pickpocket Proof” pants that has more zippers, snaps and buttons than I can count.  While we decided where to go next we saw that the two women were joined by a man.  Travelling can be an adventure.  Our next adventure was to see the Frank Gehry sculpture the Gold Fish made for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.  It is naturally along the waterfront.  We took a different route down to the waterfront (the Mediterranean if you didn’t know).  We walked through more of the Gothic quarter that is less crowded than La Rambla.  But the streets are very narrow and picturesque, but that doesn’t stop the occasional car from crawling down the narrow streets.  The walkway along the water is lined with mostly African refugees (they were ALL guys, no women) trying to sell: shoes, sunglasses, handbags, you name it.  There were also guys making sculptures in the sand.  We got a few photos of the fish, and then headed for the Metro or bus to get home.

This was when I discovered that I had lost my 10€ transit pass!  I had put it in my pocket with the phone, and it obviously fell out when I took the phone out.  I did the same thing in Rome a few years ago.  Sue did manage to get me back home safe and sound.  For dinner we went to the 4 Cats restaurant because Tamme, our daughter-in-law loves cats, so it was a natural.  The food was delicious, apparently Picasso and his friends frequented this place back in the day

Tuesday Oct 23rd 

Wednesday October 24^th we had our appointment at MACBA, the Museu d’ Art Contemporani de Barccelona to see a 1001 painting.  We met a very nice young lady Ms. Laia Alsina who took us to see the painting “Cross + R” by Antoni Tapies the storage area, this is #690 of 1001..  Photos were not allowed, but don’t worry I have a photo to post.  This is the ONLY painting we are going to see on this trip, can you believe it?  We then went to the Antoni Tapies Foundation to buy a museum card and to see more of his works.  As you will see from the photo of “Cross + R” Antoni’s work is Abstract Art, and there were some real abstractions at his foundation; not my favorite genre.

Sue is going to pick out another place to eat while I figure out how to post my photos. 

Oh yeah, we are going to a footie (soccer) match tonight, FC Barcelona plays FC Intenazionale (Milano).  Update: we went to the match, and FCB was leading 1-nil after the first half, which is when we left.  It was an experience, the crowd sings and chants throughout the match.  FCB won the match 2-nil (0).  The stadium holds at least 100,000; I have photos of the stadium when we first arrived and at the start of the game to show the crowd size.  There is no alcohol sold in the stadium.  Most of the fans for FCI were seated at the top of the stadium behind a Plexiglas wall.  When we left at the half there were a ton of policia in riot gear outside the stadium.

Wednesday Oct 24th