Wednesday February 14...I went to La Rambla, which was near my hotel and, according to the LP guide, is
"Spain's most famous street". I went to Palau Guell, which is a house that Gaudi designed for industrial
Eusebi Guell (who also commissioned Gaudi for the Parc I went to the day before).
For lunch, I went to a restaurant near La Rambla, Le Quinze Nuits, which is a very popular restaurant
in Barcelona. The night before there was a huge line waiting to get into the restaurant. Very good
food.
On La Rambla, there are all these kiosks which sell magazines (lots of porn magazines) and lots of
birds. It's a bit sad, because at night when you walk down the streets, the kiosks are closed up and
you can hear the birds inside these kiosks in their cages. Also on La Rambla, there's a food market
where I bought some amazing tangerines.
In the afternoon, I went to Placa d'Espanya and then Montjuic, where they built many facilities
for the 1992 Olympics. I went to Poble Espanyol, which is "Spanish Village" with architecture from
all over Spain, definitely a tourist trap. Then I went to Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which
had a very good display of the ancient roman ruins; they created displays with the shapes of the
churches/buildings and then used as many of the original pieces as possible. You got a good sense
of the context of the art, which you normally lack with most museum displays. I visited the Olympic
Stadium and the various surrounding Olympic buildings. Afterwards, I visited the Miro Foundation.
After seeing Miro's paintings at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, I became a fan of Joan Miro,
and I was not disappointed here.
After walking around Montjuic, I decided to go to the top, but the teleferic had closed. So I hiked
up some dark roads, a bit scared I would get mugged, and then wandered down as quickly as possible.
I wasn't that hungry for dinner and almost went to Pans and Company on my last day in Barcelona, but
found a salad buffet place near by. It was just like the all-you-can-eat salad places in the USA,
except with Spanish/Catalan food (the soups were quite yummy).
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Roof of Palau Guell
From Montjuic towards
Placa d'Espanya
Olympic Area on Montjuic
Miro Foundation
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