Saturday, October 01, 2005
Day 128: Barcelona
October 1: Can you believe it, it´s October!?
Today is my last full day in Europe, and well I am hoping to do a walking tour round the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona in the morning, then visit the cathedral nearby and Picasso museum too. Hoping to take the afternoon easy with maybe a look at other buildings of interest of take a walk along the waterfront.
Okay, what I actually did follows:
Nice sunny day today. Did the guided walking tour around the Gothic quarter (Barri Gothic) but as it turns out most buildings that used to be Gothic have now been redeveloped into modern ones, so there wasn´t that much to see. We did see where the city walls had been, a few buildings, mansions and ´palaces´ with some parts of Gothic architecture remaining, and strangely, an apartment building with four columns in its courtyard which are hundreds of years old from this time!
Also went passed the main cathedral, Palau Real Major (Palace where the king and queen of Aragon used to live... hundreds of years ago when Arragon/Catalonia was a separate kingdom), Placea del Rei and the royal chapel nearby.
Something was going on in Placa de Sant Jaume, but we got to see the main political buildings too such as the Generalitat and City Hall.
After the tour, I went inside the Cathedral and saw the many chapels and naive and headed to the roof terrace to get views of the city, once again.
Also took note of the 13 geese inside the cathedral grounds... they´re there to protect the building (early form of fire alarm they say). The geese have been there for hundreds of years. 13 signifies the age a particular girl, Saint Lucia, was when she died.
Spent my afternoon exploring the many works on display at the Picasso museum. Mostly paintings but had some cermaics too. A good cross-section of his work including the early Malaga, Barcelona and Paris periods, the Blue and Pink periods, and then the time when he copied some of Velazquez´s works (another artist). Also learnt about his history... he was married a number of times and had children with each of his partners except one (whom he only married at age 80).
Took a walk passed the Arc de Triomf (a present from the French) and main music hall (known for its facade architecture) before returning to the hostel to relax.
Not sure what I will do tonight... will tell you later...
PS. Had to swap rooms in the hostel tonight... now in a room of 8 not 6... doesn´t matter.
Today is my last full day in Europe, and well I am hoping to do a walking tour round the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona in the morning, then visit the cathedral nearby and Picasso museum too. Hoping to take the afternoon easy with maybe a look at other buildings of interest of take a walk along the waterfront.
Okay, what I actually did follows:
Nice sunny day today. Did the guided walking tour around the Gothic quarter (Barri Gothic) but as it turns out most buildings that used to be Gothic have now been redeveloped into modern ones, so there wasn´t that much to see. We did see where the city walls had been, a few buildings, mansions and ´palaces´ with some parts of Gothic architecture remaining, and strangely, an apartment building with four columns in its courtyard which are hundreds of years old from this time!
Also went passed the main cathedral, Palau Real Major (Palace where the king and queen of Aragon used to live... hundreds of years ago when Arragon/Catalonia was a separate kingdom), Placea del Rei and the royal chapel nearby.
Something was going on in Placa de Sant Jaume, but we got to see the main political buildings too such as the Generalitat and City Hall.
After the tour, I went inside the Cathedral and saw the many chapels and naive and headed to the roof terrace to get views of the city, once again.
Also took note of the 13 geese inside the cathedral grounds... they´re there to protect the building (early form of fire alarm they say). The geese have been there for hundreds of years. 13 signifies the age a particular girl, Saint Lucia, was when she died.
Spent my afternoon exploring the many works on display at the Picasso museum. Mostly paintings but had some cermaics too. A good cross-section of his work including the early Malaga, Barcelona and Paris periods, the Blue and Pink periods, and then the time when he copied some of Velazquez´s works (another artist). Also learnt about his history... he was married a number of times and had children with each of his partners except one (whom he only married at age 80).
Took a walk passed the Arc de Triomf (a present from the French) and main music hall (known for its facade architecture) before returning to the hostel to relax.
Not sure what I will do tonight... will tell you later...
PS. Had to swap rooms in the hostel tonight... now in a room of 8 not 6... doesn´t matter.
# posted by mishij @ 2:59 PM 
