Barcelona - 22 September 2011 (1)

We left the hotel at 0920 and walked down Las Ramblas to find somewhere for breakfast.  I was thrilled when I finally spotted a parrot in the trees in the centre of the street, especially as it had a nest and was busy making repairs.  We stood gazing upwards for quite a while, but no one else paid the parrots any attention, despite their loud squawks.

When we eventually moved on, we found a different breakfast bar, but in the same street as the others.  We sat at a table instead of at the bar, so breakfast was more expensive at €10.

Monument on Placa de Espanya

Palau Nacional Montjuic

With eight journeys left, we decided to take the Metro again and head for Montjuic, via the Plaça de Espanya.  Again, the directions were clear and we got the correct train easily.  The unavoidable problem was the many flights of stairs in the station.  My mum has even more difficulty negotiating stairs than I do, so we had to take things slowly.

Twin Towers of Placa de Espanya

When we resurfaced, we were in a very different environment.  Whereas our square is a pedestrian square, the Plaça de Espanya is a square for traffic, comprising a roundabout in the middle of a very busy road junction.  A monument takes up most of the roundabout.

Fountains & Road to Placa Espanya

We walked towards the twin towers, between which is the road which leads up to Montjuic.  There were fountains all the way up, but none were working.  In the middle of the road, they were busy building another stage for the fiesta, which the guidebook said began today.

Sagrada Familia from Montjuic

Montjuic is a steep hill and looks to be a daunting climb.  We were both very relieved to find out that the guide book was correct and that there were indeed escalators to take us up to the Palau Nacional, a very impressive building which houses the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC).  The first escalators merely took us across the wide road which runs alongside the hill.  Then a double escalator took us to the next terrace.  Unfortunately, we did not see the next escalator, which was over to the right, so we slowly climbed the steps.  As we climbed, we could hear someone playing Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto.  We rested for a while when we reached the top and the guitarist played Billy Joel’s Piano Man, which always brings back memories of Christmas Eve in Quito, when I sang it in a bar with several Norwegians, Americans and French girls.

Fountain of Palau Nacional

The Palau Nacional is a very large building, with a central arena, crowned by a high domed ceiling.  There was an organ at the end of the arena and some of the seats at the higher levels were finished with mirrors.  Two glass lifts went to the first floor, so up we went.

The collection on this floor was mostly modern Catalan artists.  There were a handful of works by Picasso and Dali and some Gaudi furniture, but the art was mostly works by people who were contemporaries of the impressionists.  Some were very good, others less so.  My mum particularly liked the statues and enthused about the detail in the fabrics.  I especially liked two fun paintings by Ramon Casas: one of him and a friend on a tandem and one with them in a vintage car.

Olympic Communications Tower

There were also some Baroque paintings, which included works by Rubens, Titian, Tintoretto, Velasquez and many others.  We skipped through the religious paintings though.

Afterwards, we had a coffee in the café and then walked along the terrace outside.  From the end of the terrace, we could see the Sagrada Familia and the Torre AGBAR, both of which featured on postcards when lit up at night.  A plan began to form.

We decided to head to the Catalonia Archaeological Museum, which was down the hill and to the right.  We had to do a diversion because our side of the terrace had an up escalator and steps, but no down escalator.  So we walked to the other end of the terrace, from where we could see the communications tower, used for the 1992 Olympic Games.  As we walked, some parrots flew over.

The Catalonia Archaeological Museum took quite a bit of finding because it was not where it was marked on the map and because the vital signposts disappeared.  When we finally found it, it was smaller than I had expected.  It was also a bit disappointing as it didn’t have as many Etruscan and Carthaginian pieces as we had been led to expect.  Still, it was nice and cool and we enjoyed wandering around the exhibits.

By the time we left, I really didn’t feel like walking all the way back to the Metro in the Plaça de Espanya.  A look at the map indicated that the Poble Sec station was closer, so we continued to walk downhill and came out just one block away from the station.  It was an easy ride back to the Plaça de Catalunya.