We are determined that our last day here will be perfect, we walked to the
Santa Maria del Mar, this time we were able to go in. This is another wonderful
church in Gothic style and is in the top ten not to be missed guide. It has the lovely Gothic arches and stained glass windows, with the
exception of one window which is thoroughly modern and gorgeous too.
Our next meanderings took us back to the Port Vell area for the best Tapas we
have eaten here on a boat restaurant called Luz de Gas. Fresh salads, grilled
fish and meatballs in gravy. Nothing was fried! While walking there I found
a lovely pair of sunglasses, apparently they suit me so Andrew bought them for me.
Went to Palau de Musicale to book tickets for 3pm tour people are not allowed to
walk around on their own in here. Then ambled around La
Ribera area eating meringue and drinking caffe solo, waiting for 3 o'clock. We took the tour which was absolutely brilliant, the man in charge of showing us
all around was informative and also has a really good sense of humour, mainly
directed at daft questions from Americans. The Palau is really worth visiting, I
would love to see an orchestra perform here, the whole place is designed around acoustics,
originally for choirs and orchestra's as that was the music of the time. The
chairs have been designed to resemble the curves of a body so that when there is
a vacant seat it doesn't interfere with the sound. The stained glass windows are
very Mackintosh Glasgow rose style. The roof is an inverted sun and is
absolutely gorgeous, you can see it best from the top circle, from below it
looks quite flat. Both windows and roof being in glass gives a lovely feeling of
openness and light. The Riders of the Valkyri are sculpted into the walls at
ceiling level. The ceiling is highly decorated with plaster roses, which hide
the air con. recently installed very effectively. The columns are all in Gaudi
style tiled mosaic, maybe he got some of his amazing ideas from Millet as the
Palau de Musicale was designed and built before Gaudi's time? Unfortunately no
photos are allowed, so you'll have to visit this yourselves, highly recommended
as it's Andrew's favourite building in Barcelona!
Went on to the Picasso museum, where we spent an hour, not many of his
most interesting works are here unfortunately a few funny portraits of pigeons
etc. We went on boat trip around the harbour next which was good, but not very
picturesque as it's a working harbour, you can see the tiny cable car in the air
on one of the photos. Back ashore for a last wander around La Ramblas where we watched a man doing wonderful spray
paintings, we both loved
them so bought 2 - 1 for each house. We found the wonderful food market here
this time, which had evaded us so far, never seen such beautifully displayed and
colourful produce anywhere, it made us feel hungry just looking! Found caffe solo and zumo naranja and
beer at Cafe Opera a place Simon had recommended to us. It's a really quaint old
fashioned place with a huge range of beers and enticing snacks. I will really
miss the zumo naranja {freshly squeezed orange juice, almost every cafe, bar and
restaurant have a juicer here} Walked around the market then back to hotel dropped off
bits we bought and the camera, brought stuff in from the car to pack, our curtains fell
down in the bedroom as we walked in!? We reported this to a confused
receptionist, who said nothing could be done till morning. Returned to Luz de Gas boat for
wonderful dinner and wine, tried all the dishes we'd missed at lunch. Back to hotel for
diary, packing and sleep. another wonderful day, I love Barcelona - even if it
is to noisy to sleep all night.
