Tim and Lynda's Travels: Barcelona - Art and Architecture

February 7, 2017

Sunday morning we disembarked the Viking Sea in Barcelona. We've not said much about the ship itself. Viking has long been a major player in river cruises but has only entered the ocean cruise business in the last two years. There are only two ships in its fleet now but by 2018 there will be eight. Our ship is less then a year old and is beautiful. As you can imagine, the design of the ship is Scandinavian, which we like. Much attention to detail was spent on the design with many wonderful small touches throughout. It is truly a beautiful ship. We ate in all four main dining venues and all were excellent. The only disappointment was "The Chef's Table". This was advertised as a five course culinary adventure with the chef using many innovative techniques in the cooking and presentation of the food. The meal was very good but we were not blown away by the chef's innovations. All staff were friendly and attentive. The shore excursions were good and the on-board entertainment was first rate. All in all a very nice cruise.

We left the ship at 9:30 but could not get into our apartment until 2:00. Our landlord was kind enough to let us drop off our luggage in the morning so we did not have to schlep it all over Barcelona. The apartment is located in the Gothic area of Barcelona. This is the oldest part of the city and, like all European cities, has wonderful little streets to wander around. Which we did. We are just two blocks from the Cathedral of Barcelona and half a block from the Market of Santa Caterina. Our loyal readers know how much we love markets. We stopped at a tourist information center and discovered that there is free admission on the first Sunday of every month to the Picasso Museum. On arrival at the museum we stood in a long, but fast moving, line to get tickets. Tickets give you an assigned time when you can enter the Museum. We chose a time later in the day so that we would have time to have lunch and settle in our apartment. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona has one of the largest collections of Picasso's work in the world. Arranged in chronological order, it was fascinating to watch Picasso's style evolve into the style he is most famous for today. During his transition years there were portraits that you would not have identified as a Picasso next to a painting that anyone could have recognized the artist. It really was a large and interesting collection, although Tim suggested that maybe these were all the works he couldn't sell.

Monday was a long, tiring, but amazing day. It started at the Basilica Sagrada Familia which is quickly becoming the face of Barcelona. Construction was begun in 1882 and the projected completion is 2026, the centenary celebration of the death of Antonio Gaudi, the church's designer. Construction of the church was delayed by the Spanish Civil War and World War II. There was a 25 year period starting in 1926 where not much construction took place. Also, Antonio Gaudi was killed in a tram accident in 1926 and there were concerns that the replacement architect was not properly following Gaudi's original designs. This church is unlike any we have ever seen. We have always thought of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris as being the most beautiful on the outside of all the churches we have visited. Sagrada Familia is stunning as you approach it. The interior took our breath away. We'll include as many pictures as possible because we can't begin to describe it. We are aware that our taste in art and architecture is less then traditional and many of you will probably not be as enamored with this Basilica as we were and that's ok.

After leaving the Sagrada Familia we visited the house where Gaudi lived for 20 years. In addition to Sagrada Familia, Gaudi also designed several houses that we will visit on Tuesday as well as overseeing the designing of Park Guell, a lovely park on the hillside overlooking Barcelona. Here we saw examples of some of the furniture he designed for these homes as well as learning more about his life.

Monday evening we took a "Tapas Walk" that we had booked on the internet before our trip. Tapas are a Spanish food tradition that is like appetizers but not really. They are small plates of food such as small pieces of bread with toppings of meat, seafood or cheese or various kinds of small croquettes or fritters. People usually go on tapas walks where they go from bar to bar sampling the different tapas at each establishment. Our tour included stops at two different restaurants for tapas. However, for us, the highlight was when our guide took us into one of the many markets in Barcelona and described the different products in the market and how to go about buying them and what to be watchful of. For example, in many of the markets we have visited, particularly in Spain and Italy, there are legs of ham on display where the butcher slices off thin slices for you to purchase. Think Italian prosciutto. We were shown the differences in quality of the various hams. Also, as part of the tour we went into different shops where we sampled different olive oils or different kinds of candy nuggets. The walk was a lot of fun, but we returned to our apartment exhausted.

Buenos dias for now.