My last day in Barcelona was spent partly at the Barceloneta beach. I don't have any pictures of the beach because all I brought with me was a metro card and a room key. The hotel people had warned me to be careful with my belongings and I didn't want to chance it. Barcelona does have a reputation for pickpocketing. I was grateful to have been very careful with where I kept my money and cards.
The water at Barceloneta beach was slightly cool but very pleasant and swimmable. It was definitely nice to swim around or just watch people from the water. I had a really nice conversation with a lady from Brazil who had been in Prague for a conference prior to Barcelona. She loved Prague and thought it was beautiful. I really need to see Prague soon. It also felt good to be able to help her with some tips of what to see in Barcelona.
Barceloneta is next to Port Vell, where all the cruise ships are. Speaking of cruises, the night before, I had a very pleasant chat with an American couple from Ventura CA (even shared my paella with them). They were only in BCN for a couple nights and then were joining a cruise ship out of Barca to Italy and Greece.
After the beach, I headed to Picasso Museum. Picasso had spent a lot of years, including adolescence, in Barcelona. The Museum had some 4000+ (or even more) art work of his. His father was an art teacher, it was funny how his earlier drawings were very classical and then he only got more abstract once he got older. I really loved his re-interpretation of Velaquez's Las Meninas (sp?), which I had already seen and really liked at Museum Prado in Madrid. Love being able to understand and recognize new things!
Upon leaving Picasso Museum, I roamed around Gothic Quarter looking at buildings and the beautiful alleys. I also decided that I would just wander toward a certain direction for about 30 minutes and then will retrace my steps. Somehow, I ended up in Port Vell again. I had taken the metro earlier in the day to Port Vell to get to the beach, and so I hadn't walked to it from above ground. Anyway, I took it as a sign and sat down across the water and had a nice big platter of mixed grilled seafood (see the gumptous picture in the Barcelona - Food section). It was one of the best meals I have had.
Oh, and on my way to Port Vell for the impromtu dinner, I took some pictures of one of the churches (forgot its name - Santa Maria maybe). I had this one guy (who looked like a tourist - turned out to be German) helped me take a couple pictures. One of his friends kept photo-bombing my pictures, and so in the end we all decided that a picture of all of us was in order. See Barcelona - Sights for the additional pictures.
That was pretty much my last day in Barcelona.
No comments:
Post a Comment