Barcelona Day 4

Barcelona Day 4

Today was my last in Barcelona (that is till next summer – I am sure to make at least one trip here while staying in the exchange house in the South of France – only 3 hours to Barcelona from there. I feel like I have only scratched the surface of what is here but did a pretty good job of seeing and experiencing a lot in a short time. I highly recommend Barcelona as it is beautiful, full of culture, good food, unbelievable impromptu entertainment, a long and interesting history, art that encompasses the very old, very new, and everything in between. It is modern and ancient at the same time. It is important to remember that, as I was reminded frequently by graffiti, Catalunya is NOT Spain.
As you will see in some of the pictures that follow in the next post, Barcelona is a huge city. It is also a wonder of urban development done well (as least it appears so to me). It started out populated by prehistoric people, later was a Roman city (Barcilina), and then became Barcelona populated by Catalans (between France and Spain along the Mediterranean). They built their city on top of the Roman one – hence under the Gothic Cathedral is an archeological dig. The medieval city was walled. When the city became more and more dense they tore down the wall and let it spread. There were a number of villages away from Barcelona – over time these have become part of Barcelona.
Eventually Barcelona and other parts of southern Catalonia became part of Spain (rather than France), however it has retained its own culture/language and it would rather be its own nation. Apparently the Civil War was a very tough time here – the Catalans did not support Franco. There are still demonstrations here against the Spanish government – I saw one last night in front of the Government center.
Barcelona embraced the industrial revolution and apparently became quite wealthy because of this. There were many factories, chimneys, and pollution all along the waterfront. Immigrants from many areas (I guess primarily southern Spain) came to work here. Just north of the factories there were dense shantytowns of these workers and their families. Eventually the factories closed, moved, or whatever – but they are gone (only a couple of old chimneys remain). The port was beautified and made much bigger and it is a primary source of Barcelona’s success. The shantytowns were replaced by modern (if pretty modest apartments) – now an area called Barceloneta. The last Olympics also added a lot to this area. There are a lot of open green spaces as well.
Today I took the Metro, to Montjuic, and went to the Cataluyna Museum of Fine Arts. It was great. I was mainly Catalan art over centuries. There were frescos from medieval churches that have been installed in reproductions of parts of churches. There are classical works that look a lot like medieval Italian religious paintings. Then there is a whole section on impressionism (who knew there were Catalan impressionists??). Finally a little Picasso and Dali. Miro has his own museum but it was too crowded when I got there so I skipped it.
After that museum I took the funicular up to the “castle” which is really an old military fort surrounded by a moat. It was pretty anticlimactic but the views of the city were amazing. Then I walked down the hill, off the beaten path, following a few signs to a Metro station. When I got to the bottom of a huge set of stairs (equivalent to two blocks) there was no sign of a metro stop and the map I had wasn’t helpful. I found a young woman who gave me directions which was very fortunate since I would have gone to the right instead of down a narrow quiet street straight ahead as needed. I walked quite a long way through a modest old neighborhood and then heard a brass band playing “Brazil”. I figured there must be a parade ahead but no – it was just about 20 people in band costumes playing great music as they marched up and down one block. The only spectators were a few locals standing in their doorways and me and two other tourists.
Now back at my hotel resting my feet. I have already packed so I will be ready to leave tomorrow. My train isn’t till 12 noon but I have a tendency to sleep later than usual (probably because my room gets like no sunlight).
Off to Madrid tomorrow on the high speed AVE train. I realized I forgot to bring a Spain guidebook so I am winging it using the internet for some guidance. Steve lent me a guidebook on Barcelona which was much more extensive than the general Spain one so I left mine at home. So Judy & Mike please bring yours!!!