Barcelona - the old city and some time with Picasso

Wednesday March 16
Today I wanted to start with old city so I headed back to Catalunya Place, bought a new guide book as I didn't want to ruin Fritz's old copy, then proceeded down the notorious The Rambles. There was a tree-line promenade down the centre of the road and hundreds of tourist were making their way down the street. Many large groups and many more groups of school children. The Rambles is full of temporary street stalls as well as permanent shops of high quality and more expensive wares. It was full of life and activity. There were buildings of interest all the way. At Carme st there is a large and thriving food market. At the street Cardinal Cassnas I turned off to the old city. The streets now became very narrow, short and complex. Most would have just taken a car with no room to spare. The street looked very old but the shops were all the big fashion names. I didn't bother to look at prices as I had no intention of buying anything.


The first church I came to was the Esglesia Dr Santa Maria del Pi and this was a surprise as the ancient door hid its wonderful interior. Huge cloistered ceilings with large stained glass gothic windows and a very large pipe organ. There were many high quality chapels for different saints completely surrounding the inside of the church. A huge stained glass rose window dominated the interior. The 54 meter high octagonal bell tower was under repair. The sanctuary was beautiful with panels of gold base relief icons etc completely surounding the alter.

On the street again I had to navigate carefully as there were many turns and no logic to the layout. I was trying to follow the old city wall. At Place Sant Filip Neri I passed a little school, with the children playing in the Placa, and Shoe Museum. I then ran into a wall where there was an impressive portal. I was suddenly inside an enormous 13th century Cathedral.

I found myself at the side of a square garden containing large date palms above whoch I could see a high bell tower. The garden was
surrounded by high cloistered walkways completing the square. I made my way around the square to the Cathederal entrance and received yet another surprise. This Cathedral was huge. I had entered the main sanctuary and was confronted by a high dome with tall stained glass gothic windows and within the dome they were topped by stained glass rosets. All around, as in the previous church, were elaborate chapels for various saints. 1000s of candels were burning and the church was very active.Poor old St Sebastian was featured, still full of arrows and still looking unconcerned. The central congregation area was walled with many gold icon panels. Again there was large organ.

I left the church by its main entrance and onto the Place de la Seu which was full of tourists. A local approached me for a 'chat' while I was eating my lunch and I was quick to tell him where to go. This has been the only incident where I was hassled.

Beside the cathedral was a small Gaude museum built within an archeological site of the old city wall. This started my education on Gauge. I discovered that the drawing instrument set he used was exactly the same as the set my father got for me from very old engineering friend of his. Liam should value this set more now. We will have to get it all together and clean it up.

I now headed south along the narrow streets to Princesa st and on to Montcada st and the Museum of Picasso. I was able to take photos in this museum so I have photo notes of what I liked or deemed significant to my understanding. It was interesting to see the quality of representative art that
Picasso was capable. His move to modernism started when he left his art school. He was very impressed with the impressionist painter Degas and also the earlier Velazquez. I believe that he put a 4th dimension into his paintings by drawing up to 3 different expressions in his faces. Each face (when discovered by the viewer) were showing different feelings and hence a movement in time (like a short movie). This is advanced stuff. I noticed his ability to show alternative moods in his early representative paintings. In particular, 'Primera Communion' in which both the father and mother have their own different doubts about their daughter's first communion. I learnt a lot here.

After leaving the museum I headed for the port area and at the Placa de Santa Maria I came to the famous St Maria del Mar church (thank God it was closed for renovation).

At the port the marina was packed out with crafts ranging from simple wooden sailing boat to large luxury cruisers. I took photos of the old wooden schooners. I walked along the foreshore promenade through road of tall palm trees with only traditional buildings in view. I really felt I was on old Barcelona.

I went to the Maritime Museum. Some nice models of ship and interesting history.

It was getting late and I headed back to the hostel dropping in on the lively food market in the Rambles area. the 10 euro meal won out again and I sat in the crowded hostel lounge to write for a while.