Farewell Barcelona

Our last day, and J seems to be on the mend and close to her usual energy, so we plan a big day out.  Our first stop is the Park Guell, where Gaudi lived for about 20 years and designed a weird and wonderful garden for his patron, Guell. We walk up to Plaza Catalunya and catch the metro to Vallcarca, where a short walk and a series of long escalators puts us at the top of the gardens.  Its a pleasant stroll downhill, with Gaudi’s influence and density of the crowds steadily increasing to a crescendo at Casa-Museo Gaudi. 

The relatively uncrowded gardens were wonderful, and approaching the Casa Gaudi area of the park as a finale to the visit was a really nice way to enjoy the park.  So interesting to see many of the new design elements in the Sagrada Familia also present here.  It seems to me that this could have been his laboratory for testing out ideas and resolving design problems before incorporating them into his buildings.

A quick walk down to the metro at Lesseps and a quicker trip back into town for an early (by Spanish standards) lunch of pizza (spinach with sultanas!) in a quiet, shady square. Then a visit to the Picasso Museum, which has a focus on his early development.  It was interesting, but a bit disappointing too because there were no works at all from the periods of his most iconic work, and no information to fill in the gaps in the collection.  So we found it a bit disjointed.

Then a pleasant stroll and a coffee in the Parc de la Ciutadella before heading back to our room to pack and get organised for the flight tomorrow morning.

A search for a pre-dinner drink took us to the square in front of the Cathedral, where we scored a table outside a tapas restaurant that our host had recommended and that we’ve tried to get into a couple of times since arriving.  We settled in with a very nice wine, watched the sun setting on the Roman walls and Cathedral tower, and took turns to visit the tapas bar, bringing back goodies to sample.  Grilled asparagus on camembert has become a favourite since Zaragoza. Also interesting were the little pan of snails in a lovely sauce.

I think the sauce was better than the snails themselves. It was quite a feat actually getting the snails out of their shell. You had to skewer one end and keep tugging until the very last bit of the snail was extracted. It all came out in one long rubbery looking piece.

This bar uses a system common in Barcelona – all tapas are the same price and each has a wooden skewer holding it together.  You just help yourself to whatever you want, when you want, and the bill is toted up at the end of the night by counting your skewers!  Its a relatively expensive way to have a feast, but fantastic if you want to try different tastes and you’re not a big eater…!

We finished the day by taking the metro back to la Sagrada Familia, where at 10 pm the floodlights came on.

Writing this blog the next day at the airport as we wait for our delayed flight. There is a strike in Milan. Hope this won’t alter our connection in Singapore. Well, we did say we didn’t want to go home yet, but that didn’t mean we wanted to spend longer in the airport!