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Today started off with a stop at La Paderera. This building was designed by Gaudi and his plan was that it would have several apartments for rent. On the roof are these very funky chimneys and water towers that Gaudi designed in his usual style. I'm sure at sunset the views are amazing! I really like Gaudi's style and how he uses asymmetrical design to catch your eye and brain.
One of the things you should get is a Barcelona Card, a ticket that allows you to use the metro, buses and some funiculars all for one price and you can choose up to five days. It is like the Paris Metro card but this includes the buses. You buy one for how many days you need it (in my case 4 days for about 18.50 Euros) and then just use local transportation. I really like it and originally planned to take the bus to the Picasso museum but the metro was closer so I changed my next destination...the Chocolate museum. Now what I wanted to do was go to the Arc de Triomphe (this one isn't as famous as the one in Paris!) metro station and get off there then just walk a few blocks down to where the musuem was. What ended up happening was me getting off the metro stop and walking down what I thought was Parc Cituadell but it wasn't. Somehow I ended up walking through a park to the next metro stop away from the museum! This is where I love the Barcelona card because then I just hopped back on and went backwards to the other stop where there was only one line and one way out.
I found the Picasso Museum without too much difficulty. The crowds standing in line was a good hint! Here's a tip: If you come on the first Sunday of the month to the Picasso Musuem it is free entry. Yay! This Picasso Musuem is bigger than the one in Paris and had more stuff too. You can't take pictures inside so I'm sorry to tell you that I don't have any pictures of Picasso's work just the courtyard area and entrance. There were a few pieces I liked and was able to find postcards to place in my scrapbook. What I was sad to not find was this one picture that reminded me of "Carmen Sandiego" that Picasso did. I wrote down what it was called in my notebook and will have to see if there is a print available somewhere else. Anyways I was still on a quest to make it to the Chocolate Museums. So after Picasso I went to find the edible art.
The chocolate musuem was awesome! For being such a small musuem and paying 9 Euros you get a chocolate ticket. The ticket was made up of about 73% pure chocolate, so if you like dark chocolate you will like the ticket. Basically the museum showed you how chocolate came to be and was delivered to us. But I didn't go there for the educational part my whole reason was to see the chocolate exhibit. I was not disappointed except for the Sagrada Familia in chocolate was no longer show. They had a picture of it but the actual chocolate piece was not there. However there was plenty of other pieces as you can see from my pictures.
After that museum I needed lunch! LOL so I walked to the park (it was a block away from the chocolate museum and you really couldn't get lost. There was a nice cafe across from the park entry where you can see the Arc de Triomphe. They had a set menu for lunch for about 14 Euros which I only understood the calamari part. I had the waiter just point to what he suggested and just kept nodding my head. For starters I had a lettuce salad with what I think was thin slices of pate (originally I thought it was salmon but then it didn't hold on the fork too well and just melted in my mouth!) and carmelized apple slice. It was actually good and the pate wasn't too bad even though it is goose liver! My main meal was calamari lightly fried but not crispy just well cooked. I thought it was part of the starters but then when the waiter came back to ask me what I wanted for dessert, I knew I ate up my entree. Oh well it was good and the portion control was helpful! Dessert was just fresh pineapple since I had gone to the chocolate museum and eaten part of my ticket.
A walk in the park was nice but it was cold! Today was about 12 degrees Celsius here and even with my scarf to keep me warm it was still chilly. I found the nice big fountain in Parc Cituadell that is often featured in this other show I used to watch "Viva S Club". But they were doing construction on the horses and the main center block of the fountain so you could only see the bottom partl. There was this gazebo there and it was full of people swing dancing. No band was playing just songs from a stereo but the people didn't care. They were all having a good time and you could see the couples passing by holding hands, cuddling or dancing. Kids were around the park playing or out for a walk with the whole family, grandparents included. Yeah I felt a bit out of place! It was a nice walk through the park though. The zoo appeared a bit small and I wasn't really intrested in the "Natural Science" museum there so I just sat at a bench and wrote out some postcards for a bit. That only lasted a few minutes because then the chill began seeping in and I had to move to keep warm.
I figured why not head to the cable car that takes you over the harbor to Montjuic? Well that meant walking towards Barceloneta, the seaside area between the Ramblas del Mar and Port Olympico. It was a long walk! But now I know where I want to go for lunch tomorrow to eat some seafood paella. When I got to the tower area there was a really long line and since waiting meant I had to stand still, near the water with the wind blowing...I decided to skip the ride! I took Bus 17 and got off near the Cathedral at Barri Gotic.
Why not spend an afternoon getting lost in the Gothic Quarter near the Cathedral? Yeah it sounded like a good plan but I forgot that it meant there would be crowds of people. That whole shoulder to shoulder, market place being squished walking was not my idea of a good time. FranklyI started to get irritated and wanted out of the crowds ASAP! So I headed out to sea again which meant passing by Las Ramblas. Now Las Ramblas itself is a showcase and where Shakespear's writing "All the world's a stage,nd all the men and women merely players" comes true. What I really wanted by this time is the loo and I figured the Magmare mall is a good place to finde one.
Magmare is like a mini-mal, just two stories high and in a square form building. Trying to read the map it looked so simple where the bathrooms were, yeah it wasn't! There were no signs to the bathroom other than on the map. So I circled the place twice then had to sit down since my feet were protesting! Couldn't find the loo and the crowds were still bothering me so I left. Fortunately food often appeases my irritation and I found a crepe stand that didn't have a long line. The crepe was simple nothing fancy just a crepe with honey, but it hit the spot! That mirenda (see I know a little Spanish!) or snack helped give me a push to wait at the bus stop for 20 minutes, ride the bus to Passeig Gracia and walk about a mile k to my hotel. Oh! I stopped at Pans & Company to pick up a sandwich with fries and a coke for my dinner too.
Looking at my mini-guidebook of Barcelona I realized that I have hit almost everything on their list. So for spending about a week in Barceona you can hit the major sights important to the city. I think tomorrow I may bring Sebastien out if it isn't raining and we'll use the Metro while it is daylight to maneuver quickly around the city and take in some pictures. But we shall see how I feel in the morning. I must say that traveling alone gives you so much flexibility on a schedule! I can create an itinerary (since ya'll know how I love to plan!) and then the next day change it on a whim.
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