We flew from Manchester to Barcelona on Sunday, and it's hot. Today's walks took us first down the Ramblas to the port, and then later up the Passeig de Grácia past some of the city's best-known buildings. Our hotel is just off the Plaça de Catalunya, central to everything, and swarming with people at all hours. No sheep have been seen yet.
Down by the water, the Maritime Musum has recently been renovated, and it's pretty terrific. In addition to temporary exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, and surfboards -- Mavericks is noted as one of the top 25 places for best waves -- the museum has a permanent collection of maps, equipment, and replicas in a stunning space. The building was part of Barcelona's shipbuilding area starting in the 14th century, and its huge bays are great for wandering.
There are cases showing models, as above, and also full-size boats, both real and replicas:
A real knockout is the Royal Galley, which was built here in 1568 and propelled by sails and oars. It was part of the fleet that defeated the Ottoman Turks at Lepanto in 1571, ending Turkish domination of the Mediterranean. This model shows it with sails up:
and stern:But the model, and a giant painting of the battle at Lepanto, apparently aren't enough. There's a FULL SIZE replica as well (minus the sails and oars), and here's its prow:
and a detail thereof:
WAY fantastic.
OK, calm down, take a rest, and head out in the opposite direction. Everyone knows about the amazing buildings in Barcelona designed by Gaudí. It's hard to believe that anything so playfully goofy is actually a serious structure, but they are for real. Here's a decoration on the front of Palau Güell:
And here's the famous La Pedrera. [The seriously dedicated reader may know that I included this earlier, in our 2012 trip; the purpose of the blog back then was to stay in touch with my third-graders when the trip happened during the school year.]
And finally, another building that I don't think is by Gaudí, but it's pretty nifty nonetheless:
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