Barcelona - And the Rest!

If you've missed the previous Barcelona posts, you can check them out here:

Barcelona: The Pink Hotel
Barcelona: Park Guell
Barcelona: La Sagrada Familia

Following our visit to La Sagrada Familia, we set off for the Museum of National Art of Catalonia (MNAC).

It is at the top of a hill, overlooking Barcelona

This used to be a bullfighting arena, but now it's a shopping mall. They kept the facade and repurposed the interior.

Bullfighting is more popular in the south of Spain, near Madrid, vs. Barcelona. (but it slowly declining, thank goodness!)

MNAC sits on Montjuric, home of the 1929 World's Fair, and rehabilitated for the 1992 Summer Olympics. At MNAC, we visited the Oval Room which today is used for many events (receptions, weddings, etc). I thought the pipe organ was incredible.

This view shows more of the ornate details in the Hall. The columns, the iron railing, the painted ceiling - WOW!

Even the lighting at MNAC was beautiful:

From MNAC we went up the hill to St. Peter's Arena

and Olympic Stadium

I gotta say, the stadium is much smaller than I expected.

Maybe because I live in the land of Jerry Jones' palace?

Fantastic poster for the Olympic Museum

And another beautiful view of Barcelona. Can you see La Sagrada Familia in this shot??

















From Montjuric, our tour headed down to the port, or tried to.

We went to Columbus Circle (that's him on the left, pointing west towards the new world)

where we were caught in "collapsing traffic"






















Due to this protest

Or "political party meeting" - depending on who you asked.

And apparently collapsing traffic will sort itself out better if the cops are not present.

Due to the traffic, we didn't make it to the port.


We passed Casa Batllo (another Gaudi work) on the way back to our hotel

Following our half day city tour, we headed back to the hotel to crash (we had been up 24+ hours at this point). We napped, then had dinner at a little place in the old part of the city near the hotel.

We certainly did NOT have enough time in Barcelona. it's an amazing city.

One last view of Las Ramblas in front of our (pink) hotel.

Next up: Embarkation day & Sailing from Barcelona.

Enjoy YOUR new day!