Jenny Cristina Barcelona: April 2011

Mom and Dad's Last Day in Spain...

Friday was my parents' last day in Spain. We were back in Barcelona and toured the Palau de la Musica Catalana late morning. What a spectacular building! Although Gaudi is by far the most famous architect in Barcelona, the Palau's architect, Muntaner, is a pretty impressive modernista architect himself. We had to restrict our photo-taking to the outside once again. However, that proved to be challenging since the Music Palace is on a narrow street and the tight angles do not allow for viewing the grandiosity of the building very well! I plan to come back to see a concert here...perhaps another Flamenco show.

After that tour, we tried to go to the City History Museum...but because of the holiday (Good Friday), it was closing early. Bummer. So we walked down to Barceloneta once again for some paella at Can Manel. We ended up getting something entirely different. It was called Arroz Negro (black rice with octopus sauce). It was delicious! A little messy, but it was quite good. Dad made a friend with a little girl who was about 1 1/2 years old. Dad taught her "peek-a-boo"...and she kept trying to play with him throughout our meals! Very cute.

We ended their visit with the best meal of the week at Con Gracia. This restaurant is in the Gracia neighborhood and was worth the wait for our 10:30 pm reservations. The menu is entirely a "tasting menu" and we opted for the "surprise tasting"...which meant that we had no idea what was coming next. We had tuna sashimi, hake, and the best lamp chops ever. One of the desserts was quite interesting. We had to start by eating a small bit of a Chinese flower that "stimulated" our tongue. Then we ate a celery granita with meringue. Once the Chinese flower started to activate, it was like "electricity" in our mouths! Quite good!

Palau de la Musica Catalana

Enjoying some coffee in the Palau Cafe...

Palau de la Musica Catalana

Ticket Window

Near the Palau de la Musica

Lunch at Can Manel

Cheers!

Arroz Negro

Dad's "goth"lips!

So yummy!

So messy, too!

Trying to play "peek-a-boo" with Dad!

She was just adorable...

Placa d'Catalunya

Museum Day in Madrid

On Wednesday, we spent five hours in the Prado Museum enjoying thousands of beautiful paintings. There are works by Rubens, Goya, Velazquez and Titian here. With over 3000 paintings, the Prado is considered by a lot of people in the art world as the premier museum for paintings. It sure was impressive! Again, we were not allowed to take photos of the art, even without a flash. Very disappointing...

After the Prado, we went to the Reina Sofia where we had the chance to see modern Spanish art by Picasso and Salvador Dali. Picasso's most famous painting, "Guernica", is on display at the Reina Sofia. This painting is Picasso's interpretation of the horror of the bombing of the Basque town, Guernica, on April 27, 1937. Franco, Spain's dictator at the time, gave Hitler permission to bomb his own people for "practice"! Picasso was in Paris at the time and started to paint this masterpiece immediately. He vowed to never return to Spain as long as Franco was in power. Unfortunately, Picasso died in 1973 and Franco lived another two years. "Guernica" was on display at the MOMA in New York for many years for safekeeping. After Franco died, the painting was brought to Madrid where it has been since.

Wednesday evening, we went to a Flamenco show which was a lot of fun. But, unfortunately, no photos allowed in there either! :-(

Madrid

Paseo del Prado

Prado Museum

Statue of Goya outside the Prado Museum

Prado Museum

Statue of Velazquez outside the Prado Museum

Prado Museum

Velazquez

Paseo del Prado

Reina Sofia Museum

Plaza in front of the Reina Sofia Museum

"BULL"

Picasso's "Guernica"

Salvador Dali's "The Great Masturbator"

More sangria and cerveza...

Hotel Europa

Smooching my Pop!

Holy Toledo!

On Tuesday we took a bus to Toledo for the day. This walled city used to be the capital of Spain until Philip II moved it to Madrid in 1561. During medieval times, Toledo was a bustling city of many cultures and religions living in harmony (Christians, Jews, and Muslims). This is likely how the phrase "Holy Toledo" came about! :-)

The Cathedral in Toledo is one of the most opulent Catholic churches in the world. Again, we weren't allowed to take photos inside...but I can attest to its grandiosity. Let's just say that there is gold everywhere. As my dad pointed out, if the gold in that church was removed and sold, there would be a lot less poverty and hunger in the world!

El Greco, the famous Greek artist who actually trained in Venice, spent his last 37 years in Toledo. The Santa Cruz Museum houses 15 El Greco paintings.