We enter the gallery, it's an interesting gallery space. Been around for 54 years now and was opened when Picasso was still alive. It has over 4300 pieces of his work from his early childhood through to his later life works. The gallery is in a really interesting old castle with lots of courtyards and ornate Gothic arch windows. 
We explore the gallery collection, starting with the temporary exhibit of his copper plate etching prints from later in his life. The subject matter is basically naked women everywhere. This guy was a massive dirty old perv, I'm sure. Sim comments that there are so many titties in his works, I misheard and thought she said "so much gooch" which prompts laugh out loud laughter between us both. (There is a lot of gooch though, I guess that's what I was thinking).
A big Sssshhhh, comes from an attendant in the gallery. Very funny.
We wander in to the main collection. The interesting works for me are his early paintings which display his technique and skill. The formative years of him as a painter and then his time spent in Horta, a small town that changed his painting identity. It was cool to see works from his blue period as well as some of his ceramic work, but overall I can't help but feel this museum is Picasso's B sides and back catalogue, with most of his key works undoubtably in more prestigious galleries around the world. Nonetheless it was interesting to see.
We wander the streets of the gothic quarter for a bit. The streets are so compact. We then pop out down in the Barceloneta area. We wander along the marina area for a bit, kinda like the darling harbour area of Barcelona, very 80s-90s vibe most probably done for the Olympics.
A little lost as to what we're gonna do today we head on a metro out to Plaça Espanya. Arriving up onto the street level everything is on a grand scale. There's a huge roundabout and large boulevards in four different directions. We head up the monumental one towards the palatial Museum of National Catalonian Art gallery. It's a pretty awesome approach up with fountains going off everywhere. This area is where the exhibition halls are from the world expo of 1928 and also the Olympics of 92 were here, Montjuic. We head up the escalators, again like yesterday they have them going up the sides of the stairs.
We duck off to the side to visit mies van der rohes iconic Barcelona Pavilion, not the original but reconstructed to the T. It's interesting visiting these buildings which you study so intensively at University and have so much written about them. For me, entering in it's a beautiful spatial experience and very tranquil, until you turn around and look back and there's an ugly bin sculpture and a carpark behind it.
I must say i wasn't blown away by visiting here. Felt a little lifeless. That being said we attempted to add a bit of life by taking a series of stupid photos and videos with rather silly poses. Its funny being on the other side for a change, seeing all the typical architects, taking their meticulous photos waiting patiently, like a leopard stalking a gazelle, for someone else visiting the pavilion to move out of their shot so it can be nothing but pure building!
Like I said, lifeless. It's about the planes and forms this place. But I do love a cruciform column.
We head up to the MNAC and take in the view from the top. It's quite far reaching. We explore the area a bit by foot, winding through the gardens and hillside before making our way back down to the main streets to the metro stop of Poble Sec. There seems to be some nice spots to eat but it's not very crowded so we decide to head back into La Rambla. We head up Carrer d'en Xucla again, it was nice gets retest and is again today. It's buzzing with a lunchtime crowd, albeit after 3 in the arvo now. We head to a place called Sagarra for lunch - it's nice. A good spot to people watch. A troop of Brazilians guys in blue shirts then rock up on bikes. They take off their shirts and start limbering up. Then bam, a capoeira extravaganza ensues. "Hello Barcelona, we have come all the way from brasil, yeah? We goin to perform for you, yeah? Gracias Barcelona? Yeah? We from Brasil, yeah?" Cue the drums and subsequent backflips.
Once done they expectedly come asking for euros to the onlooking lunch goers before chatting up these two girls from the UK sitting near us. I think they got their numbers, before hopping on their bikes and pedalling off. Smooth as these Capoeirans. I think they were from brasil, yeah?
Lunch is a tapas feast with lots of traditional bread rubbed with tomato. We get some manchango and some sobrassada for me as well as a large salad and some patatas bravas. Sim also orders a jug of sangria whiich she ends up drinking all of as I'm not so keen on the taste.
We head back to the hotel for an evening on the roof sun deck with some cocktails. Mojitos for me and caipirinhas for sim.
It's now 7:30ish and we contemplate heading back to the room and going to dinner but we're both pretty tipsy now and to be honest still full from lunch. We decide to just stay in tonight. Seems uneventful but it was nice!
mat + sim
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