El not so Clasico
The game starts at 4:00 PM this afternoon so we have the lion’s share of the day to see a few of the sights. Not far from our hotel is the Palau Güell, a palace built by Antoni Gaudi for a wealthy textile family (so, small as palaces go but it’s all in the marketing). Now I’ve heard the name Gaudi, mostly in relation to Sagrada Familia, which we’ll be visiting tomorrow, but never really knew much about him or his work. If you asked, I’d probably say “he’s the guy that likes to build things in odd shapes and cover them in colorful tiles”.
Turns out he was was considerably more talented than that (although he did build things in odd shapes and cover them with colorful tiles), and the Palau Güell is a great showcase for the detail and innovations he incorporated into his building. In close quarters, you really can’t get pictures that do justice to the interior of the palace, including the soaring central hall and the richly-carved coffered ceilings but, outside, we have colorful tiles.
Most of the sights like this seem to have an app now with a digital audio guide, which is so much better than bumping elbows with a bunch of other tourists all trying to see the same thing at the same time. This one was quite well done and, although it was a short tour, one we both enjoyed.
With just a few hours yet to go until game time, I can’t help but notice the complete lack of anything that would suggest anything of note was scheduled to happen today. The people walking the streets aren’t sporting Barca gear, there are no TVs set up to pull people into the dozens of sidewalk cafes that line Las Ramblas, not even a single person with a vuvuzela. I’m not quite sure what to make of that yet, but feel a little doubt creeping in that we will find a spot to squeeze in and watch.
After some wandering, we fond ourselves at the Picasso museum and, to our dismay, learn that it is closed on Mondays, which is our last full day in Barcelona. There are tickets available at 5:00 PM, but that means skipping the game, which was the primary driver of bring in Barcelona on this particular day. However, we’ve walked at least 3 or 4 miles through the streets of the city and scarcely more than a handful of places that even had a TV, much a crowd of rowdy soccer fans. We make the call for Picasso. Sorry, Tim.
The Picasso museum houses the largest collection of early works that Picasso donated to the city where he spent much of his life, much to the dismay of the French, who figured they deserved it more. I quickly realize how little I know about Picasso. Of course there is all of the cubism that he is mostly known for, and the stage before that where everything was blue, but he evolved through many styles over the years and apparently was a rock star at all of them. It a bit awe-inspiring to see to be honest.
We emerge from the museum to catch the tail end of the Clasico on our phones. Madrid wins 2-1, but nobody seems to care one way another.
On the way back to the hotel we make a quick stop at the cathedral (not the new one). There is a Sunday service in full swing so we watch that for a few minutes before ducking back out. I have no idea what will happen to this one once Sagrada Familia is done. Can a city have more than one catherdral or do they just turn a building this big into a Costco?
