Room 509, Hotel Sansi Diputacio, Barcelona
I had a very nice sleep last night. Almost eight hours uninterrupted. Pity I have to go so far away from Singapore before I can get some proper sleep...Anyway, it started drizzling when we left this morning - I think the clouds were waiting for the exact moment we walked out the hotel. My hood did not help at all, but thankfully we reached the Metro station soon and ducked underground.
We took the Green Line and got off six stops later at the Espanya station, where we left to find that 1) it had stopped raining, and 2) we were at a busy cul-de-sac.
At first there didn't seem to be anything around the area, other than random buildings and two tall towers.
If you think the towers look a bit of out place - like they were transported from some other country, you aren't far from the truth. They were "modelled on the bell towers of St. Mark's in Venice".
Anyway, it turned out that the place we had been looking for was behind those towers.
The hill of Montjuïc!
...which was a long walk away indeed...
Luckily for us, there were many escalators to help get us all the way up to the building. In fact I don't think we ever had to climb any stairs. Although we did have to walk the long road in.
We finally reached the top and admired the view from there.
Then we turned back to the building behind us, which was actually the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (which I think is understandable without a translation - but anyway it's the National Museum of Catalonia Art).
The entry fee wasn't very cheap (8 euros I think), but the museum has "probably the greatest display of Romanesque items in the world" (and supposedly the biggest collection in Europe), so oh well.
It was at this point that the new camera ran out of battery (forgot to recharge), but it didn't really matter because no photography was allowed in the museum.
Which was really sad because there were lots of beautiful artworks. We went into the neverending Renaissance and Gothic rooms first, which held many many MANY religious paintings, the occasional gold paint (usually for halos) standing out very clearly, as well as many religious sculptures, all alabaster and marble and terracotta and whatever. These exhibits ranged from the 13th to the 16th centuries, with a few from the 17th and 18th centuries.
And, for anyone who was wondering, I did NOT read every single description. Mainly because almost all the exhibits had only Spanish and Catalan descriptions.
We happened to be practically the only people in the gallery (despite the reasonable crowd at the entrance of the museum), and my shoes happily squeaked on the highly-polished floor.
Eventually we found ourselves back in the museum's main hall. As you might've already guessed from the colour of the sky in the second-last picture, it had started raining heavily.
But we weren't done with the museum yet. It was finally time for the Romanesque galleries.
Even though the Romanesque galleries were far more crowded than the Renaissance/Gothic ones, for some reason it felt much quieter. Add that to the dim lighting, and the place was shrouded in an eerie silence.
The galleries were certainly big, and contained exhibits dating from the 12th century and earlier.
The highlights of the Romanesque area were the many mock rotundas and archways constructed to recreate Romanesque churches all over Catalonia, with surviving fragments of frescoes from these churches having been transferred onto them. The frescoes, though vastly different from the paintings in the Renaissance/Gothic galleries - they were not lifelike and there was no use of perspective and shadowing - somehow appealed more to me.
There were also (creepy) displays of Romanesque tombs and effigies, and the galleries ended with an exhibition of "sculptural art" - mostly carvings on top of stone columns.
After that we returned once again to the main hall. The modern art exhibitions were all on the upper floor, but since I have no appreciation for modern art, I went to the museum shop instead.
I had a fun time browsing through the merchandise, but didn't buy much. By far my favourite purchase was a small (expensive - or I would've gotten the bigger version!) stuffed bear whose fur design was actually from a "wall painting showing Jaume I during his campaign to conquer Mallorca". I didn't know what the design was at first, but I found a postcard with the same print. (And I had to take the description from my guidebook because the postcard is in Catalan!)
We left the museum (it had stopped raining) and took a nice winding walk downhill past many lush gardens (which we couldn't be bothered to enter).
That was the last photo my camera took, because an annoying message popped up stating that my memory card was full. I have no idea how that could happen because I cleared a ton of photos from the card right before I left for the airport. Oh well.
Our walk brought us to our next destination (obviously my idea) - the Museu Arqueològic (Archaeological Museum).
It was much smaller and deserted than the art museum, and the entrance fee was also much lower. I think photography was allowed, but there would have been too much reflection off the glass cases. Anyway halfway through the museum I realised I was a bit tired of looking through museums, so I just passed from one room to the next without really scrutinising anything. Oh and descriptions were mostly in Spanish and Catalan again.
The museum had lots of artefacts from antiquity - Greek pots and sculptures and Roman mosaics and jewellery and many other items from around the Mediterranean. There were also small replica stone houses and tombs from prehistory, as well as Visigothic (AD 415 - 711) finds.
One room was full of artefacts recovered from a necropolis on Ibiza. This was spooky enough and it didn't help that that particular room was the least ventilated in the whole museum, so I could barely breathe.
The museum also had a small travelling Egyptian exhibition. Walked briefly around it before emerging in a large circular room with more artefacts on the side. There was a narration in English throughout the room, which I stopped to read.
Then we left (the exit was just beyond the room). It was much cooler outside. :P
There were a few other places (and museums) on the hill, but we decided our last destination would be the Olympic area (back uphill), which contained buildings and other structures mostly built for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
The stadiums did not seem to be open, so we just enjoyed the view. I did my best with my phone's camera...
Then it was downhill AGAIN to take the Metro back to Passeig de Gràcia, which is not only the nearest station to our hotel, but also another long shopping street. Although Passeig de Gràcia is mostly lined with high-end boutiques, we were there for a very special reason - it also happens to be the location of the Zara flagship store!
Shopping aside, we had a very late lunch at the same restaurant - I had spaghetti aglio olio this time.
After which we returned to the hotel to rest, before leaving around 8 p.m. for dinner.
We found a restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating, and chose to sit by the roadside (although it cost more).
I had one tall glass of beer (and yes I did finish it)...
........as well as a HUGE plate of pork chops, bacon, fried eggs, salad and potatoes with some spicy sauce.
And yes I did finish this too! Proof:
Then (of course) it was time to digest our food, so we walked down the street before returning to our hotel.
posted by ¤jazzika¤ @ 11:21 PM
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