Farther Afield

Hello from the Barri Gotic, that's the name of our neighborhood. Today it's Kitty writing. Carolyn and I started our morning with cafe con leche and croissants in the cafe connected with a gorgeous building designed in the early twentieth century to house a famous Barcelona choral society. The Palau de la Musica Catalana is full of light and flowery decoration and wonderful mosaic pillars and rose colored glass; we took a tour after breakfast and we will be attending a concert there Wednesday evening.



We continued our tradition of getting caught up in a demonstration on vacation: in Paris it was striking nurses and in Barcelona we stumbled on a grand street march, complete with police, red balloons, music, banners and shouted slogans - but of course, it's May Day! We were puzzled though, the marchers all waved flags imprinted with scissors with a red line through them. What could they possibly have against scissors? Finally Carolyn asked in her best Spanish and we were enlightened: they were protesting the cuts to wages and social services






Our big adventure was braving the metro - and we were successful! We used our passes and followed the signs and shoved ourselves into crowded trains and hung on straps like natives. That's how we found our way to the architecturally famous Gaudi cathedral. After nearly a century, Gaudi's building is still a construction site! We were reminded of Our Lady of the Angels when we entered Sagrada Familia, the amazing Modernist cathedral - lots of natural light and space. Carolyn asked a young guide where the baptismal font was and he seemed not to recognize the word. He finally answered that they hadn't had baptisms at the cathedral; hmm, this may explain the sorry state of religion in Europe.





Tonight we're eating at home, we've shopped in the neighborhood - whole grain baguettes, wonderful "partially aged "cheese (we chose it for the description) mystery chicken and empanadas. Tomorrow, the museums!

Kitty and Carolyn


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Carrer de les Beates,Barcelona,Spain