The Ramblas, The Barri Gòtic, and Museu Picasso in Barcelona (Day 37 - GToE)

This morning, when I woke, I was still feeling less than 100% but I refused to let a little stomach ailment keep me from seeing Barcelona. After some tea and toast, I headed out to explore the city. I decided to explore the Old City, which is broken into three sections. I only focused on two of the sections today: Barri Gòtic and El Born. Before I get into the nitty gritty of my day, I would like to point out that I hate pigeons! Today, I was majorly pooped on by a pigeon. I mean it was a huge poop, like the pigeon hadn't pooped in a week and held it in just to drop it on my arm. It was the size of a golf ball. I know people say that's lucky, but I prefer to stay disgusting! Okay, onto my day:

Palau Güell

I began with walking Barcelona's version of the Champs Elysees: The Ramblas. Running from Plaça de Catalunya (the city center) to the waterfront, this walk takes usually about an hour except that I made a few stops along the way so it ended up taking me about 2 hours. Halfway through my ramble along the Ramblas, the heavens opened up and it started teeming with rain. I'm just glad I brought along my umbrella today. Although I think my feet are still trying to dry out.

Some of the sites I visited along the Ramblas: the Fountain of Canaletes, which legend says if you drink from the fountain it ensures that you will return to Barcelona one day (I filled my water bottle here - I think the legend is wrong); a Roman necropolis; a church dedicated to Bethlehem (Belem Church); the market hall (La Boqueria); the Liceu Opera House; Palau Güell (a mansion designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí early in his career); and a Christopher Columbus monument. A bit of weirdness at the market hall - I saw some stuff they were selling that I had no clue what it was and some other things that I wished I hadn't seen, like a skinned rabbit.

Chocolate Museum

After returning to the Plaça de Catalunya, I then did a walk of the Barri Gòtic (the Gothic Quarter). Sites seen: a 12th century church; lunch at Els Quatre Gats ("The Four Cats"), where Picasso hung out drinking with friends and had his first one-man show there in 1900; some Roman towers; the Cathedral of Barcelona; a martyrs statue; the church Gaudí attended; and a Roman temple. Funny story about The Four Cats is how it got named: When the proprietor told his friends that he'd stay open 24 hours a day, they said, "No one will come. It'll just be you and four cats." (Catalan slang for "a few crazy people".) Funny!

I then headed to the El Born area where the Museu Picasso stands. Interesting fact about the museum is that it's one of the few museums dedicated to a specific artist which was built and completed while the artist was still alive. Focusing on Picasso's early work, the museum has over 4,000 pieces of art by the artist of which only about 400 are shown. It's a fascinating museum except that it shows very little of Picasso's most famous and prolific artwork from the "middle" part of his career - basically all of his cubism art is ignored in this museum. After leaving the museum, I made a quick stop at the Chocolate Museum which traces the story of chocolate from the Aztecs to Europeans via the Port of Barcelona. There is a wonderful series of chocolate sculptures on display which were really fun to see. I then walked over to view the Church of Santa Maria del Mar (beautiful architecture) before heading back to the Ramblas in order to have some dinner. 

That was my day. I thought I might find something to do tonight, but between still not feeling great and some serious back pain, I thought it best to rest up for tomorrow. Check out all my Day 37 photos on my GToE photo site. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to see the rest of Gaudí's buildings. I can't wait -  so excited!!