Steve's Travel Blog: Seeing Some Sights

In the neighborhood, we visited the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar; the port is very close.

It is as fine a Gothic structure as any France has to offer.

Impressively large...that's the whole point. To make us as mere people seem small in comparison to the heavenly grandeur.

Its history starts out pretty routine. The cornerstone was laid in 1329. The completed structure was consecrated by the bishop of Barcelona in 1384. It takes a long time to build one of these big guys. As I was reading its history, it went along nicely until September, 1936 when it was deliberately set afire burning everything flammable in it. That means the altar, pews and archives. 1936...that says to me the Spanish Civil War. And checking, yes it was. I intended to give a brief history of the war, but it wouldn't be brief so I'll pass.

Here's a view of the altar and looking back towards the entrance, a stained glass window, reminiscent of a similar window in Notre Dame de Paris.

Whenever we visit these huge cathedrals, we always light a candle for those among our family & friends who are struggling with health issues. We accept divine help from anywhere we can.

I'm trying to put Spanish history into some sort of context. Ferdinand and Isabella were a really mixed bag...the folks who brought us Columbus and the Inquisition. Reflecting on the latter, after over 500 years mankind still hasn't learned the lessons of the failure of religious intolerance as it plays out even in our own elections.

How anyone or any group can torch a religious structure is beyond me. I may not attend there...I may not even believe what they believe, but their building deserves to stand.

Spain tried to claim much of the Americas, more successful below the Rio Grande.

After that, it seems Spain had its share of internal struggles but didn't play much of a role on the world stage, taking on the USA in 1898 & losing badly, not to mention losing Cuba & the Philippines.

But it's still a great country to visit!!!

There's nothing like the geometry of a big, ol' European rail station.

Or we can remove the color & check out the geometry more closely...

I mentioned previously that our apartment has no view. I discovered today that's only 99.9% correct. If I step back from our bedroom window about 10 feet, this is our view, the antenna forest notwithstanding.

We did the Picasso Museum today. It takes a bit of planning. You go to their website, pick a day & a time slot, pay for the ticket, print it off & then you can go. Early morning is less crowded although that's a relative term. I believe this is also true for seeing the inside of the Sagrada Familia. We saw the outside on our tour the first day.

I knew nothing about Picasso before but now I believe he was a massively prolific artist. My guess...his output is not in the thousands of works but in the tens of thousands. You know how if there is a child with nothing to do, just give that child paper and something to make a mark, they'll draw. (Restaurants figured that out long ago.) I think Picasso started his childhood that way and never stopped until his heart stopped. Sort of like how Beethoven was compelled to compose even when he was deaf.

Picasso had a lifelong connection with Barcelona, lived here during various periods of his life. He was involved with the founding of this museum, contributed some of his works during his life as did his family after he died.

He started out as a gifted but very classical painter. I was able to get this pic of an early work before a museum guard shut me down with picture taking. It was done in Barcelona in 1897 (He was born 1881, died 1973). This was the first piece that won him some recognition, (an honorary mention at an exhibition in Madrid) named "Science and Charity". But it did send him on his way.

Looks pretty ordinary to me and gives no hint of what's to come...but then I wasn't allowed to photograph his future.

In his early days, he drew/sketched/painted on anything he could get his hands on, even pieces of wood only a few inches square or rectangular.

The museum is in a converted series of old buildings and traces his artistic career chronologically, period by period, piece by piece. It's a must see for anyone interested in his life or work. We did not opt for the audio guide & didn't study every piece. It took us a little over an hour to see what we wanted to see.

The only other museum shot was the outside.

Sorry for the abbreviated Picasso discussion. Without anything to show, there isn't much to tell.

Encircling the oldest part of Barcelona is an ancient Roman wall. Here's a part of it.

And here are four archeologists doing their thing. The fellow on the right is taking some measurements. The other three are laboriously scraping the dirt then shifting through the scrapings. The blue hard hat closest is a lady with weird hair, a dreadlocks pony tail?. Sorry for the partial overexposure, those three were in deep shade.