Sep 6.
We spent the morning in the old part of town visiting a few “must-see” sights. We went to the Barcelona Cathedral, the Santa Caterina Market and then the Picasso Museum. The cathedral offered an audio tour via a phone app. It is a huge Gothic style church.
There are several big markets in Barcelona. We missed the big one – Mercado de Boqueria. We just didn’t have enough time. Since the Santa Caterina Market was close to the area we were exploring on Tuesday, we checked it out. The market looks new with a modern roof design. Inside it was very clean and everything behind glass, not like the old days of markets with dead animal heads hanging above the meat stalls. We tried the menu of the day at a recommended restaurant, Bar Joan. The black rice with squid for the first course was good but the grilled (overdone) tuna steak (1/4 ” thick) didn’t appeal to me. Ed liked the beef cheeks. Not my favorite meal but it was only 13euros and included a beer and dessert. We came back to the market after Picasso just as everything was closing to pickup some cheeses and wine for a happy hour after a well deserved nap.
“Today we had a nice lunch and trekked over to the Picasso museum. We have all grown up with an awareness of Picasso and his art. We were excited at the opportunity to explore the history of his career and take in his works in person. Many of the early paintings were technically excellent in a traditional style of expression. Afterward it seemed to devolve into many strange works that, were it not for the signature of Picasso, would probably have disappeared long ago. After contemplating his life and works, we were overcome with confusion. We asked ourselves if we were missing something or was there a state of consciousness that we had failed to achieve in our lives.
My curiosity had been sparked so I sought out information on Picasso – the man, the myth, the legend. I quickly realized that the level of misogyny he had achieved in life was far greater than anything most of us could imagine in today’s world. Perhaps that is why it was so hard to appreciate or understand his work. I think it would be fair to say that in today’s world, he would have been canceled from relevance. Rather than delve into the details I would ask readers to reference Wikipedia for details.
We wandered through the museum and escaped to the street outside. We had a checked the box and seen the works of the “great” Picasso. It was time for a beer!” Picasso contribution by Ed Hibyan
We left a little underwhelmed, not with the quality of the museum’s presentation but with our impression of his work and state of mind. His modern stuff is just wierd. Ed and Bill plan to have a competition at home to see who can best replicate one of his paintings.
The building that houses the museum is a beautiful old stone structure. Picasso donated much of his work in 1970, just a few years before his death to the City of Barcelona who eventually organized into this museum. Picasso died in 1972 before Franco, who he despised. We did a little research on Picasso’s life and his personal life seemed to be a mess. He had two wives and another two mistresses – two committed suicide and two had nervous breakdowns. A son died of alchoholism and a grandson committed suicide. No happy family life there.
In the evening we walked down the elegant Passeig Gracia and tried to get into the Casa Mila (a Gaudi house) but it had already closed. I had a ticket I had purchased in 2020 for the trip we had to cancel.
Brian and Kasey met us for our 10pm dinner reservation at Teoric Taverna Gastronomica. We had reserved an outside table but luckily he had room inside for us as it was so hot and humid that night. This tiny restaurant only offers two seatings each evening (2 hours long) with a fixed price tasting menu that includes 4 tapas, 4 mains, 2 desserts and bread. Each item was small and fancy and at first we wondered if it would fill us up. But it certainly did. It was an enjoyable evening.
