Barcelona Evening one

Hmm continuing walk here... castle at the top turned out to be a modernist restaurant, with a gorgeous view over the nighttime city.

We got lost after this and took off on a road at the elevation of the restaurant that ran along the coast - SO beautiful. dusk/dark sky that was actually a purple-red due to the city, contrasted with wild lush vegetation (lit very well by street lights) and then the sea... it felt like it could have been hawaii. we weren't really in a tourist area at that point, just a sidewalk beside a highway, and eventually the wonder wore off and we realized we were in no way going the correct direction. headed through a scary freeway tunnel through the mountain, 18 inch sidewalks, but it turned out well.

we had to head out of the park into the city to get our bearings, walked through some 'real' barcelona neighborhoods, which was nice. Not so preserved-touristy, still very much a metropolis, 7 or 8 story apartment blocks or buildings.

The approach to the Barcelona was more... impressive then I anticipated. the current Museum of National Catalan Art was obviously an old palace with a huge street promenade with fountains aiming up a huge waterfalled and fountained and gardened hill to the vision of glory itself on top, complete with spotlight-ray halo. was a little over the top, actually.

we were treated to a enormous fountain light&music show on the way up, would have been better had it not been wonderful American music being played - Destiny's Child was not what i wanted to hear at a glorious Spanish monument... the barcelona pavillion was off to the side, we got there 20 minutes before close (our adventure had taken awhile). It was Mies, very spacially interesting although simpler then I had anticipated. Courtyard with statue and reflective water and marble lovely, homey meis chairs.... felt like being back at crown, with more expensive stone. good to have seen.

obliged to finish the walk up the hill to the palace/museum, rewarded with a different glorious view of the city. a glowing church seeming to float on the top of a distant hill was enchanting.

um - long walk home, half sketchy though cheap and volumous meal with good sangria, saw the Placa Reial with it's yuppy-ish bars (apparently was the place where Columbus met his king with the news of america). walked around a lot looking for a bar with the right ambiance, the one we found ended up being just a block from our hostel. very chill, sweet eclectic decorations, and excellent cava (spanish sparkling wine) cocktails. then to bed :)

pic is of sagrada familia.... and i'll tell about that in the next post, or rearrange them so this works. don't want to put too many pictures/posts in to keep loading times down, don't want to have so solid of text blocks... oops too late...