Tuesday, Barcelona again
We set off quite late for Barca today, about 2:30pm, arrived there about an hour later, we had decided to visit some of the lesser attractions, we have seen most the others so many times that they are becoming old hat to us. We got off the train and started to head down to visit the Palua Musica, which is one of the sights that we had not seen, so we headed for Via Laietena, the quickest route only to get held up by a huge leftwing union demonstration and march, boy what a noisy lot, whistles and hooters and klaxons, they were moving quite slowly and we got to the front of the march and tried to cross the street, but the Mossos would not let us, by this time we were mingling with reporters from the press and tv stations filming the leaders of the protest who were walking backwards and chanting slogans through loudhailers, whilst walking backwards, facing the march, the press and tv crews were darting back and forth across the road getting their "exclusive" shots of the parade. "Wait a minute" thinks I " I`ve got my camera here, and it looks like theirs" so grabbing `er upstairs says " Stick close to me kid and do what I do" and boldly stepped into the middle of the road and started taking photos, working my way to the other side, nearly at the other side, a friendly cop ushers us out of the way, and onto the pavement. Success !! we have crossed the road whilst all the other tourists are being held on the opposite side, and we were right by the street that goes to the music theatre, Wow what a place ! we Llouis Companyswalked all around it grabbing our tourist photos, a pity that the streets are so narrow, it is very hard to find room to take photos that do the place justice, and get decent shots of the various architectural features, but we got some, then we went into the foyer, for a coffee and saw guided tours around the inside advertised, so I made my way to the tour booking office and bugger me! tickets were €17.50 each, bloney heck! £30 odd quid, for the two of us to look around an empty theatre ! tickets for the concerts advertised were cheaper, so we decided to give the tour a miss. We walked through the old quarter of the city, just taking turnings when the thought struck us, eventualy we came out by the Arc de Triomphe and walked down Passag LLouis Companys, I will not bore you with my knowledge of this Catalan Patriot, suffice to say that he is much admired and revered by all Catalans, Just about every city,town or village has a Placa,, Carrer,, Espaice.Llouis Companys, we went into a supermarket and got ourselves a bottle of water and packet of crab sandwiches each and carried on to the bottom of the road and entered the Parc de Cuitadella for a picnic.
Well we were close to the beaches and it was bloney hot and we idn`t wish to go to them again, so we got the metro (3 line changes) to Placa Espanya and the bull ring, we wandered around the expensive that are now in the bullring ( Bull fighting in Catalonia has been banne since the 70s), and here we could see the affects of the financial situation as many of the lesser branded outlets that we saw last year have now gone and not been replaced, and only the very posh shops are left, the mall was half empty, we came out and wandered around Parc Joan Miro which is where the old slaughterhouse once stood, it is now just a paved area dominated by Miro`s woman and bird, behind this plaza is a new green park filled with trees and excersise and sports areas and the Joan Miro library and research rooms, this is surounded with water features, we spent quite a long time here relaxing in the park and strolling around the park and then crossed the square and climbed the steps (made famous by Freddie Mercury and Monserrat Cabella) to Montjuic where we spent more time just strolling around the parks and gardens there, we came back down the steps and past the Majic Fountains, and then made our way on foot back to Placa Catalunya for the train back to Malgrat where we arrived just in time for dinner. After dinner we set off again into to town for a pleasant evening at the Blanc i Negre, and then back to the hotel for bed, Another tiring but enjoyable day gone
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