On this the first of 7 days on our own in Barcelona. We grabbed our pre purchased art museum passes and walked 20 minutes (up a mountain) to the Fundacio JUAN MIRO.
We easily redeemed the ticket and spent 2 glorious swiftly passing hours touring the fabulous MIRO collection from early to late works. Being an habitual people watcher and shutter snapper I encountered this class of 7-8 year olds bunched on the floor with teacher.
Mostly they were well behaved and somewhat entranced participating in the hands on game with the teacher, but there was some talking among the girls and 2 boys were pulled out being disciplined for behaviour faults. Boys will always be boys. Lots of rain as predicted. We caught a light lunch at the Fundacio then cabbed to the Museu Picasso, also the art tour ticket (6 galleries). They did not accept the voucher as did the Miro. A comedy of errors, we chased for 90 minutes getting to the right place to get it printed but their system did not accept our status. We were directed to the nearby Costa coffee shop–buy an espresso (1.5 eu) and get wifi access. Hold on, that was not so easy. A lovely barista helped us and worked magic. Back in the drizzle to the Picasso.
It worked and we were accompianied upstairs via elevator by a guide. The exhibit is exquisite; the early work to about 1960, we “grew up” with this work. What a wonderful gallery the building! The exhibit! including the full collection of Picasso’s multi image work LA MENINAS 1957 incorporating Picasso’s take on the fabulous Velazquez image in El Prado in Madrid.
What struck me along the long tedious way in the of high tourist oppulecent areas are the inevitable poor folks agonizing to survive. They sleep on the sidewalks under cover and in full view. Not unusual anywhere, but I saw at least half a dozen of these folks sleeping or reading or talking to others like them on fairly thick mattresses with blankets for a cover. They appeared content, were not begging and perhapa a step ahead of the expected downtrodden among the oppulent. Just a thought to bring us down to earth.