As we had home we remembered again that we learned to quit checking our email, quit writing our papers, quit all those things that make us not on vacation. Good to be home again.

Our final full day in Barcelona took us to Montjuic where we discovered an influential artist, Joan Miró. Neither of us were impressed by his later, freer works. It was that stick figures stuff with the splash of paint here and there. I think my nephews do similar work in their pre-school classes, probably better because the figures in their drawings tend to have descriptive labels like ‘mommy’ and ‘grandpa’.
Back to the shopping. Leslie convinced me to pony up for some trendy shoes from Spain, and I did. It offsets her guilt from buying clothes when I buy some too. It seemed the shopping went on into the night until our concert.

The Cubans know how to Flamenco dance. As part of the Maldeves festival a Cuban Flamenco tour group was in town. We went to the show and they were stunning.

If you’ve ever wondered where The Cheesecake Factory got the idea for the design of their restaurants, this is where you go. This entire building was designed and built in the early 1900s by the local architect Antoni Gaudí.

Commonly referred to as “The Apartments” or “The Quary” (translated) by most guidebooks. The Casa Mila was built as an apartment building with all the modern conveniences. The design is intended to reflect organic structures. Gaudí drew upon many plants, most notably the tree.

Another building designed by Gaudí is the Sagrada Familia has yet to be completed. Gaudí spent his final decade working on the project. It has been taken up by the city and other architects. It’s an immense structure which, again, reflects structures found in nature.

They’ve got a nice aquarium in the harbor. You can make a reservation to swim with the sharks.

Occasionally a herd of noisy German teenagers will blow through the area, camera flashes ablazing.  Each time a few never return, we assume that the aquarium has some budget problems and is using the lively teens to feed the sharks.  Chum in the water boys, chum in the water…

It was settled, then conquered, then rose up, then conquered and rose up again. Barcelona is the perpetual second city to Rome or Paris or Madrid. The historical folks are just now establishing the digs around the city. There were many cultures here over the course of their 2000 year history. It’s like a snapshot of southern Europe and North Africa.

If you’ve ever been to this set of steps in Barcelona then you’ve probably taken the exact same picture I’ve got here.  It’s tough to be original with a thousand year old building.

Eggs crown the Dali Museum in Figueres, as do gold figures and the occasional diver. The inside is as strange as the outside. Our bus tour ended at this museum housing a collection of works owned by and created by the artist.

While Leslie was working on her thesis I was tasked with booking a bus tour. I trapsed up and down C. de Gracia looking for the right [(i)]nformation center. I came across the apartments and snapped this pic from across the intersection.

I also found Springfield. The figure is even dressed in typical mid-west fashion.

RCD Espanyol plays in the Olympic Stadium when they are at home. And while they lost this match, 5-1, the crowd cheered, sang and occasionally exclaimed a scathing comment about a player’s intelligence level.

After a day of cheering there’s nothing like more cheering. Welcome to Jazzsi, a tiny venue where musicians sign up for jam sessions. Once your song comes up you get on stage and perform. While the instrumentation was usually well done, sometimes you wondered if Eddie Vedder was on the mic.

As part of our apartment rental agreement we’re required to water the plants. Here we have some nice succulents, a couple of seedlings and, oh yeah, a couple of pot plants. In Spain it’s legal to grow your own pot for personal consumption.

Sunday’s in Spain are restful. Typically people go to church, eat something, take a nap and watch the soccer game. Most stores are not allowed to be open, and the few that are open close around two in the afternoon.

We’ve arrived in Barcelona for nine days of fun on the Mediterranean coast. Our apartment is located in the Born area which seems to be near the center of a new cultural surge. Our flight plan to get here was surprisingly problem free, for the first time in a long time. We didn’t even have to lug our luggage through customs, apparently they check those bags behind the scenes now.

We’ve met up with Stephanie already and she’s showing us around town. Sunday we are having a long lunch and might go to a soccer game as is the custom here.