it was a lazy start for our tuesday morning...have been sleeping well... we finally hit the streets at about noon...a quick stop at our favorite sandwich shop and we are on our way...
throughout the city we have seen happy pills shops....the chemical health specialist in me needed a pic...we took a look and found a wall floor to ceiling of pill shaped sweets...every flavor...happy happy...
our plans for the day included the picasso museum...it is on the other side of the gothic quarter and we discover another AMAZING market...this one a little higher end...gin is quick to point out the monk fish....
oh monk...
this was a frozen food corner...pasta, veggies, rice...all frozen and bagged to order....
the buildings remind us of france....minus the spanish flag of course...
so the picasso museum was on the top of ginny's list...she had not been on earlier trips...no pics in the museum so this part for the adventure is shy on visual documentation...i will say that we enjoyed the museum (me too)...we purchased audio guides and the tour was well done...i was pleased to see the whole of the man's work...the pic below is a photo of a post card we purchased....this kind of craziness is what I think of when someone says picasso...i was impressed with his earlier stuff...not as nuts...
to up the entertainment value, we started naming his pieces ourselves...this painting is called "seated women"...far too boring...ginny renamed it "man with cold (red nose) eating artichoke"
after a couple of hours with picasso we made our way back to the hotel...like so many european cities, something amazing to see at most turns in the road...
las ramblas does not disappoint....
besides picasso...the the rainy day called for a pit stop at the lavaxpress...here she is...my laundry maiden...
when we travel, we always plan a laundry stop or two along the way....some of our favorite laundry stops have been in nice, florence, rimbach germany (thank you hans juergen & gina) and london...the barcelona laundromat was a good stop...i am always impressed with the instructions in these places...here we find instructions in 5 languages for the washing machines...
but only 4 languages for the dryers...hmmmmmm
in the evening we returned to the restaurant with the redemptive paella and tried another variety...this is the veggie paella...I LOVED IT...friend joce this is for you...had mushrooms, zucchini, white asparagus, white beans, red peppers, peas...yum yum yum...when we returned to the hotel at the end of the night i ordered a paella pan...it will be waiting for me when we return to minnesota...
after dinner we caught a flamenco show...we sat with our knees against the stage and sangria in hand...an intimate space...our seat mates were a female couple from california...a retired divorce lawyer named jackie and a vp for symantec (norton anti-virus) named chris...we enjoyed them very much...jackie had a few before the show and was quite animated...we enjoyed a walk up las ramblas with them after the show...
the dancing was fantastic...feet moving very fast...a staccato faster than the eye at times...handsome men (antonio banderas types)...beautiful women...
tomorrow we will back our bags and make the journey to portugal...we will post again on turkey day....happy thanksgiving...
kir&gin
