Friday, March 2, 2012

Barcelona- Catalonian Delight

After a wonderful rapid train ride, we arrive in Barcelona in the afternoon and I go immediately to the Picasso Museum. There is work there from when he was 14 through his student days here in Barcelona. Many groups of students visit the museum which is great since it is good to see that even Picasso was not Picasso when he first started painting. He did traditional student paintings- landscapes, still lives, and portraits. He developed into Picasso with time.

Today we took a half day city tour which gave us highlights of the city, including the port, Olympic City, Spanish Village, Gothic section including the Cathedral. It did not include the modern section like Gaudi's buildings. More about him in he next post.

Barcelona is vibrant and delightful city. A million people live in the city with three million more in the environs. Many of them are in the cages and restaurants enjoying life while I am here. I am wondering about the 23% unemployed and the financial crisis. New cars here and all over Spain, expensive clothing in stores, people eating and drinking in the restaurants- it is a mystery!

2 comments:

  1. continues to be interesting... That sounds fascinating about Picasso. I would love to see his early work.

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    1. Yes, it was amazing to see that the works were very ordinary student works- small oils, mostly landscapes until he decided to do portraits. He was definitely talented and good at painting. It was also good for people to see that he could do realistic painting if he wanted to. He could make a face look like a face if he chose to.

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