Jen & Angel in Europe: Barcelona Day 1- Beach, Tapas, Ramblas, Picasso

I didn’t plan this, but how cool is it that all museums are free on Sundays from 3pm-8pm! The most famous of Barcelona museums is the Museu Picasso, so we had to go there first. We walked down the Ramblas, where all the shops and the famous Mercat de la Boqueria were CLOSED (In Barcelona, everything is closed on Sundays except restaurants! >__<

and Chicken & Seafood Paella,

as well as a pitcher of red Sangria.

I thought the squid ink rice was fabulous but as Angel hates squid, she preferred the other one… come to think of it, she prefers the one we make at home ourselves even more. That’s only because we throw in ten times more saffron than restaurants do (I think they’d go bankrupt following our recipe ^.^) and pile the dish with as much chicken and seafood we can! I will say that I used to HATE squid, but they diced up squid in the paella and it was DELICIOUS. The texture was sublime; almost like abalone, and not at all chewy and tough. The sangria was excellent too, if lacking wine flavor (although Mom and I got drunk on it… so there had to be a good amount of wine in there!)
Ramblas ends at the beach, so we walked along the beach and checked out the shopping mall on the world’s largest floating pier, Rambla del Mar (it looks anchored to me, but hey, they said it, not me).

In Paris, the Seine river has no gates, so if you fall, it’s on a on-your-own-risk kinda situation. In Barcelona, same! There are no gates keeping people away from the water! We thought that was pretty dangerous, but that’s Americans for ya. The pier just ends and below, water! Hope there’s no sharks in them waters….

A cool lookin’ bobblehead on the water:

The taxi driver that drove us to the hotel said only this shopping mall was open on Sundays… I’ll never get how Europeans decide when to open and close! Most stores are open 7 days a week in America! In Paris, they arbitrarily decide when to close… one chooses Monday, another chooses Tuesday, yet another Wednesday, so you really got to do your research on that! In Barcelona, they say all the shops are closed on Sundays, but yet this shopping mall is open? I don’t get it!
A snack along the way “Xuxu Crema” (basically puff pastry with cream inside, and granulated sugar dusted on the outside):

A naval museum on one of Spain’s oldest sailing ships:

Barcelona’s Colom, a tribute to Christopher Columbus (you can see him on top pointing toward the sea).

We past the Museum of Zoology, housed in a gorgeous building.

Barcelona’s Arc de Triunfo (like Paris’ Arc de Triomphe), but in guide books, you’ll see Barcelona tourism proudly stating it is more beautiful than the one in Paris. In Paris, you see guide books telling you to buy gariguette strawberries because it is so fragrant… not like those tasteless ones from Spain! Kinda reminds me of the rivalries that Berkeley has with every other school… *ahem* UCLA never harps on Berkeley! … it’s not worth our effort!

Their equivalent of the Place de la Concorde:

Finally, we arrived at the Museu Picasso. It is housed in the Barri Gotic area, where most all the buildings are Gothic style. The style is awesome, with the sharp spikes and severe arches.

Looks like a dungeon:

We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum, but I highly recommend it for Picasso lovers. I’m not a Picasso fan, but I was able to appreciate him more because of this museum. As he spent many of his early years in Barcelona, the city helped shape him and he later donated many of his earlier (even childhood) works to this museum, thus why the museum bills itself as the most comprehensive Picasso museum in the world. The museum lays out everything in chronological order, so you get a sense of how he started as a kid, and how he evolved throughout his life. It is very drastic; from his earlier works, you’d never guess he’d turn out the way he did :T The marking point of when he turned into the Picasso was when he discovered African art and started incorporating that into his paintings.
At the recommendation of Hotel Regina, the hotel we’re staying at, we went to Lonja de Tapas for dinner. The concierge gave us each a coupon for free sherry… and Mom ordered Cava (Spanish champagne) for 2.95 euros! Cheap!