Tuesday, June 27th - Day 3 - Barcelona Museums

Our last day in Barcelona was a day of museums. We ate breakfast at a marketplace called La Bocaria, which had an abundance of fruit and fresh sea food for sale, along with a huge variety of cheeses and other meats. The food was very good, though Brogan ate little more than a bit of mango while the rest of us ate these interesting potato and vegetable patty/pie things. After breakfast, we walked over to the Picasso Museum, which had a long line. Since this was something that my mom, who had done all the research, had anticipated and the museum was just opening for the day, we waited. Inside, there was many paintings from different parts of Pablo Picasso’s life, such as the “Blue Era”, though there were few true works of cubism. He spent a part of his childhood in Barcelona, along with a few of his adult years, so we thought that the museum was worth a visit. Upon departure fro the museum, which had ended with a display of the childish works of Picasso’s later years, we stumbled upon a chocolate museum. Who wouldn’t check it out? Inside was a stunning display of chocolate sculptures, along with a history of chocolate in Barcelona. We discovered that Barcelona was actually the place where cocoa first entered Spain. Interesting, right? Another thing: The tickets were made out of chocolate. Real, honest to goodness, chocolate. Completely awesome. At this point the temperature outside was sweltering and Brogan and I wanted nothing more than to go back to the apartment and sleep. However, we had one more stop before that could happen. So my family and I headed to La Historia de Barcelona Museum, which turned out to be completely awesome. First, we got to take a brief look at the history of Barcelona. Then, we promptly plunged down into it. Literally. We took an elevator down beneath the museum into the Roman ruins. The audio guide was simple and to the point, but very enlightening as to the different buildings and architecture. My mom still can’t find any large difference between the place where they salted fish and the place where they made wine, as they actually look extremely similar, when all that you can see is the basic stone structure. We emerged from the underground to find a whole other section about a more modern history of Barcelona, where my dad made an observation of how development starts to parallel with other places, like the US in the industrial revolution. We only glanced at this section, however, as we were all tiered and someone would have had a breakdown if we hadn’t got some sleep in soon. So, we headed back to the apartment, had our lunch at a place just outside of it, took our siesta, and awoke again well rested, though it was late in the day. After our long nap, we found the ferry terminal, which we would be leaving from the next day, and ate dinner at Taller Tapas, another restaurant just outside of the apartment. That was how our day ended.