Waterwall

26 October 2007: LA-like tour, as we visited where the mountains meet the sea.

[insert photo: Go board and lunch] The Maritime Museum was a treat, even though I lost my folks during a self-guided audio tour. Where could they have gone after stop #4 and we're on the same pace? Maybe they're rowing with the reconstructed galley.

Anyway, we met up again and headed to Port Vell for a razor clam, prawn, and calamari lunch where I decidedly beat my father in our daily Go competitions.

[insert photo: fountain] At sunset atop Montjuic, mom and I descended from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya to watch the Magic Fountain show. I was thrilled to find the van der Rohe Pavillion and touched the Mecca of my HA85 modern architecture course.

I would have liked to have spent more time around the small, winding streets of Poble Sec. People were pouring out of a small tapas bar with drinks in hand and no chairs. Mom could have rolled me home.

Boom

25 October 2007: [insert photo: lunch plate] Went through El Raval and its trio of art centers (MACBA, FAD, CCCB) after a delicious lunch.

Most moving was the MACBA exhibition: Sota la bomba. El jazz de la guerra d’imatges transatlàntica. 1946-1956. I sat on the ground to watch the documentary video archives from the atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll.

[insert photo: modern art museum] I was shocked that people passed by the video, instead heading straight to the exhibition paintings on the wall. I guess it's standard museum protocol to look at art, but here's the real thing - right in your face - blast after blast.

Thanks

24 October 2007: In Barcelona, Spain traveling with mom and dad.

[insert photo: Gruell Park] We made arrangements in Guildford, kissed Jen goodbye, and arrived last night. Our hotel is in Gracia, beside Gruell Park and the Gaudi museum. We've spent the morning in the mountains and the park overlooking the city to the sea.

Mom and dad don't know too much about Gaudi and were in awe when we got to his first stone stacked bridge held up by Catalan arches.

[insert photo: sangria mommy] We wandered to Casa Vicens, Mercat de la Libertat, and Placa Ruis i Taulet for dinner where we learned that mom gets soggy over sangria - a double-whammy of alcohol and sugar. We rolled her home.