Picasso in Barcelona, October 18, and on to Casablanca, October 19

Pablo Picasso moved with his family to Barcelona when he was a boy and he lived here many years from 1895 to 1904. This museum was created from five Renaissance houses by Picasso's good friend and secretary. Since Picasso refused to return to Spain while Franco was the ruler, he never saw the museum...he died two years before Franco.

 

This is an old part of Barcelona with very narrow streets.

Photos were not allowed inside the building, but we bought postcards of our favorite paintings.

The museum displays some of his earliest drawings and paintings. A Man with a Beret, painted when he was a young teenager, shows not only his ability to paint realistically but also a remarkable insight into the feelings of his subject. His paintings in this museum show his progression from realism through Impressionism, some in the style of Seurat's pointillism, some resembling Toulouse-Lautrec's strong outlining and bold colors, on to his blue period when he was depressed, cold and hungry, into his rose period and continuing to post Impressionism. An art history teacher taught that without Cezanne, there would be no Picasso as he built on the techniques that Cezanne used. There are no cubist paintings in this museum, but there is a collection of his interpretation of Velasquez's Las Meninas. When Picasso moved to Madrid, he dropped out of art school, much to his father's chagrin, and instead spent hours at the Prado where he studied and copied the masters. There is a painting in the Barcelona museum of his copy of Velasquez's portrait of King Philip IV.

There are around thirty or so versions of his reinterpretation of Las Meninas, Velasquez's masterpiece painting of Philip IV's daughter, Princess Margarita, with her maids and attendants. These are fascinating to look at. In this museum you can begin to understand how Picasso developed from traditional painting into cubism and beyond.

Santa Maria del Mar

We walked to the Plaza Angel where we shared a couple tapas, then down l'Argentaria street to the church, Santa Maria del Mar, an excellent example of Catalan Gothic, built very quickly in a span of 59 years for the sailors as it is very near the port. I am sure that the interior is beautiful and interesting, but since we have seen many, many cathedrals and churches on this trip, Bob was not disappointed that this church was not open! We continued to the Plaza des Olles where we found a shop we were looking for, then back up l'Argentaria street where there once were many gold shops. Now there are nice shops, but they are not selling gold per se.

The building on the corner on Las Ramblas had Chinese details including a dragon projecting from the corner of the building.

We walked over to Las Ramblas, a well-known street through the city. We walked in the center on the promenade, flanked by trees on each side and a street on each side. The pavement stones gave the impression of waves. Very attractive, but most of the stores on the two streets and lining the promenade were very touristy. Street vendors were hawking a certain type of whistle and others were attracting tourists into a game of moving very quickly three little boxes covering one white ball (and guessing which box covered the ball). The vendor let the tourist win the first round, luring him into more games where he did not have a chance of winning!

Las Ramblas - the Chinese building is on the corner.

We reached the Plaza Catalunya with its beautiful fountains and walked north on Passage de Gracia, stopping at the sidewalk cafe of the restaurant Divinus for a couple more tapas and a glass of wine. Back to our hotel to pack for our flight the next day. Down to the hotel bar to play a game of Mexican gin while we shared a Margarita pizza. Having lived many years in Southern California, we knew what a margarita was, but not sure about a pizza so named. It was very tasty with ham, cheese and tomatoes. Off to bed as we have an early wake up call.

Friday, October 19, we wake up to rain. Off to the airport at 7:30 to fly to Casablanca via Madrid on Iberia Airlines. We did not know they would weigh our carryons. Bob had put books in his, so to be sure that his checked luggage was not over the 50 pounds, but that meant we had to check his carryon which now exceeded the weight limit they allowed.....60€! Yikes! We are on coach at this point. Mine was over also, but I put on my hiking boots and that solved the problem.


At Madrid we had a half hour walk to our next gate. Down a long corridor, down three steep flights of escalators, up, down, through passport control, up, down, across, on a train, and a long, long walk on people movers to our gate. Then down the stairs to a bus, up the steps to the plane. Bob said it is not easy getting to Morocco! Small plane, tight seats, had to purchase anything you wanted including water. We had a snack. The lady next to me, the age of our children, asked me to fill out her forms, which I did. She was born in Morocco, but lived in Spain. She talked to me in Spanish during the two hour trip. My Spanish is rusty since I studied it in school over 55 years ago! She asked if I had grandchildren, so I showed her pictures and then she showed me lots of pictures of, I believe, her nieces and nephews.

It took us an hour to get out of the Casablanca airport. Very long lines to get through Immigration, then immediately another long line to have our passport checked again! The National Geographic driver met us. It was clear while we waited for the driver to get his car, but en route to the city, it started to rain. What a drive to the city and we are going to have to do it again when we return to Casablanca at the end of our trip. Many farm animals, mostly horse, goats and sheep along the highway and the outskirts. The traffic is horrendous, and everyone is honking. Many lanes merge into fewer lanes and there is construction also as they are building a tramway. At this time, Morocco is two hours behind Spain since they do not go on Daylight savings. It was around 2:00 when we left the airport. We actually got to our room at 4:00. Ten and half hours portal to portal, tiring, but not bad when comparing to a trans-Atlantic flight. This is a Sheraton, an oasis in a very busy city. French is the language spoken here, but probably not their first language as that might be Arabic or Berber. Then English is their third or fourth language and we have a terrible time understanding them! Furthermore we were almost getting into the swing of Spanish, so now we are trying to say "oui" instead of "si"! We started this trip in Portugal and tried to learn a few basic phrases there. That language is similar to Spanish, but of course, different. After five days, we went to Spain, but our last five days we were in Barcelona where they also speak Catalan which is a variation of Spanish but with a mixture of French thrown in. So for please, we have gone from "por favor" to Catalan pronounced "see us (long u) plow" to s'il vous plait". Now we are trying to remember some French!

It is now Saturday, October 19, and our tour starts in 45 minutes. I have also had my share of challenges with getting online. Last night at dinner we met our tour director, Andrew, from Vermont. He will be great! We learned very quickly from him that there was no Rick's Cafe. It was strictly Hollywood, filmed on the Warner Brothers' lot. Now there is a restaurant called Rick's Cafe which shows the movie, Casablanca, constantly, but it is a recent creation. We drive by it, but not in it.

Rick's Cafe

 

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