Before my feeble memory gets the better of me, I need to get Saturday events down on paper! On Friday evening we had reserved seats for a concert at the Palau de la Musica Catalanya, but weren’t sure how to get the actual tickets, as we have no printer. So, we high-tailed it down to the venue – or so we thought, except the bus we were on suddenly veered off course, taking us all the way down to Barcelonetta, which is just at the harbor. Wasn’t sure why this happened, and made our way to the metro for the trip back north to the Palau. We emerged not far from a metro station, and found ourselves in the middle of a civil, public demonstration! – firecrackers and all!
(Hence the bus deviation from route...) (Boy, those things are loud!) Everyone – including little children – were wearing t-shirts or carrying banners featuring a large pair of scissors with a circle around them and a slash – R figured out they must have been protesting budgets cuts! Other than the noise from the firecrackers, it wasn’t an unruly or angry mob – just people quietly demonstrating in anticipation of a national election next week.
Found that we were at the right place for the tickets, but they wouldn’t be available for pick up until one hour before the concert …which was 9:30 p.m. Not sure how exactly my 24-hour clock slipped, but the concert did indeed start at 10:30 p.m. As our friend Anne would say – Oh well!!
Metro’d back north to Passeig de Gracia, and went in search of the Egyptian Museum (once around the Arc de Triomph)
It was reportedly a private collection that had been given over to the state a few years ago. Both the building housing the collection and the collection itself were lovely! Very surprised to find some really wonderful and unusual artifacts on display. Saw a circular wooden sarcophagus and some wonderful painted coffin lids, as well as many carvings and stella.
It was now time to head to La Ramble de Catalunya just off Placa de Catalunya to meet Hilary and Zappalas for our anniversary lunch at Ciudad Condal. Lovely place, doesn’t take reservations, so as we were there first, we decided to see if we could get a table inside. (Like much of Europe, Spain is now non-smoking inside restaurants, but there usually is a blue haze outside on the patios!) Found a great table right near the entrance, Hil and Zappalas arriving as we were being seated. Yet another round of wonderful tapas! We had all sorts of things – from bread with tomatoes, more patates braves (fried potatoes with a wonderfully spicy aioli), fried artichokes (I could make a meal of those alone!), a potato and mushroom dish with fois gras; gambas (shrimp including head and all other appendages) – and even though it was only yesterday, I can’t remember everything! For desert, Bob got a cream brulee, which was good, I got hot chocolate cake, which was good, and Katy had the Coconut custard, which was amazing! Whew! A great meal with great friends – what a better way to celebrate our anniversary!
After this feast, we decided to head back to the flat, as R had some Caltech work to do, and I wanted to nap because of the LATE concert. Clouds moved in and about 8 p.m. it started to rain. We took a cab down to the Palau de Musica Catalan. The Palau has a beautiful bar area with lots of wonderful looking tapas and drinks available. R drank coffee while I had a couple of glasses of Montferrat Gran Crus Spanish cava. Yum! Finally managed to get our concert tickets – a few minutes ahead of 9:30!! Hil and Katy joined us for drinks; then we went in for the concert.
Well…as anyone who has ever dined at our house will tell you, my very favorite piece of music is Rodrigo’s Concerto de Aranjuez. The orchestra was magnificent, and the guitarist was superb. How, we ask ourselves, can he move his fingers so quickly! The theatre itself is incredible. Unfortunately I’d advised R NOT to take the camera, and I’m severely regretting it now. If you google the location though, you will see some wonderful photographs. The stained glass ceiling is unique, and the theatre decoration is amazing! Truly, truly loved the concert, which started with Bizet’s Carmen suite, more Rodrigo, and included the overture to Rossini’s Barber of Seville. It ended about 12:30 a.m. and we made our way outside to find clearing coolish weather and a cab back to the flat. All in all, a truly wonderful anniversary day!
Lots of love,
m
x
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