My ipad travel blog: Day 3 Barcelona- Picasso Museum and Shadows of the Wind Walking Tour

We had breakfast, said good-byes to other tour group members and our tour director, and were off to our new hotel by taxi.

It seemed strange to have to plan our own day!

We were happy to find our hotel on a quiet street although right in the centre of things.

We even had a balcony and a living room and bedroom so all was well in our world.

We were able to check in as soon as we arrived, which was quite early, and we were off to the Picasso Museum.

It was a pleasant walk

I laughed when I saw the sign above as Mateus was my drink of choice in university, a sweet bubbly rose. One reason Portugal always had interested me.

I love Spanish streets like this with all those beautiful balconies.

and you just never know when you will see a spire.

When you live in a city that is 150 years old, you never see buildings or streets like this.

And then I saw these lovely fans, priced around 25 Euros. Sue asked the question, what would I do with a fan, but right now I am thinking it would look very nice on my bookshelf next to the mantel in my living room. And I have a friend going to Barcelona in the fall so...

I love the streets around the Picasso Museum.

I even found a knitting shop.

And I mean isn't that a neat display below?

I think we actually grabbed some lunch below...

more neat streets and displays

I loved the foyer of the Museum of Modern Art but we didn't explore it this time.

Yes, another street scene!

We had seen a great deal of grafitti in Spain so I thought I should finally snap a picture

Here we are at the Picasso Museum, once a palace, though in Spain there are many palaces it seems.

We couldn't take any pictures inside the museum, but it was great. We had bought our tickets online the day before, but there weren't any big line ups. The museum focuses on Picasso's early years and it is always neat to see the progress of an artist. He was obviously very talented when he was very young and having a father who was an art teacher was helpful I am sure. But we were able to see his progression from realistic to more and more abstract. We really enjoyed seeing his interpretations of Velaquez' Las Meninas, having seen the original at the Prado.

I thought this purse in a shop was rather neat-my favourite painting...

We next wanted to figure out where we were going to be starting our Shadow of the Winds walking tour.

Sue had read this book twice and I was reading it as I did this tour. We both really liked this book set in post Second World War Barcelona as do many many other people.

So we left the Picasso Museum heading to

our next destination.

It was a lovely Saturday.

Spring definitely in the air

A hookah pipe?

We were back at the Columbus Monument at the Ocean end of La Rambla

It was very busy here with lots of people.

and many living statues!

To give you a bit of the atmosphere...

And a donation can bring a statue to life

We found where we thought the tour would begin although it didn't look quite right, kind of in an alley like street.

The neighbourhood itself was a bit sketchy although close to La Rambla. We ended up seeking internet to check my phone's google maps, and found a nice hotel where we decided a glass of wine was in order.

Then we followed google's directions but there was no tour guide with a red umbrella. It turned out we were at the back of the right building. Google doesn't always get it right! But Sue took a turn and spotted our tour guide and we were off.

My battery on my phone had died so Sue became the photographer.

And the tour was great and fortunately led us back into the Gothic District not far from our hotel. But we began where we did to see the imaginary setting of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, an integral part of the novel.

Our charming tour guide did the tour in English and Spanish, reading applicable excerpts from the novel in both languages as well.

Above you can see bullet holes from the Spanish Civil War.

I am not sure about the picture above-perhaps we just liked this wall?

This is the famous cafe where Picasso actually designed the menus early in his career, and where the two main characters in the novel meet.

This church figures as well in the novel.

It really was a great way to explore the city and the images stayed in my head as I finished reading this novel. So if you haven't read Shadows of the Wind and have been to Barcelona or planning a trip I do recommend it.

At the end of the tour we decided to head back to our hotel but we did stop at a chocolate store and checked out their Easter display. Of course we also picked up dessert!

We ended up at the restaurant at our hotel and dinner was very tasty (that's my cheese salad above) and below is a selection of olives. Our hotel, Hotel Constanza, was great, and I totally recommend it!