Day 3 - Montjuic

My plan for this third day was to go to Montjuic - a mountain overlooking the sea that housed many different gardens and other places to see. In fact there were too many places to see listed there and I clearly had to prioritize. My plan was simple - I would see the Joan Miro Museum, the German Pavilion by Mies Van Der Rohe, the tower by Calatrava and the typical Spanish village if possible. There was some sort of Castle listed as one of the attractions but I definitely wasn't interested in going there.

I reached Montjuic through the funicular, which looks like a train but is drawn by tough cables up the slope. Within moments of walking from the station I found the Joan Miro museum - my first intended destination. However curiosity took me up a monumental set of steps right opposite the museum. The top of these steps took me to another series of smaller steps. Feeling somewhat like Alice, I continued up the steps which in turn led me to small pathways and more steps. I realized by now that I had climbed quite a distance, but the promise of some spectacular view beyond kept me going further...up more steps and more pathways. When I finally reached somewhere, I realized I was at the very castle that I hadn't wanted to see.

I spent some time wandering outside the castle enjoying the spectacular views onto the harbour and the sea. The castle itself was massive but had little else in its favor. There was a military museum inside which one could see for two euros, but I didn't want to. By this time, my unintended diversion had eaten up two and a half hours of my time at Montjuic - precious time that could have been spent elsewhere. About half my time at Montjuic was over and I'd seen none of the things I had come to see. For the first time I realized the importance of sticking with an agenda.

I found my way back to the museum and spent all my remaining time there, since I wanted to see it in detail. The museum housed the art of Joan Miro and had been built by architect Josep Luis Sert. The entry was somewhat pricey and had I planned my visit better I would have purchased an Articket which allowed people to see 5 museums for 20 euros. The audioguide cost extra and I purchased one thinking that it would be helpful. Needless to say the audioguide didn't really add much to the experience. Art is a very personal thing to begin with and no audioguide could have done justice to the experience anyway. Although I was not familiar with Miro or his work before stepping into the museum, I fell in love with his work anyway. I wished I could do with words what this man had done with art - but its not easy. This had taken him years of mastery over conventional art and experimenting with the new. Also this was more in the realm of poetry than fiction...a world somewhat strange to me.

There was also a temporary exhibition by Carlos Santos comprising of disturbing images that I cannot claim to have understood. It was interesting though. One of the highlights of my visit there was seeing the 'Mercury Fountain' sculpture by the American artist Alexander Calder.

Soon it was time to leave and I took the funicular back down. My husband joined me for our next desitination that evening - Parc Guell - a huge park designed by Antonio Gaudi. The park took a while to reach and was a long climb from the Metro station. We saw many apartment buildings enroute and were struck by the similarity to India. The open balconies with clothes hung out to dry, the plants and the brick construction all made us feel that we were back in India - a cleaner version nevertheless.

The park itself was spectacular as was to be expected. By the time we reached it, the sun had begun to set and there were a lot of parts we couldn't see. However we did manage to see the famous mosaic frog. It was a very pleasant evening and we had a wonderful time.

Heading back, we had some misadventures trying to take a bus instead of the Metro and ending up in the wrong place. After more walking (my feet were killing me), we took a Metro back to Las Ramblas and had dinner at Moti Mahal, an Indian restaurant nearby. The food was excellent though expensive and was a good change from all the salads and sandwiches we'd been eating thus far.

We took the last metro back to the hotel and thus ended our third day in Barcelona