Sangria, Fountains, and Old Men

Hola todos!

We´re feeling very Spanish tonight, as we seem to have blended seemlessly into the cultural sense of time here...we had our late afternoon siesta, just finished dinner around 11 pm, and now are here in the internet cafe before we head back to our hotel.

Today was a busy day...we started with a walking tour this morning, in which we saw the foundations of the original Roman city. (OK, it was a kind of nerdy walking tour, but Gretchen was still willing to go with me). Then the chocolate museum, (Barcelona was the first European port of entrance for cacao from South America), and the Picasso museum before our siesta. The Picasso museum alternated between amazing stuff (his interpretations of Velazquez´Las Meninas, his Blue Period, his early art school work), some naughty bits (lots of sexual drawings he did when he first moved to Barcelona), and some silly things (neither of us were big fans of his ceramics). My strange favorite: a black and white photo of him staring seriously into the camera while holding a small owl. I´ve got the postcard version to show when I get back.

We´ve just roused ourselves from sleep to see some of the more modernista, Gaudi et al type buildings, then some sangria and little sandwiches at a great place nearby. Can´t say enough about the sangria...it´s so tasty! Also a little dangerous...too easy to keep drinking and drinking...

One last thing, and possibly the best thing in Barcelona so far: last night, we went to the Magic Fountains, which sounds cheesy, and will sound even cheesier without pictures and video to demonstrate. There is a huge fountain here, several levels, with multiple jets of water, and every half hour on the weekends they coordinate the jets with colored lights and a sort of top 100 classical music medley, and the result really is...magical. :) Those of you reading this who´ve been in Barcelona may disagree, but sitting there in the hot night with the cool spray drifting down, listening to the melody from Beethoven´s 9th symphony with lots of colored water doing dramatic things...we loved it. We also loved meeting the old man who introduced himself to us and chatted at length about how his dad helped build the fountain, how he had family in America, and how evil Franciso Franco was. He was a proud Catalonian indeed.

More tomorrow...we have one more day in this great but slightly overwhelming place..
E