Terry weighs in...

I haven’t blogged since Tuesday, so before I forget, I have some observations. On Wednesday we saw two churches, the Picasso museum and the beach, known as the Barceloneta. The first church which is the cathedral has about 30 small altars all created by individual guilds. Each one of these in an American church would be extraordinary. Here they are nothing special and much of the decoration is in drastic need of a good dusting. We took an elevator to the roof for a panoramic view of the city. There was scaffolding allowing you to walk above the crest of the roof. Very cool. The second church, the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar is less ornate but has some of the most beautiful stained glass windows we have ever seen. I am sorry we could not get more than a couple of pictures of some of the most beautiful windows but the sun was shining so brightly that the pictures were too washed out . The Picasso Museum is very small but it had a great special exhibit showing the parallel work of Picasso and Degas. Picasso, it seems to me. was so talented that traditional art was no longer a challenge to him or he just got lazy. Who knows? The beach was very nice. It was a bit chilly in the shade, but if I had a beach towel I would have tan today. On Thursday we went to the national museum on Montjuic, a truly world class art collection in a stunning building. We tried to take the cable car back but it was closed due to strong winds. The entire museum complex is left over from the 1929 world exhibition and has an a system of fountains which cover the entire side of the mountain. Beyond the museum is the Olympic park and stadium where they now play soccer.

We have had some great food. Wednesday night we ate at “4 Cats” the first restaurant to display Picasso’s work. They had a piano player who ended every song with a flourish and who received frequent applause.He played only American music: “ New York,New York”,”It’s a Wonderful World”,”In the Mood” etc. The back dining room where we were, is surrounded by a catwalk with dining tables. Our first course was meat filled cannelloni with truffled cream sauce. You get the idea. We ate like high society types. A fine meal at the museum today and tonight we had great tapas. Barcelona is to the Brits like Hilton Head is to Cincinnatians.There are lots of Brits here for the warmer weather and tropical atmosphere and most are well behaved. Some like the one who screamed:”come back here you p-----“,outside of the restaurant tonight, are not. It really is nice when you realize the drunk claiming the waiter cheated him is not an American. I hope you had a great turkey day. Gotta go. My favorite show-“Bauer Sucht Frau”i.e. Farmer seeks a Wife” is starting on German television . It is as great as you would imagine.