Wednesday, July 27, 2005
madrid to barcelona 25 to 30 july
WOW, WOW AND WOW
Culture, the arts and history. Surrounded by palaces. i made good use of the hop on and off bus. so much so that my legs disown me every night. LOVED the prado museum, thyssen and reina sophia museums. Came face to face with Rembrandts, Renoirs, picassos etc. Brought back memories of year 12 art studies. Amazing, i had to pinch myself all the time to believe i was really standing there right in front of such beautiful and famous works of art. Cezanne, Gauguin the list goes on and on.
Also walked the Botannical gardens as well as a huge park complete with a huge pond where people rent boats.
To top off a perfect day i opted for a night at the ballet instead of the traditional bullfight. Couldn´t resist, the nutcracker was on, the imperial russian ballet right opposite my motel. Costumes colourful and gorgeous, huge christmas tree on stage and men in tights. it all took place in a lovely old theatre all red and gold with chandeliers etc. The music replayed all evening as i went to sleep.
i got myself off to the train station this morning, estacion des altoche, pretty good hey, the driver understood me. So today was pretty restful, 5 and a half hours on the train, very comfortable, air con. etc and a dining car where i had lunch and some sort of semblance of a coffee. Thank god i have a cast iron stomach, lunch was a hot roll with smelly cheese and something like hot proscuitto, not very nice but it got better as i got used to it. you know me, won´t waste.
So 3 nights now in Barcelona, the rialto. Finally made it to the coast and it looked really nice from the train window, palm trees and all and loads of people. i am currently at the famous les ramblas. off to montserrat in the morning and a full day city tour on friday.
Culture, the arts and history. Surrounded by palaces. i made good use of the hop on and off bus. so much so that my legs disown me every night. LOVED the prado museum, thyssen and reina sophia museums. Came face to face with Rembrandts, Renoirs, picassos etc. Brought back memories of year 12 art studies. Amazing, i had to pinch myself all the time to believe i was really standing there right in front of such beautiful and famous works of art. Cezanne, Gauguin the list goes on and on.
Also walked the Botannical gardens as well as a huge park complete with a huge pond where people rent boats.
To top off a perfect day i opted for a night at the ballet instead of the traditional bullfight. Couldn´t resist, the nutcracker was on, the imperial russian ballet right opposite my motel. Costumes colourful and gorgeous, huge christmas tree on stage and men in tights. it all took place in a lovely old theatre all red and gold with chandeliers etc. The music replayed all evening as i went to sleep.
i got myself off to the train station this morning, estacion des altoche, pretty good hey, the driver understood me. So today was pretty restful, 5 and a half hours on the train, very comfortable, air con. etc and a dining car where i had lunch and some sort of semblance of a coffee. Thank god i have a cast iron stomach, lunch was a hot roll with smelly cheese and something like hot proscuitto, not very nice but it got better as i got used to it. you know me, won´t waste.
So 3 nights now in Barcelona, the rialto. Finally made it to the coast and it looked really nice from the train window, palm trees and all and loads of people. i am currently at the famous les ramblas. off to montserrat in the morning and a full day city tour on friday.
# posted by Gisela @ 11:36 AM 
