Catalan Music and Castle Montjuic

We started our last day at the Palau de la Musica Catalana. This was a gorgeous concert hall in the Gothic Quarter. If you are interested in music, we highly recommend going there. The architecture on the outside is quite interesting, though it is in the middle of a narrow alley; we couldn't really get any good pictures of the colorful mosaics and the busts of famous composers Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner. The best way to see this beauty is by paying for the tour/audio guide and going inside. You can go out on the balconies on the upper levels so you can see the mosaic columns up close, and the inside of the concert hall is breathtaking.

When you walk into the concert hall, your eyes are immediately drawn to the stained-glass skylight. The design is supposed to depict a sky, with the sun at the center. The columns around the first balcony level leading up to the ceiling are shaped like sunflowers with their petals opening towards the sun. A ring of lights surround each column and are also tilted toward the "sun" in the skylight. We have roses decorating the ceilings, and more colorful mosaics. As you glance toward the stage, you'll notice the organ at the center, flanked by two stone busts. The one on the left is of Anselm Clav, who was responsible for reviving singing; he basically told everyone to stop drinking at the taverns and go to the concert hall instead. The bust on the right is of Richard Wagner, and you'll see a homage to his famous "Ride of the Valkyries" with stampeding horses toward the ceiling. Below the organ, you have the Catalan crest, surrounded by the muses, all playing different instruments. The architectural design by Montaner is really stunning, and though I had focused on Gaudi's architecture when planning this trip, I'm so glad I was introduced to another famous Catalan architect with magnificent vision. We don't really see things like this in the states!

After Palau de la Musica, we went on an adventure to find Castle Montjuic. The train to get to the cable car was down, so we walked about 30 minutes (we found out later we could've taken a bus, but Google Maps didn't tell us that) before finding the base for the

cable car, which was also down. This was a rough walk, but we had already come this far, so we walked all the way up to the top of the mountain. There were a lot of stairs, but we were most grateful for the sidewalk incline next to it. It may have taken more steps to get around, but the slope helped us get to the top without having a heart attack.

The castle itself wasn't exactly beautiful. It was built in the 1600s, starting out as a small fort and added onto up until WWII. It is rather austere and not very ornate compared to other castles we've visited. We enjoyed walking around and looking at the sea from the top of the castle. We had lunch at the cafe there, which didn't have much selection, but the food was decent. We spent a little over an hour walking through the castle, then made our way back down the mountain. We stumbled across a few Greek-themed gardens and a Greek amphitheater, which overlooked some more beautiful buildings that we wandered towards. We ended up at the Museum of Catalan Music, which we did not go into because it seemed incredibly crowded with college students. Regardless, the view of the building and the fountains beyond it was stunning, and it was a nice adventure for our last day.

That evening, we ate dinner at Els Quatre Gats. This was the best restaurant we ate at in Barcelona, if only because of the atmosphere. The restaurant has been around for over a century (though it was closed for most of those years), and had many famous patrons like Picasso, Casas, Romeu, and Gaudi himself. We loved our view of Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu on a Tandem, and Graham nearly bought a shirt with the photo on it, except they didn't have his size. We ordered salmon and beef croquettes for appetizers, and I had monkfish meatballs for my main course. The food was decent, the atmosphere was cozy, and the decorations were eccentric.