I was asked a question about  how I felt about the galleries we visited in the previous post. Both MACBA and Tapies are excellent galleries. I would not make a special trip to Barcelona for them unless you had an unusual interest in Spain’s development from the civil war through the end of Franco. That being said if you were in Barcelona for any time and had a day to explore, do not miss them. Today as we prepare to depart in the morning we took the funicular from the Para’llel station to Mountjuik (Mount of Jews!) and  went to the Museu Nacional D’Arte de Catalunya. Add this one to the list of must see. We spent almost 4 hours just in the “modern” art galleries 1890’s to 1950’s. It also happens to be a short walk from the Miro. Also the lunch in the dining room on 2nd Floor was amazing with great views out a huge window

There are reasons beyond art galleries to come to Barcelona. Yesterday we took a tour of the Palau de la Música Catalana in the morning. 

This glass box contains an acoustically wonderful concert hall as we heard in performance last night. The program was listed as Bach Partita #1 Bernat Prat violinist and Adrian Diaz Martin, trompa accompanied by piano for the second half. I never looked up trompa and just assumed it was trumpet. To my absolute delight  Martin walked on stage with his french horn (trompa!) and played  3 pieces: Vignery,sonata for horn and piano; R Strauss, Andante for Horn and piano  and Bowen, Sonata for horn and piano. We were entranced! According to the guide in the morning there are about 300 performances a year in the building including the large hall and a new small hall beneath the terrace. For those who don’t know my instrument in my youth was French Horn.

We are preparing to leave Barcelona so glad we took the 7 days here to get to know it. What we learned is that even more time is required to get past just scratching the surface.

I have lost creativity in naming I fear.  We continue to soak in this incredible city. Two more museums following our tour to Montserrat. MACBA and Fundacio Antoni Tapies. MACBA is the Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona. The timeline on the first floor from 1929 to current took us over an hour to follow. It follows the cultural scene of the world with a long look into the history of Spanish civil war and the Franco Regime as seen by Spanish artists. Many we know such as Miro and Picasso and several we were totally unfamiliar with, in particular Antoni Tapies.

 Having soaked in  Spain’s history as seen by many varied artists we moved on to the Fundcio Antoni Tapies. I must admit to total ignorance. I do not remember hearing of his work before this trip. I was only able to photograph one of his works and it is hardly representative

This is done on a sheet to commemorate a retrospective of Joan Miro in Barcelona. It is the Catalan flag  calling for Catalan Liberation. It is signed by many well known and lesser known artists of the day. 

I don;t think I have mentioned that this flag is seen throughout Catalonia and other flags and banners are visible everywhere. There are flags and signs abounding calling for freedom of the Catalonian government officials who are being held in jail by the Spanish government for over a year since they responded to an “illegal” vote demanding independence by declaring independence. People are carefree and seem relaxed on the surface, but there is a deep roiling sense that another battle is soon to be commenced. Spanish authorities are not at all liked in this Catalanonia . Catalonia is a major part of the Spanish economy. I’ll leave it there.

More to come. . .

We have had two active days since the last post. 

Friday we were picked up at our apartment by Eddie who manages the apartments and provides guide service.  We set out for the Montserrat Monastery in a grey, dreary day with some promise of rain. As we got closer to the mountain the clouds began to lift and presented us with this view:

Shooting from the car makes it hard to avoid street signs and wires.

Our first objective on arrival was to stop saying WOW at the mountain environment

We climbed these stairs to reach the level of the floor of the church

The miracle was I got a picture with no one on the stairs, we never saw them this open once an hour had passed. 

We waited in line to see the Black Madonna, we may have been the only people there not wanting to venerate her, other than with a photo

As soon as I tripped the shutter the guard said “No Photos” well he said something in Spanish that I took to mean that. The figure is surrounded by a glass case which barely shows. Surprising since people were laying their hands and faces on the glass.

We waited with many others to hear a boy choir perform in the church with the modern organ. 

We moved on from the Monastery after this performance for lunch in the ocean front town of Sitges at a restaurant called Pic Nic – for the movie. 

This was the view from our ocean front table. Eddie ordered for us and we shared, octopus, anchovies and a small fried ball of fish. The description hardly does justice to the food. It was heavenly. Carol had a vegetable tempura that thrilled her, with enough to make up part of her dinner in the apartment later that night.

As we prepared for bed a huge thunderstorm moved over the city. We were grateful to have no reason to move out of the apartment until morning.  

I will post the next day’s activity soon.

We had 3 nights here in Barcelona with the TBK Group, when they left we moved to a VRBO Apartment not far away in a very interesting neighborhood. Today – Thursday the 18th – we set out with our Barcelona Art Passport to see some art. First stop was the Modern Art Museum Fundacion Miro which houses a wonderful collection of Joan Miro’s work. I presented my phone with the voucher at the entry and we walked in with self guided headsets. We were entranced for 2 hours. When I was in grade school my parents put a replica print of a Miro in my bedroom. That print followed me through college, eventually going to our son’s dorm room and then to our nephew.  I do not think it survived past that. However I was imbued with a love of Miro’s work and when we started buying original lithographs in the ’60’s our first was a Miro. We own several now. Anyhow to say this was high on our bucket list would be an understatement. We stayed in the museum, avoiding the rain for a light lunch.

The rain had not abated when we were done so we caught a cab to the Picasso Museum. Entry here was more problematic as they wanted a paper copy of the voucher for their records. Through a series of conversations-they speaking fast Spanish, we speaking slow English –  we eventually found our way to a  tourist center which was pleased to help if I could email them the voucher on my phone. Problem, no wifi and my shift to Verizon International would not work immediately. Solution, go to Costa Cafe, buy an Expresso and the code for their wifi is on the receipt. Problem, I could not satisfy the European regulations that I understood that I would surrender some portion of my nonexistence privacy if I continued to log in. Solution the barrista saw my plight and after much swearing and thumb pressing (she has an extensive vocabulary) she got me logged in with my name and her particulars. I will never get near a Costa  Cafe again without remembering her.

We returned to the Picasso Museum and bypassed the very long line with our new Passports. 

We were not out of the woods, or rather into the exhibit, yet as we had to navigate the convoluted entry process during which we failed to pick up the wireless self guided tour, a blessing maybe. 
We were again overwhelmed with the amount of material on view, much of which was entirely new to us. I must admit choking a bit when we came to a room of glorious linoleum cut prints. 
When Carol and I were in our early collecting  days we saw a collection of  early linocuts that were priced at around $1,000 or so which was quite high for the time. Since we did not particularly care for the images we didn’t buy. Not one our better financial decisions.

After spending a couple of hours in the exhibition galleries we exited and decided we had had enough for one day. We took a cab back to the apartment and after a bit of rest and some of this writing we set out for dinner to La Pruna which is currently rated 16th best restaurant out of 11,000+ restaurants in Trip 
Advisor and it had the added benefit of being a three block walk from the apartment. 

Tomorrow Eddie, apartment manager and tour guide, will pick us up at 8:30 for a full day tour to Montserrat and the environs.  

We have been on the move with little time to sit and write. Even now we haven’t had dinner and it is after 8:30 pm. Can’t really complain by local standards dining starts at about 9 PM.  

Madrid actually included Toledo. The short story in Toledo was a visit to a Mikveh found under the basement of a house during renovations. The Santa Maria La Blanca  synagogue (hows that for a name?) that became a church and is now a museum. Then the El Transito Synagogue – so named for the death of Mary after it became a church before becoming a museum.  There are no Jews in Toledo now. It was Friday so back to Madrid for Kabbalat Shabbat service with a small Reform synagogue there followed by a lovely Shabbat dinner. Rabbi Stein spoke and it was good to hear another take on a piece of Noah. 

The next day we had Torah study lead by Rabbi Stein and Kayla Ship and in the afternoon we walked to the Prado Museum through the Writers District. Our guide in the Prado was wonderful and he helped us focus on several major pieces by Velasquez, Rubens, El Greco and Titian. I could rant on about the collection but it would not add to the knowledge or understanding of those who have been, and the only way I know is to have the experience oneself. We took our time wandering back to the hotel where we cleaned up and rested a bit before heading out to find dinner, a bit early by Spanish standards, we were seated by 8 PM.

BREAK!

Several days have passed since since Madrid. We traveled by high speed train to Barcelona and entered another world. Much as we added Tibet to our country list we will be discussing adding Catalonia to our country list. The leaders of the Catalonian government are being help in Spanish prisons without charges since they declared independence following  a vote  to do so. There are many flags flying though out the region demanding freedom for their government and independence. 

After settling in to The Catalonia Hotel in Placa Espana we determined it was the least of the four hotels we have stayed in, both for its accommodations and its location. We adapt. Others are spending energy complaining, which accomplishes little but seems to make them happier.

This is too long, I will resume in another post shortly.

We left Cordoba after a wonderful presentation by Rabbino Haim Casas, the first ordained Spanish Progressive (Reform) Rabbi. His history is representative of the diversity of the Spanish Community. He was raised in a strongly Catholic home with a father whos was a high ranking Spanish military officer. Trained in a relatively liberal strict Catholic boys school and found his way to the Judaism that has hidden in his background, a history that is almost untraceable to its roots 500 years ago. The phrase “lost in the mists of time” rings all to true.

We headed for Lucena, the center of Jewish life after Cordoba. Our first stop was a cemetery. of reburied bones turned up in the course of building anew road. 

From there we moved down into Lucena where we toured the center of the city stopping by the Cathedral in the middle of the main square which was formerly a mosque and before that the site of the synagogue  in the center of the Jewish section of the city.  

We resumed our pl;aces in the bus and drove to Granada where we stopped for an overview of Alhambra, look at the header of this post – until I change it 🙂 for that scenic view.

Publishing this post was delayed by some technical problems and by lack of time to work on it.

Once we convinced American Airlines to issue the necessary paper to begin the trip in Rochester, baggage check, boarding passes, everything went smoothly. We picked up our luggage in Madrid and had a Whatsapp message from our group  that they they would be waiting for us at the “Meeting Point” and we joined up with the TBK Jews in Spain Trip. We will be with them until my birthday.

Today We toured Cordoba with three major stops. After an excellent overview of Old Cordoba and the Jewish Quarter both on bus and on foot we entered the Mezquita Cathedral Mosque. I would fill the page with pictures and still not give an idea of the complexity of a building where people go to church at the mosque. It was built as a mosque, eventually expanded to over 22,000 square meters with hundreds of columns, into which a later Cardinal built a Cathedral entirely contained inside, taking down ‘only” 240 columns to achieve the completion.  

From there we broke for lunch before reconvening  in a courtyard for a presentation on the history of the great Jewish poets of Cordoba followed by a walk – concluding with a group picture at  a statue of Moses Maimonides, The Rambam, who was born in Cordoba but did most of his writing elsewhere. From there we proceeded to Casa De Sefard, a private museum where we were treated to acapella solo of Sephardi music from various parts and time of the Sephardic world and then a talk about the prominent women of the Jew Sephardic world (many fewer than the men). 

From there to dinner and exhaustion. 

We have been immersing ourselves in music and time with friends as the brief time of our visit in Rochester is winding down. We have had breakfasts, lunches and dinners with friends and many visits with grandson Josh and Rohma. We have seen Rochester weather deteriorate from balmy warm days not expected this late into September, to chill and rain, more expected, but less wonderful. The view out our windows to the north and west today is grey, but it isn’t so cold we couldn’t walk to a concert nor so wet as to require more than a light jacket.

Speaking of concert; we were at a program at Kilbourn Hall last night where Ossia was performing. This is a student run group that has been around for years.  They focus on new music that can be a challenge to listen to. It was a wonderful 2 hours of very interesting music extraordinarily well performed. When looking up the performance information we came across a program called Tuesday Pipes at noon on Tuesdays. It takes place at Christ Church, across from Eastman School of Music. If you have read any of my blogs from Jazz Fest ,you  might remember that this is one of venues. The Organ Department of ESM has installed an organ there, and it is one of two in the church. We had never heard a performance on either of the them. This was our chance to here both in one concert. We will certainly return to this church for Tuesday Pipes when we are back in Rochester.

We are headed off to another concert tonight in Kilbourn in the Faculty Artist Series. We have also attended two Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concerts. The opener featured Yfim Bronfman playing Prokofiev and concluding with Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Expected to be bored by “yet another performance” of the New World, but I was entranced  by the beauty of the performance. It was as if I had not heard it in a very long time.

I have been making maps of the main routes of our coming travels in Spain and Portugal. If you have any interest, here are the links to the maps  https://goo.gl/maps/E8NApEcLKEC2 for first 10 days with Temple B’rith Kodesh group and https://goo.gl/maps/b9NaThmx6EF2 for the OAT trip to Portugal and Spain. That last strip continues on to Ovieda where we eventually fly back to Madrid to fly home.