Lots of history in Barcelona

I got up around 7:30, enjoyed a fine breakfast, and began touring again.  I first took the Metro to the Old Town and walked through the Mercat de la Boqeria.  It's been serving greater Barcelona since 1217, and the people were packed in this morning.  Pictured below are some of the fine meats and greens in this market.

It was still early enough and most of the Barri Gotic (Gothic Bario) was lightly populated.  There was a fine baritone busker playing soulful guitar with vocals at the end of this lane.  The echoes were wonderful, and he needed no electronics to fill his space with sound.

I next entered the Placa del Rei, where it is said Isabella and Ferdinand received Christopher Columbus in 1493, following his return from the Nuevo Mundo.  This placa looks about as Ancien Mundo as they come.

Inside, we now find the Museu d'Historia de Barcelona, the first of my history sojourns today.  The big thrill here is an extensively excavated Roman sub-city.  One photo is below.  As you can see, I'm pretty much the only one in this large museum. 

It goes on quite a ways.  You can see a laundry, a wine factory, and a garum factory.  Garum is some sort of fermented fish paste, which sounds repulsive, but the Romans loved it empire-wide.  Upstairs, there's a bit more on Barcelona in the middle ages and a special exhibit on Sept. 11, 1714, a big day for Barcelona.  Seems that day what was then the Catalonian empire fell, as they bet on the wrong horse in the war for Spanish Succession.  This years marks 300 years since the glory days.  The Catalonians have a bit of Texas in them.  Everything's big in Catalonia.  Don't mess with Catalonia.  Well, Sept. 11, 1714, was their Appomattox--the night they drove ole Dixie down--and it still smarts.  Apparently there was some long siege with a lot of cannons.  I learned that all of Europe remarked with what honor and nobility the Catalonians conducted themselves in this losing battle against big faraway government (e.g. Madrid and Paris).

From this good history museum, I walked to a magnificent historical museum--really a 19th century (mainly) curiosity collection:  the Museu Frederic Mares.  Fred (1893-1991) was a collector of aristocratic bric-a-brac.  And he loved to organize his house, and spend long hours in his private library.  This place was built for John Powers.  The top floor is featured here.  There are even fewer people in this museum.

Here is a fragment of a poster.

The bulk of the top floor is a set of collections of 19th century equipment of life.  Like keys:

Like cigar bands:

Like clocks:

Like salt and pepper shakers:

Theres' MANY more.  After a while the collection gives way to some very expressive statues from many ages.   Like this one:

And this one:

And this one:

Here's St. Francis:

Here's Mary:

Here's a very concerned woman:

Most of these photos are worth clicking on to get more detail.  All and all, this entire museum is a stunner.  I ventured into the close and had a nice lunch of a salmon/avocado wrap.

From here, I took a fifteen minute walk to the Museu Maratim.  It is housed in the large 13th century shipyards on Barcelona's coast, near the end of La Rambla.  For the first time Jim Stewart's card did not work, and I had to pay full fare.  Once more, I had the museum to myself.  It was good, but not great.  The highlight was a replica of Don Juan of Austria's flagship  from 1571 that battled against the Turkish navy at Lepanto.  This ship is big, and it took a lot of oars to make it go!  Here's its hind quarters.

Here's your diarist at the prow.

Here's a shot of the medieval interior.

Here's a geometry lesson:

Here's a map that could use a geometry lesson:

After about an hour, I left the boats for more straight history.  I walked down the shore to the Museu d'Historia de Catalunya, not to be confused with its nearby cousin which focuses on Barcelona.  I liked this large and well documented museum a lot.  And no one was there.  For me, the absence of crowds was great, but in the long term, these musea will need more visitors to make them viable.

It turns out most musea in Barcelona have bi-lingual narration:  Catalan and Spanish.  I can muddle through, but prefer trilingual.  This one had it, and it needed it to explain its many and varied exhibits.  All in all it was making a case for Catalonian independence.  That certainly was its big finish.  So, it had a point of view.  Occasionally the quiet grace of Barcelona's nobility was compared with that of the "grandees of Madrid."  That said, it did a very nice job examining the Catalan experience from the caveman days through modern times.  Below is a model of La Sagrada Familia.

Here's a kitchen diorama:

Here's a diorama of some textile factory:

Here's a depiction of the story which inspired the Catalanian flag.  Apparently, some noble painted three stripes of blood from some hero onto something.

Here's some scary fellows:

Here's a shot from an illuminated tapestry

Here's some propaganda.

I then took the Metro back to my hotel.  I was hoping to revisit a restaurant at which I had eaten before, but alas, it was closed.  So I went down-market to the place across the street.  The service was terrible.  Yes, the anchovy, ham, lettuce salad below was pretty good.  But the main course of chicken, mushrooms, and cheesy rice lacked character, though it was filling.