Placa Espanya

Today we went for a walk near the Placa Espanya.  The walk started us off near the Joan Miro park, where there is a huge Miro sculpture called "Woman and Bird".  I'm not too good with abstract art -- I don't see the woman OR the bird.  I see a banana and a hoop balanced on top of a multi-colored (anatomically-shaped?) pillar.

Bird, or banana?  You be the judge...

Behind the Miro sculpture is the Les Arenes bullring.  It used to be a bullring, but bullfighting has been unpopular in Catalonia for decades and it was finally banned in 2010.  It has been converted into a shopping mall.  You can take an elevator to the top of Les Arenes for a nice view of the surrounding area, including Montjuic park and the Palau Nacional, which is the Catalan Art Museum.

Every first Sunday is "free museum" day in Barcelona, and many museums have free entry all day.  I love that so many cities do this kind of thing, since it gets us to go to museums that we might otherwise have skipped.  We headed up the stairs towards the art museum, albeit somewhat reluctantly in Kevin's case (I think one of us is "museum-ed out" already!).

Where's Waldo (er, I mean Kevin)?

I won't bore you (or Kevin, for that matter) with pictures from inside the museum (which has a very nice collection of Catalonian art, by the way).  But before going in we stopped to admire the view from the terrace cafe.  Not bad, even on a cloudy day!

Here's a photosphere Kevin took as well:

Views: Barcelona, Spain by Kevin Salt

You can move your cursor inside the photo to see the 360 degree view.