Wednesday 17 February

The Palau de Musica Catalana

I got up at 8am and washed my hair. My skin is very dry and Richard bandaged my swollen ankle. We had the hotel buffet breakfast as usual, with less fruit. But the kiwi jam was nice.

We met the others in reception and walked for half an hour in a zigzag route past the Palau de Musica Catalana to the Museu Picasso. It was housed in a series of linked buildings. They had a lot of his early works from Malaga, his birthplace, and Barcelona where he stayed twice. His small family portraits were very good. We weren't allowed to take photos inside though.

Outside Casa Calvet, a Gaudi designed building

We also saw a series of larger works from 1956 of his version of Velaquez' Las Meninas. The cafe at the museum was closed so we found a small place nearby for coffee.

Inside Casa Calvet where we had a nice lunch

Then we headed to Casa Calvet for lunch, where I had reserved a table. It is housed in a former textile factory designed by Gaudi. We first ate here in 2007. Now it has a Michelin star. We had the weekday menu with cava and a glass of wine. I has fish soup with spinach and mussels and cod with potato and peppers. For pudding I had profiteroles.The food was excellent but the service was a bit hurried.

We walked back to the hotel for a rest. The weather was quite cool today out of the sun. After a rest we strolled along to the department store El Corte Ingles and explored the basement supermarket, an Aladdin's Cave of food and drink. For dinner we went to Bruc 33 Tapas, round the corner. I had patates bravas and quail risotto. We ordered a white Giro Ribot Blanc de Blancs and a red Ribera del Duero Crianza. I also had a raspberry panna cotta. Yum.