And that's all she wrote on Spain

Today is our last day in Barcelona it is a bittersweet moment. It is a great and beautiful city with much to offer but I am getting a little weary of being on the road so much would like time to be in one spot and unwind. We started off the day with a taxi ride to the Barcelona Pavilion by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It is a building that we learn about every year in school and it is ingrained into our heads to the point that we can draw the plan in our sleep. It was actually a bit underwhelming in person though and I guess that’s why they tell you not to meet your hero buildings. We as we explored it more and I took like 500 photos, I began to appreciate it more and be less underwhelmed. It was a great experience to see this building that we had heard so much about and I’m thankful for that.

Barcelona Pavilion

Next, we trekked farther into the park, up a large hill, past the dominating presence of the Catalonia National Museum of Art to the Joan Miró Art Museum. It was good piece of architecture but the art sort of bored me. I’m pretty arted out at this point. The building was good and I can appreciate it but I didn’t like it all that much. It did some interesting things with light wells and light in general but that was pretty much it.

Roof at Joan Miró Art Museum

Hans let us free following the museum and we did our own things after lunch. A small group of three of us wanted to see the Olympic Park from the 1992 Barcelona Games. We trekked back up the mountain side to the top to find this old but really wonderful track and field/soccer stadium among the other buildings in the park. There were multiple water features and ample open space. It was all around a great use of space and nice area with beautiful views. After plenty of pictures, it was time to make our way back to the hotel to prepare for the evening’s main event.

Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys (Olympic Stadium)

After a walk down the hill, a short taxi ride, an endless search for a Lionel Messi jersey, and another walk we were back at the hotel. From there, we met up with the rest of our group and set off on the metro to Camp Nou, the home of FC Barcelona who was playing Athletic Club Bilbao in the second leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals. I was so pumped for this game as it was my first professional soccer game that I attended. It was an intense match where Barçe didn’t show up until the second half when they were trailing 1-0. The real club showed up and put on a spectacle ultimately winning 3-1 and advancing to the semifinals. It was a lot of fun and a great way to take in the culture. It was a long, crowded metro ride back to the hotel but it was worth it. It was the perfect way to end my visit to Barcelona.

Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona

Tomorrow we leave for Marseille which is in France. This will be my fifth new country that I’ll have visited. I know zero French so that is going to be a bit of a challenge. I do know that vino is the same in every language so it all should be fine. Stay posted!