Barcelona Dia Tres (a day late)

Today was a bit rainy but it did not stop us from getting out there and seeing the city. We started our day with another trip to the the outdoor food market La Boqueria. After that we headed over to the Museu Picasso (Picasso Museum). The permanent collection was very interesting. It goes through Picasso's entire life showing how his style changed and what influenced these changes. My favorite part was at the end of the collection. They have a few galleries dedicated to showing Picasso's many version of Las Meninas a painting by Velasquez that we will actually have a chance to see at the Prado in Madrid. From there we headed to the Santa Maria del Mar Church a small Gothic Structure that at one point actually sat on the edge of the Mediterranean. The interior was dark but was decorated with some pretty stained-glass Windows. We stopped in a small restaurant in a narrow side street for a quick lunch. After wards we walked to Catedral de Barcelona the city's main cathedral built in the typical Catalan Gothic style. Its spires can be seen from all over the old city. The interior is impressive with a high Gothic arched ceiling and high altar. There are multpile small chapels around the main area of hte cathedral, each one serving a different purpose. After so many churches and cathedral we decided to go see the Old Synagogue located in El Call (pronounce kye) the old Jewish neighboorhood. This proved to be much more difficult than we expected as our map was not complete and many of the small side streets not identified on it. After what seemed like hours of wandering we finally found it. To our surprise the Synagogue is actually two very small rooms in the basement of a building and El Call does not really exist as a Jewish area anymore. However, it was still very interesting to learn that this is the oldest synagogue in Europe. Parts of the stone floors date back to the times of the Romans. After a long rainy day a rest was truly needed in order to stay awake for the late Spanish dinner. We decided to sample Paella a traditional spanish dish involving large amounts of rice with a choice or chicken, seafood, vegetables, or all three. Tomorrow we are off to Madrid!