Barcelona

Both seders went wonderfully. First seder was with the family of a friend of one of Dad´s colleagues; second was with Beit Klal Yisrael, a (very) liberal London congregation. By sheer coincidence, met Danny Sapon´s sister at the second seder.

Arrived in Barcelona yesterday, and did some wandering around -- got there too late for substantial sightseeing, but it´´s a beautiful city. Ran into some fellow americans I knew from Nottingham, which was wonderful.

No progress, that I´m aware of, in finding a place for Shabbat dinner tomorrow. Will have to check with Nathan (oh, yeah, he should be getting to the hostel soon).

Today, anyway, was enough sightseeing for one lifetime. Walking from the hostel (which seems to be fantastic -- clean, great facilities, huge breakfast), I visited:

Barcelona Cathedral (my guidebook refers to this as Eglesia Catedral de la Santa Creu, but that´s not what the signs I saw called it): between England and Paris, I´ve seen my fair share of cathedrals over the past few months, but this was still utterly stunning. Also free! Unfortunately, my camera wiped all my pictures taken there, and when I returned in an attempt to retake some of them, the line was too long for me to feel it worth bothering.

Monument a Colom: Towering monument to Christopher Columbus, with a statue of the man on top, inexplicably pointing towards Libya rather than America. Took an elevator to the top, which provides for quite a view. Again, my camera ate the pictures.

Dalí Museum: Right near the Cathedral. I´m a big fan of Dali, so I couldn´t pass up the chance to visit this, even though it was a tad pricey (€6 for students) given its small size. It also consisted mostly of his later work (1960s and 1970s); his better-known stuff is elsewhere. (There´s another museum in the town where he was born, about an hour and 15 minutes away from here, which is reportedly excellent, but there´s no chance I´ll make it there. There´s also a Dali museum in Paris, which I missed. Cést la vie.)Some interesting stuff there, including a menorah (!), various weird sculptures, and some truly nightmarish depictions of Hell (for an illustrated version of The Divine Comedy).

Museu D´História De La Ciutat: as the name suggests, this regards the history of Barcelona. Part of the museum is the former palace of the Catalán monarchs; part is a huge archeological exhibit containing ruins of the Roman city of Barcino (which preceded Barcelona). I almost skipped this, but I´m glad I didn´t -- pretty interesting, and effectively free (if my ticket in fact, as I was told, admits me to another museum to which I was already planning on visiting.)

Enough for now, I hope.