Unfortunately, the maintenance people didn’t fix the thermostat, so it was hot in the hotel room again. We called the front desk to complain, and the offered to switch us to a different room. We think the front desk submitted the request yesterday but the maintenance people didn’t get around to it.
Today, we headed towards the Montjuïc (“Mount of the Jews”) area in Barcelona. We took the subway several stops, then transferred to the funicular (cable-based rail) that took us partway up the mountain. We thought it might be really cool, but it was underwhelming. For there, we went to the Joan Miró museum. I remembered Miró from Spanish class in high school – he was a surrealist painter who did all sorts of weird stuff. It’s the kind of place where you’re not sure if you understand it, but it doesn’t matter. We were fascinated by this mercury-based fountain that his friend Alexander Calder created for the 1937 World’s Fair.
After that, we wandered through some gardens and went to the National Catalan Art Museum. Their collection of romanesque through 1950s art was really impressive, kind of overwhelming. They had a lot of church art from medieval churches that were being sold off to unscrupulous speculators in the early 20th century. They also had examples of the coinage from each era from the Greeks & Romans to present day.
After then, we went around the back of the building to find the Olympic grounds from the 1992 Olympics. We saw the radio tower built for the Olympics which was designed by Calatrava, the same person who did the Milwaukee Art Museum. We also saw the main Olympic Stadium, from the outside. From there, we walked downhill into a large square and took the subway back to the hotel.
After a lot of late meals, we decided to get an early dinner ... and since nothing looked any better in the area, we went to Burger King. The Whopper pretty much tasted the same as the US, which surprised me. But, the lemonade was fizzy, so I guess there was something different. ;-)
