Palau Nacional & El Poble Espanyol

A long missed me in winter clothing.




In the next two or three post, including this one, I'm going to show you the beauty of Barcelona and some of its significant architectures.

No, not Anthoni Gaudi's yet; but I do intend to create a special post just on him and his work.

If you're not into architecture, then just enjoy the photos.


The Venetian Towers



Palau Nacional - or the National Art Museum of Catalonia








Don't know what is Catalonia, read it here.

Being one of the 17 first-level political division of Kingdom of Spain, Catalonia consists of four provinces which are Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona.

Which is why Catalonians are really proud people and do not consider themselves as part of Spain.




Sort of like the difference between Parisian and French & Shanghainese and Chinese.

The view of Plaça Espanya was one to remember by.




Here's another photo of larger size.


You may view the larger file here.


The National Museum used to be a palace so apart from its wondrous display of artsy-fartsy stuff in there, its interior was one worth admiring too.










The gorgeous museum cafe overlooking plaza Barcelona.







A very nice painting inside the art gallery which I LOVED.




Naked lady, a must in every sophisticated museum *sacarsm*.




Grand hall.







Another place worth visiting near the plaza (or national museum) would be the El Poble Espanyol (aka, Spanish Village).


you can get a combined ticket with the National Museum, I paid extra since I didn't know. T_T


The man-made village was created in conjunction with the world fair back in 1929 to showcase all the replicas of houses in all regions of Spain, including all the villages; it was meant to be demolished right after the exhibition but since it was such a successful project, the government kept it.








If you have half a day to spare, this would be really a gorgeous village to walk around, get yourself familiarize with the different characteristic of the architectures of Spain. A place to take lots of photos.




Here you see an excruciatingly narrow passage between houses, replicated from villages back in the 20s in Spain.




It must be such a thrill to live on a "street" like this, you only need to leap to get to the house opposite you.

And definitely a solution to hide the sun on a hot summer day.




It sorta felt romantic walking through each version of the villages alone.





I was there during the evening and as the sun set, the sky was a beautiful purple blue.




Which then turned a shade of violet by the time I was done with the village.




I shall end this post with two really nice hand-made items from Barcelona; which I would have bought if it wasn't so fragile looking to travel with.








Andale!