Barcelona, Spain: Las Ramblas and Plaça de Catalunya

Jan11

As our last afternoon in Barcelona quickly approached, we strolled through Las Ramblas. Las Ramblas is a long street in central Barcelona known for its shops, restaurants, bars, and various kiosks that sell flowers, souvenirs, and handmade art.

Las Ramblas is near el Barrio Gótico and in between Plaça de Catalunya and el Mirador de Colom, which was discussed in a previous post. The street is constantly crowded, as tourists know this is the place to be. We walked to the end of Las Ramblas on one side, which brought us to Plaça de Catalunya.

Plaça de Catalunya is said to be the city center of Barcelona, and it is where all of the city and tourist busses come to make their pick ups of those anxiously waiting to get around the city. The center is surrounded by shopping centers, hotels, financial institutions, and beautiful fountains and sculptures.

As we walked back to Las Ramblas, we came across the Font de Canaletes (Canaletes Fountain). It is said that if you drink the water from this fountain (which gives this area of Las Ramblas the name of Las Ramblas de Canaletes), you will return to Barcelona. The inscription in Catalan (the most spoken language in the city) states translated to: “If you drink water from the Font de Canaletes you will always be in love with Barcelona. And however far away you go. You will always return.”

I drank from this water nearly three-and-a-half years ago, and apparently it worked because I was back! So naturally, I drank from it again this time, and here’s hoping I’ll be back in Barcelona one day soon. (Here’s also hoping I come across a fountain that allows those who drink from it to access cheaper plane tickets).

Las Ramblas, Font de Canaletes, and Plaça de Catalunya

Day 2 In Bogotá, Colombia Continued: Museo Botero

Oct2

Fernando Botero is one of Colombia’s most famous artists. Fortunately, we were able to take some time on our tour to explore his museum in Bogotá—Museo Botero.

Botero is known to paint individuals in a larger manner. He has explained that he paints voluminous people, not fat people. Specifically, he zooms in on their skin and not their facial features. He also doesn’t use models which is why so many of the people in his paintings look similar. One such painting that shows this is his version of the Mona Lisa, which is bigger in size and situated in front of the Andes.

One of the paintings pictured below shows a group of men, with only one of the men sleeping comfortably. This is because he is wearing a watch and to Botero, being in control of time represents power. If you notice, watches can be found in many of his paintings.

Fernando Botero donated much of his artwork to this museum, but had three conditions for doing so. The museum had to be free for everyone to enjoy, he wanted to display the artwork in the museum himself and place everything according to his personal preference, and the last condition was that the paintings could never leave this museum. With the conditions having been met, Botero donated 123 of his own paintings and other paintings that he possessed including many of Picasso’s pieces. In fact, Botero first started by painting artists whom he admired such as Picasso. Shortly thereafter, when Botero began painting other pieces, he painted a person with a guitar that had a smaller sized hole, but instead of calling this a mistake, he decided this would later become his style.

In the late 1970’s, Botero was driving with his son and second wife in Spain when they were involved in a terrible car accident. Botero’s son, Pedro, who was only a child, died in the accident. As a resulting injury of the accident, part of Botero’s finger was cut off. He later traveled to Italy and paid close attention to the sculptures throughout the country. Botero began sculpting because not only was it difficult to paint for some time after his accident, but because he was passionate about volume and knew that sculpting was a great way to give volume to his work. In addition to some of the various sculptures pictured below, you will notice a sculpture of a large hand, which is actually a sculpture of Botero’s hand.

Fernano Botero is the only living artist to sell a painting for over a million dollars, and his work is both enjoyed and celebrated throughout the world.

Museo Botero

View of Monserrate from Museo Botero

Museo Botero

Day Four In Antigua, Guatemala

Sep2

Seeing as we had a somewhat early flight back home from Guatemala, we spent our remaining morning hours in Antigua exploring the grounds of our hotel, which included six great museums on the premises. The first museum we entered was the hotel’s Silver Museum which houses various samples of old, traditional handicrafts of the region including glazed crockery, painted ceramic, pyrography-based crafts (made from wood-burning), wrought iron, candles, carpentry and cabinets, tin ware, textiles and kites, and other such artifacts.

From there, we came across the Marco Augusto Quiroa and the Artist Halls which is a beautiful art exhibit with numerous pieces such as paintings and sculptures on display. We spent much more time in the museums than we had originally planned and only had time for one more exhibit so we chose the Archeology Museum as our grand finale. This particular museum displayed a wide array of both ceramic and stone objects including feminine figures, vases, plates, bowls, funerary urns, thuribles (used in worship services to burn incense), ceramic jugs, and other such immaculate pieces which are assumed to have been used during the Mayan culture’s Classic Period (200-900 AD).

Having reached the end of our trip, we made our way back to the hotel room to grab our belongings and head over to the airport to return home. On the way to the room though, we came across a breathtaking view alongside beautiful parrots that were quick to catch our eyes. Unfortunately, that was it for our time in Antigua, but hopefully one day we will return because there is still so much to be explored in this incredible city!

(http://www.casasantodomingo.com.gt/museums-en.html