I arrived in Barcelona Monday afternoon. I’m still waiting to play my first round. I wasn’t scheduled to play till Tuesday night and I received a default. I finally play tonight at 6 PM (Thursday) against the top Spanish player that’s quite good.
However, I have been able to practice first on Tuesday with Ellen Neumann, in the past two days with the 60s #1,Lisa Prechtel, and I hit with the Italian player Michelina Valente also yesterday.
Yesterday after I practiced for quite a while and had lunch, I took the metro to the Palau de la Música Catalana. It was recommended as a beautiful place to visit by Maria Valente. She was quite right it’s a gorgeous building.
The concert hall of the palace seats about 2,200 people. It is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light. The walls on two sides consist mostly of stained-glass panes set in magnificent arches, and above is an enormous, gorgeous skylight of stained glass (designed by Antoni Rigalt). The center of the skylight is an inverted dome in shades of gold surrounded by blue that suggests the sun and the sky.
Photos don’t really do this building justice. It wasn’t super crowded there when I went around 4:30 in the afternoon. There are a lot of other sites to see nearby too so it’s worth a visit.
The name of the building translates to the “ Palace of Catalan Music“. According to Wikipedia, it was designed in the Catalan modern style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. It was built between 1905 and 1908 for Orfeó Català, a choral society. In 1997, the palace de la Música Catalana was declared a UNESCO World heritage site.
After I left the music hall, I walked towards the Plaça de Catalunya, which is basically the city center of Barcelona.
I did a little shopping in the Uniqlo flagship store there and wandered into an interesting Asian market along the way. I also came across a funny storefront for Orthopedic wraps, etc., and featured a mannequin holding a Padel paddle. At least it wasn’t holding a tennis racket!
After practicing this morning, I went by El Corte Ingles, a big department store near nearby, which has a wonderful grocery store in the basement. The fish department was really busy this morning.
