People Spotting outside the Cathedral

After failing to remember that I had, long ago, told her all about Catalonia's famous dance, J suddenly discovered La Sardana for herself. Of course, then we had to immediately find out where we could watch it being performed. This was info that I already knew and had hinted at going to see some months ago, only to be met with a, "hmmmm", and scant acknowledgement - she didn't even look up from her computer. Did someone mention lukewarm enthusiasm?

Every Sunday, people gather in the square in front of La Catedral de Barcelona (aka La Seu, or officially La Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulalia) at around noon to dance. My Googling also indicated that later on the same day at around 6pm, La Sardana is also danced in Plaça de Sant Jaume in front of the Generalitat.

A year ago, on an August Sunday last summer, we caught the metro into the city to go watch La Sardana. Arriving bang on mid-day, we sat in a large crowd on the cathedral steps and waited to see what would happen. Nothing did. No locals arrived en masse, and no band arrived to play. Which is probably just as well because it was stinking hot, (as it is again this year), and as the dance is performed largely by older members of the region, we could imagine that there would have been a lot of people suffering from the heat if they had danced under the boiling Catalonian sun.

Instead, we sat for an hour or so and people-watched which is a favourite past-time of mine, and listened to 2 guys on guitars who were very good, but on closer inspection appeared to be just stroking their guitar strings while playing a CD. They knew the chords, but it seemed unlikely that the rich, strong sound we could hear coming out of their amplifier would come from the light touches that they were applying to the strings. They were making some good money from the large crowd, as well as selling a lot of their CDs!

I stuck my 70-200 on the 5D2, dropped the aperture (wide open = shallower depth of field) and took photos. The good thing about living in Barcelona is that we can go back on any Sunday to see if La Sardana is being danced. Good things take time - no hurry - we haven't been back yet!

Click on the images to enlarge them

A Visit to Barcelona Zoo

While J's kids are with us, we try to find some activities for them to do, other than the usual swimming at the beach and table tennis - although there's nothing wrong with those 2 activities!

We've taken them to a few zoos around the world - Berlin (both the central zoo and the tierpark), Melbourne, Currumbin (on Australia's Gold Coast) and Auckland - so we decided that Barcelona Zoo would be a logical step, before they both get too old to be entertained by such trivial activities.

Barcelona Zoo website in English, Català and Castellano.

The zoo is an easy tram ride for us, and is located at the Vila Olimpica end of the Ciutadella which also houses the seat of the Catalonian Parliament, as well as beautiful park grounds.  The Ciutadella Park is worth a separate post at a later date, but I digress!

As far as zoos go, Barcelona's is well laid out in big spacious gardens with lots of areas for visitors to picnic in between looking at the animals.  We were lucky to time our visit to the reptile house just after the snakes had been fed, and watched in morbid fascination as one of the big pythons finished swallowing a rabbit.  The snakes were quite active because the food.

Here are some of the better photos that I took that day.

Pensive monkey

Chimpanzee with the best seat in the house

This python had just swallowed a rabbit

I was happy that there was glass between us!

A baby Orangutan sleeps suspended in a comfy bed of straw and rope

Lurking Alligator

The bear looked really depressed to us

There were peacocks everywhere showing off their feathers

Meerkat on the lookout mound

13 ducklings - 13!  She managed to keep track of all of them

A Pygmy Hippopotamus

Crouching Bison, sleeping bison

Sleeping king of the pride

We don't know what this is, but it's smaller than the one we saw swimming in the river in Florence, Italy!

CosmoCaixa - Barcelona's Science Museum

Not visited by many tourists is the CosmoCaixa Science Museum in Barcelona.  The reason for this is that the website is only in Català and Castellano, making it a little difficult for other-language speakers to find out much about it.  This is a disservice to the museum, as it truly is spectacular and worth visiting.  It's an activity to do on a rainy day, or even a stinking hot day when it's too uncomfortable to be outside.

Official website in Català and Castellano

Info about the museum in English

What makes it even more attractive is the entry fee - only €3 per person at the time of writing.  At this price, it's one of the most inexpensive attractions that Barcelona has to offer, and will keep the kids amused for some time - especially with the hands-on exhibits.

The winding entryway explores life from the very beginning of time

We've found that the easiest way to get to CosmoCaixa is to catch the L7 metro line from Plaça Catalunya to the end station at Av. Tibidabo.  From there, the museum is a 10 min., 800m uphill walk - not good when there are young children or in adverse weather conditions.  Instead, catch the #123 bus (one of the smaller buses) which leaves from the bus rank across the road from the station - at the foot of Av. del Tibidabo and on Passeig de Sant Gervasi.   If you tell the driver that you want to go to CosmoCaixa, he'll tell you where to get off the bus. It's less than a 5 minute ride, but will save you from the whinging!  Alternatively, the #196 bus leaves its stop from just above the Blue Tram stop at the bottom of Av. del Tibidabo, and also passes the museum.

The museum can be very busy - especially on wet days or holidays.  Getting there early helps to avoid the sometimes lengthy queues lining for tickets.  The museum is open from Tuesdays to Sundays (10am - 8pm), and closed most Mondays (except for holidays), Christmas Day (25th December), New Year's Day (1st January) and Kings' Day (6th January).

Looking up at the entryway from the base

Aside from the temporary exhibits, the museum has 8 permanent display areas.

La Plaza de la Ciencia:  The Science Plaza is located in the open air outside the museum and is free.  However, it's not very interesting and wasn't enough to hold the attention of J's kids for very long.

El Muro Geológico:  The Geological Wall stretches along the entire length of the museum, and uses 90 tons of rock to demonstrate how natural forces have shaped planet Earth. There is also an interesting video on how some of the rock wall was lifted out of its natural state and prepared for exhibition in the museum.

The geological wall can be seen on the mezzanine floor

El Bosque Inundado:  The Submerged Forest is 1,000 sq. meters of simulated Brazilian rainforest, housing living flora and fauna - mostly in the form of the various types of aquatic life.  We love this display.

A large equatorial fish and its reflection

Every so often, a simulated rainstorm pours from the roof in a display of how heavy the equatorial rainstorms can be.

Equatorial rainfall simulation

Looking down into the Brazilian Rainforest exhibit

La Sala de la Materia:  The Matter Room explores "matter" - what else!  It deals with the theory of the Big Bang up until present day, and tries to answer that age-old question, "What is Life?"

The main floor of the museum

Planetario:  The Planetarium is a 3D journey through space and time, experiencing galactic events usually only seen in science fiction movies.  We have yet to visit the museum when the Planetarium is open, and it's the only exhibit where the commentary is in English as well as Català and Castellano.

Measuring time with a perpetual pendulum using the earth's rotation for momentum and direction

Clik and Flash:  The 'Clik' and 'Flash' rooms are for children between 3 and 9yo. and are located on the upper level of the museum.  There are set times for these rooms to be open, so if you're interested in them, go upstairs and check the times which are displayed outside the main door to the rooms.

Discovering how the tectonic plates have shifted the continents

Planetario Burbuja:  The Bubble Planetarium is astronomy for children between 3 and 8yo.

Looking down on the main floor

¡Toca toca!: Touch Touch! challenges the 5 senses - touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight - to learn more about the world's flora and fauna, in an attempt to gain more understanding and respect for the natural habitats. It's a lesson in conservation.

The natural history area

The main museum floor is mostly dedicated to anthropology, mathematics and physics.  It's here that J's kids get most pleasure from the puzzles and hands-on challenges.  The big block of frozen ice and the strobe-lit ping-pong balls are hot favourites!

Ping pong balls in motion and illuminated by a strobe light

Seeds displayed in test tubes

Although the museum has a cafeteria, we have always brought our own food, and there are plenty of places to sit and eat.

An exhibit demonstrating the effects of various drugs on the human body

J's kids have been to Barcelona twice now, and each time they've been really enthusiastic about visiting CosmoCaixa.  They're returning this week, so it's likely that we'll be going again!

The rainforest area

Another view of the main hall

Museum location on Google Maps:



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