Gaudi 2, Headbumps 1, Mullets 0 (So Far)

I did waaaaay better today than I did yesterday, I think.

I got up early enough, but because I´m slower than a tortuga in the morning, I raced to the tourism office and made the Gothic Quarter tour by the skin of my teeth.

(Note to self: try NOT to do that tomorrow on the Picasso tour.)

I actually quite liked the walking tour. An old city wall here, the remainder of an aquaduct there ... and lots of gargoyles. And I loved the narrow streets. (Well, it was during the day and there were lots of people around - what´s not to love, right?)

Then I wandered around ... tried to get into this "museum" housing collections from whom my travel guide calls "Barcelona´s most celebrated packrat" (and as a fellow packrat myself, why wouldn´t I be interested?), but it apparently doesn´t open Mondays.

But after wandering around and going back the way I came, I got to the cloister of this church, Catedral, which has a fantastic garden, a fountain you can apparently drink from, and geese - if I understand, there are 13 of them (I think) and they "guard" the church.

So after having a lomo sandwich (tasted like chicken, but if someone could tell me what lomo is I´d appreciate it), I decided to make my way up the Passeig de Gracia to tackle my first Gaudi work - the Casa Mila, a.k.a La Pedrera.

It wasn´t too shabby. And the scupltures that have been haunting me the last few weeks (they´re famous ... in pictures and postcards everywhere) - I finally found them up on the roof! I only had two dumb moments: one before the tour, when I went to collect my audioguide and couldn´t understand a word the guy at the audioguide desk was saying (because he was speaking too fast) and the other, when I was in the middle of my tour, and there was a dark room that was supposed to show a 5-minute movie about society in Gaudi´s time and I whacked my head on the far wall looking for a button, something, anything to start the movie. I quickly skipped over that, rubbing my head, and just headed into the Gaudi apartment ... which was great.

After, I went back down the Passeig de Gracia and decided to do Casa Batllo, too. I figured, what the hell - I was already there. And besides, the humungous lineup I saw earlier was maybe half a dozen people by the time I got there. That was awesome. Gaudi was a genius. And I saw the chimneys too ... a must-see if you´ve never been there.

So I think I´m going to call it a day. Supper awaits ... and I have a feeling that´s going to be another sandwich :).

Tomorrow - hopefully a bit of Picasso, shopping ... and tapas!