A Day on Montjuic

Today we decided to explore Montjuic–a hill that overlooks Barcelona, the port. and the surrounding area. After a light breakfast we rode the bus (one transfer) to Montjuic Cemetery. It’s an old cemetery that has grown up the cliffs on the ocean side of Montjuic. I really enjoy taking portraits of the statuary in cemeteries, so I was really looking forward to this visit.

After the bus dropped us off, the climb up the hill looked very imposing. There is a bus into the cemetery itself, but apparently it only runs on Sundays(?). There’s also a free hearse museum just outside of the cemetery, but it’s only open on Saturdays. As we walked up the hill into the cemetery proper, the first thing we saw were signs that said “no photography.” It is an active cemetery, so this is out of respect of any funerals in progress.

That said, I did take a couple discreet photos in the older parts of the cemetery. We saw a few processions driving up the hill to parts unknown, but otherwise we had the lower part of the cemetery to ourselves. As you can see there are vaults built into the hillside all the way up to the top of this part of Montjuic.

This ceramic arrangement was an interesting way to keep fresh flowers on the grave.

This was a very old Neo-Egyptian tomb.

Some parts of the cemetery were weedy and in disrepair, and there were some crumbling structures in places. As old as they were (I saw some were from the late 1800’s), they were a stark reminder of how fleeting our time here really is.

Joan Miro Park

We only made it up five or six levels of stairs in the cemetery before giving up. That part of Montjuic is quite steep, and it was quite a warm day. We walked down to the bus stop and rode it into Eixample to the Joan Miro Park for some quiet and relaxation before lunch. Tracey visited with some other tourists while waiting for me at the cemetery exit, and they mentioned wanting to go visit the park (or maybe the Joan Miro museum). We looked it up on the map and it looked interesting enough for a quick visit.

Once you enter the park, it’s larger than it looks on the map. We entered through an arbor covered in blooming wisteria, and by the time we got to the other end, the noise of the city was totally gone.

There is a nice garden, and the park is filled with palm trees. We found a shady bench and watched and listened to the birds for quite a while.

Along with lots of pigeons, another of the park’s occupants were several pairs of green parrots. They were the noisiest of the birds in the park, and when a girl threw bread to the birds, they would fly down, grab a piece, then fly back up into a tree to eat it.

We also noticed that the parrots were spending much of their time finding sticks to build giant nests in the palm trees. In addition to being quite industrious, they were a bit sneaky as well. They would fly over to a different palm tree and another palm tree and pull sticks out of neighboring nests. One time one got “caught” and the other pair of parrots raised quite a ruckus.

Lunch in El Poble-Sec

I found an interesting authentic Catalan restaurant–La Perla Bcn–in El Poble-Sec on the way back up Montjuic that we decided to try for lunch. Although the waitress offered to help with the Catalan menu, we decided to translate ourselves using Google on our phones. Before we got very far, the owner came over and offered to “help.” He asked us, “Do you like meat or fish?” Then he took me down the glass case to show me several of the dishes. I saw one I liked, and he said, “It’s pork. You like pork?” When I said that I did, he pointed to the dish next to it and said, “This is pork and very good.” Good enough for me. We also ordered a seafood paella, also at his recommendation.

It was quite a climb up the hill from the bus stop, so we were really ready for something cool and refreshing. Their sangria was really good.

When my “pork” tapas dish, Callos, arrived, I realized it was tripe and sausage. It was quite tasty, and although the tripe was well cooked and tender, it really isn’t something I enjoy eating. Tracey ate a small piece and some of the potatoes. Luckily we also ordered some of the tomato bread tapas which she did enjoy.

The seafood paella was absolutely loaded with shellfish. It was a huge dish and quite tasty. My favorites were the razor clams and mussels. The little spiral shells were my least favorite (they were gritty). The best part of the dish though was the brown sticky parts stuck to the pan under the rice. It added a ton of flavor to the rice.

Montjuic Castle

After lunch we rode the bus from a nearby stop up to the top of Montjuic to Montjuic Castle. It is really a fort that was built to protect Barcelona. One thing I found interesting was that the city itself was shelled from the fort during the Spanish Revolution in 1936 (we later saw damage from the shelling near one of the cathedrals in town).

 

You can see most of the port of Barcelona from the fort. It was bustling with activity the whole time we were up on Montjuic . You can also see Montjuic Cemetery under the curve of the roadway on the right side of the photo below.

The Montjuic Castle has a sweeping view of Barcelona and the surrounding suburbs.

Here’s a view of Gaudi’s Sagrada Família off in the distance; we will be going there in the morning.

I also noticed that the grounds of Montjuic Castle and really this whole side of Montjuic are very well kept and peaceful with lots of fountains and statues. It’s also the site of the Olympic stadium (1992), so this is all probably part of the work that was done to prepare for the games. It’s quite a different feel from the town below.

We have plans to see Sagrada Familia first thing tomorrow, so more to come.