Grazie = gracias

After almost 13 hours of travel - including one badly missed connection in Rome - we were happy to find ourselves in lovely Barcelona. We are staying in a pretty apartment on Ronda de la Universitat, close - but not too close - to La Rambla and the rest of the old city.

We started our first day with Barcelona's cutting-edge art scene. The Museu d'Art Contemporani had some really provocative (Mommy's word) and weird (Sophie & Anna's word) art. The exhibit on art and political engagement was pretty cool, but pieces like the collection of beetles and the video of a man pacing and screaming "Nooooooo!" were hard to understand. Which is to say, we didn't like them much.

From MACBA, we walked down La Rambla and took our time visiting all the open-air pet stores. (How many times will we ask Mommy for a bunny before she gives in? We haven't reached it yet.) The girls enjoyed the street performers pretending to be statues, but weren't interested in getting too close.

In the middle of Barri Gotic, we found Museu Picasso which boasts the world's largest collection of the artist's early works. The jewel of this collection is a salon devoted to Picasso's Las Meninas series, a group of 58 works reinterpreting Velazquez's masterpiece. It is one of the best curated collections we've seen.

We were given a great recommendation for lunch and had a fabulous meal at Bestiari. Ed had a dish of seared tuna that was breathtaking. We didn't stay for dessert, though. Why? Because Museu de la Xocolata is right across the street! Who would build a whole museum devoted to chocolate, you might ask? The Provincial Guild of Pastry-Makers of Barcelona, that's who. And thank goodness. Where else can you find a complete chocolate diorama of Bambi and the Passion of Christ? And the tickets are bars of dark chocolate! The girls were in hog heaven. Finally, some art that made sense.