Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Day 2 in Barcelona: Even though it rained, this city is always beautiful. Our hostess gave us a nice long itinerary for the day, but as the gray clouds were threatening rain, we decided to skip the bike ride along to promenade to see all the beaches and went straight to our afternoon itinerary. We took the metro out to Plaça d'Espanya and walked up the steps to the National Art Museum of Catalunya. We walked through a temporary photography exhibit called "North Africa: Ortiz Echagüe." From there we walked through a set of public botanical gardens that were established in the 1930's for the public and had lunch on a bench. After lunch we moseyed our way up the "mountain" to Montjuïc Castle. We didn't go in but we walked all the way around the grounds and got some great photographs of the city from up on the hill. Unfortunately the wind was really blowing and the clouds were really low, so I didn't choose one of those as my photo of the day. We also planned on taking the gondola back down into the city, but due to the high winds the gondola was closed for the day. Finally, the rain started to downpour and we made our way home for the day.

Tapas for dinner and an early night, because we are getting up early to go to Sagrada Familia tomorrow.