Watching the sheet boys

A sub-set of the Blanket Men (see last year’s post here) are the Sheet Boys. I watched them this morning from the safety of a cafe beside the Rambla. I have no idea how they make any money.

First up they lay down their white sheet then they meticulously place items on it. These items could be phone cases, fridge magnets or other tourist tat. Then they are ready for passing trade. As part of the operation, there are spotters who stand by the road watching for the police.

As soon as they spot a cop, the spotter is over with the seller and the seller wraps up his sheet and sticks it in one of those shopping bags you buy at the supermarket with an image of the town on it…in this case, Barcelona. They wander off, sometimes hiding behind conveniently parked vans. They wait for the police to leave before starting it all over again.

And this goes on all day. Not that we were watching all day but I did see a couple of the same people on our way back from Montjuic this evening.

In fact our whole day was up Montjuic. We took the Metro to Para-Lel where we were going to take the Funicular only the Funicular isn’t much fun at the moment because it’s being maintained. This happens every year at this time.

We discovered that rather than the (lack of) Funicular, the transport people have instituted a bus marked ‘B’ to replace it. This takes the traveller from the station to where the Funicular terminates which is where the Cable Car to the top starts. Along with the Funicular, the Cable Car is also being maintained. This means the only ways to get to the top are walk, jog, taxi, personal jetpack or, as we did, catch the 150 bus.

Back in 1073 the only option was probably walking so I pity the poor bugger who had to climb up there every morning in order to watch out for enemy invaders. He would signal the people below by way of a series of flags set up atop a tower or he’d light a bonfire at night.

It was this tower which eventually became the Montjuic Castle which we visited today.

There has been a lot of changes since 1073, as you’d expect. Turrets, parade grounds, lots and lots of defensive walls, you name it. The place has been used as a defensive castle, a prison, an archery field…actually it was being used for archery today while we were there and I have no idea if it was used for this previously. Interestingly some of the archers were using long bows rather than those nifty, high tech, graphite jobbies.

We had a lovely stroll all around the castle including a stop in front of the big naked woman dedicated to the memory of Gaspar de Portola.

He was a Spanish soldier cum adventurer who was the founder then first governor of Alta California. For anyone who doesn’t know what (or where) Alta California is (or was) it consisted of the area now encompassing the modern US states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Although a pretty big area, it was never really populated by the Spanish except around the California bit.

Good old Gaspar, being a died in the wool Catholic set up a lot of missions as he roamed around the US exploring and naming things which the native Americans had, presumably, already named. And in keeping with this sort of thing, a fair few Californian things (and places) are named Portola after him.

This is all well and good but it’s a bit beyond me why on earth a statue of a naked woman is even remotely relevant. She looks a bit Venus like but even that doesn’t help give a connection. The dedication of the statue is to celebrate the 1986 bicentenary of his death in 1786.

I can’t work out the name of the sculptor but I feel sure it wouldn’t help anyway. Let’s just assume that Gaspar was a bit of a ladies man and leave it at that.

From the rather disconcerting naked lady, we headed around the various battlements and open spaces (it’s a very big castle) before heading inside to the parade ground.

It is actually square but I thought it just cried out for a panno shot…which is what I’ve inserted above.

We then ventured upstairs to the higher reaches of the castle which is unimaginatively called the Parade Ground Roof. The Watch tower is also up there complete with flag mast and cables. This represents the original tower from 1073 and is actually quite unusual in these sorts of defensive structures.

Having wandered all around the top we headed back down to look at the audio visual displays, some of which were in English, and heard all about the bloody history of the place. Most of the nastiest stuff came from the Civil War when Franco’s men held sway but there’s also some rotten stuff about Napoleon and then from a time when the castle fired cannon balls into the town against rioters living below. I mean, really? That’s hardly very nice is it.

Having had enough of the castle, we strolled back to the 150 bus stop for the short trip down to the Fundacio Joan Miro. This is an art gallery created by and for the works of Barcelona artist Joan Miro. It was designed by architect Josep Lluis Sert who was a follower of Le Corbusier whose house we visited in Paris back in 2014. The two of them (Miro and Sert) were old friends and enjoyed the chance to work together on such a big project.

Nowadays it houses a lot of Miro’s works and, basically tells the story of his development as an artist. From his nice little pictures of houses to his huge canvases of little more than white paint and a small black dot.

As an example of Miro’s work (which I feel certain would not appeal to my mother or Bob) this is one of my favourite pieces.

He painted The Bottle of Wine while living in Paris. It contains a lot of unrelated elements and shows the start of his movement into surrealism and a symbolism uniquely his own.

We had a jolly good wander around (after lunch in the cafe) and both enjoyed it though I probably enjoyed it a lot more than Mirinda.

There’s a gallery of statues which is very much designed with Le Corbusier in mind. The slope, the direction, the general feeling of space, it’s all there, beautifully realised in white.

For fear of alienating my readership, I’m not going to write anything else about this brilliant artist except for a farewell from one of his little chaps who live on the roof…

After our usual Spanish siesta, we went out to try a Trip Advisor highly recommended tapas restaurant called Tosca. It’s opposite the Palau Musica Concert Hall place we visited the other day. They boast that they have 40 tapas on their menu. While I didn’t count them, it’s clear that are at least 40. It was very nice.

With all the tapas we’re having, I’m getting quite a few interesting ideas for Chez Gaz.

After a handful of delicious dishes (including Danish meatballs and a chef’s salad) we took a slow and short stroll back to the hotel and bed.