As we headed up the promenade, the Magic Fountains were up and running. No show per se, with no lights nor music, but impressive on its own.
We were quite fortunate, as once we past them, the water was turned off as is usual during the day.
The first wing hold Romaneque art, and it is one of the largest collections of work dating from this period, dating from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
Much of it was wall art that adorned churches. The impetus was to save this work, as art collectors were in the process of stripping away the works and selling them off. Not only are the works lovely, but to recreate the sense of how these works were originally shown, the curators of the museum recreated the church arches and walls to give a sense of being in the church itself. Hera agreed with me, that the most impressive collection is this Romanesque art.
The subsequent wings, Gothic with art from the 13-15th centuries, Renaissance 15-17th centuries, Modern 18-19 centuries, and then Contempory were all good and worth seeing. But since it focussed mainly on Catalonian artists, and we are familiar with similar works from other more well known Masters, it was not as impressive as the Romanesque collection.
We spent the better part of the day at the museum, and decided to try a near by chinese buffet that we had seen days earlier.
What had attracted us was the grill and fresh seafood. Dim Sum Wok, on the opposite side of the Arena shopping mall is not only inexpensive, but if you like fresh grilled sea food, it is a real treat. We loaded our plate with razor clams, various other clams, squid and octupus, then hand it over to the chef who grills it for you.
My second plate included more vegetables to be grilled, but I added a few more razor clams as well. They also had sushi and more traditional chinese buffet foods to choose from. We ate well, but way too much.
Both Hera and I were so sleepy after such a heavy meal all we wanted to do was to get back home and relax.
