Our first guests left today. Turns out that when we have guests we are pretty busy; it was particularly intense because these two were only here for something like 48 hours. I really don’t have much time to blog given the circumstances! But I want to get something out there, so here are some pictures and comments from my husband’s and my trip to Palau de la Musica Catalana, a Montaner edifice.

The facade is said to be impossible to capture in a photo. If you’ve seen it in person, perhaps you can decide how we did.

If you think of the building as a ship, St. George commands the prow.

There is a lot of archi-art in the performance hall. On stage left, we have Beethoven…

… and above him, the Valkyries.

Behind the stage are eighteen muses, each holding a different instrument. Here are a few.

The ceiling is the sun, surrounded by a chorus, acknowledging the central role of the human voice in music performance.

I love these canted light-rings.

This was a lot of it. Not all certainly. You can work out on your own the similarities and differences between the work of Gaudi and Montaner perhaps. If not, I will try to send more helpful info soon.

These pictures were taken on Sep. 21, so I am a few days behind. In addition to our first successful guest round completion, we made a date to meet some new local friends after (their) work this Thursday. I’m still searching for the ex-pat community in Barcelona, with hopes of finding a debate watch party in English before Nov. 1. We are going to the last day of the welcome-fall festival tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great autumnal equinox yesterday!