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Spain 2002
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Barcelona
Pamplona
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Toledo
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Granada |
On the morning of the 27th we should arrive in Barcelona, lord
willing and the creek won't rise. Upon getting to Barcelona, the
works of Gaudi are on the tops of our list, and the following
attractions as well.
Automation Museum - Early 20th-century coin-operated funfair
automata laugh and wink and jerk about creepily. One of the
world's best collections of antique robots is kept in pristine
condition, down to the slightest detail: luscious costumes,
lifelike faces, real hair and--most important--humanoid
movements. Complicated scenarios are acted out on command,
exactly as they have been for almost a century. Just being in
the room with these mechanical golems will give you the chills
... and then they clank into action.
Bullfight Museum - The bulls remembered here were famous
fighters in their time, and just look at the thanks they get.
Now their taxidermed heads line the wall, ears lopped off long
ago for trophies. Amid a panoply of bullfighting, memorabilia,
mannequins model matadors' skintight, sequin-studded costumes,
complete with pompommed slippers--just right for a long,
drawn-out slaughter.
Erotic Museum - All this museum's scholarly pretensions
regarding world anthropology and art history can't conceal what
this is: a collection of artworks and gadgets whose focus, whose
thesis, whose raison d'etre is getting it on--with oneself and
with others. Sexy postcards from the 1920's depict big-butted
models. Ancient Greek and Roman artifacts are decorated with
those ubiquitously uncircumcised erections. A section on Asian
erotica might inspire some visitors to go home and read the Kama
Sutra after investing in a hefty set of ben-wa balls and a nice
big bag of cucumbers.
Hearse Museum - Take a vicarious ride down memory lane to the
melancholy pageantry of Barcelona funerals. Horse-drawn
carriages and other kinds of hearses tell one side of the city's
history over the past hundred years, with each vehicle providing
clues about the age, class and status of its former passengers.
From little kids to aristocrats, these bygone corpses' final
journeys are easy to imagine after you've seen this collection,
assembled by the municipal hearse service.
Illuminated Fountain Show - Candy-colored jets of water leap
dozens of feet into the air from a circular fountain the size of
several swimming pools. Designed as a set of concentric circles
by Gaieta Buigas, the fountain commands a place of honor on the
hill. To the amplified sounds of live music, brilliant red,
orange, yellow, green and blue spumes play against each other
against the blackness of a night sky and the pale domes of the
National Palace. All the angst of a long summer day in the city
dissolves as huge cool jets of turquoise and lemon rise and
throb to the beat of a drum.
Perfume Museum - A bottle designed by Salvador Dali and crowned
with a surrealistic sun is among 5,000 choice perfume vessels
spanning thousands of years. Begun by a perfumer and now one of
the world's largest of its kind, the collection includes
hundreds of glass and ceramic flasks from ancient Greece, Rome
and Egypt. Trace the histories of famous brands like Dior and
Guerlain through their bottles and labels. Inspect flacons once
owned by Marie Antoinette, and hark back to the times when water
was rare in Europe and bathing rarer, and perfume was the way to
keep one's lovers from gagging.
Shoe Museum - Hundreds of years' worth of shoes, and boots to
boot, are lodged in the medieval headquarters of the Old Master
Shoemakers' Guild. Genuine antique footwear dates back to the
16th century, with reproductions filling in around the edges.
The shoes of Pablo Casals are among pairs formerly worn by
famous performers. Outsizing the rest by far is the gigantic
metal shoe made for a statue of Christopher Columbus, which only
begs the question of whether it's true what they say about men
with big feet.
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