back from Madrid & Segovia by Patty

We returned to Barcelona yesterday from a long weekend trip to Madrid and Segovia.

We'll be back on track Monday with school and blogging*.

We enjoyed so much in so few days; it was amazing.

Harry's favorite site was the Roman Aqueducts of Segovia 

(you'll be hearing from him tomorrow) 

and Victoria's favorite museum was the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

I remain inspired by the Reina Sofia and Pablo Picasso's Guernica.

*check out V's reading blog for 5th grade if you haven't already The Joy of Reading and Harry's blog The Name of This Blog is Secret

1000 years of art by Victoria

The Museu Nacional d'art de Catalunya is known for its collection of 1000 years of art. There was an entire section on Romanesque frescos. This included a 3-D interactive picture that was really fun to look at.

The museum is in a palace right above the magic fountain. It was a very historical place. There was so much history in every piece of art. You could feel the Catalunyan culture and it bridged a gap between the past and the present.

Innovation Museum Barcelona by Harry

Barcelona has an invention and innovation museum. It was really cool especially because they say that there is still so much left to invent.

This bike was made by BMW. It has a solar panel that powers a water bottle cooler and an iPhone charger. I would love to have this bike.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is the most useless machine in the world.............. the useless machine, click it on and then it turns itself off with a tiny hand.  Turn it back on, and it turns itself off again. Awesome, right? ...or useless, your choice.

The W Hotel by Harry

 At school our new unit is landforms. Yesterday we walked out to the W Hotel. The W hotel is on a man-made landform. I like the architect's design. To me it looks like it is a sail from a ship. It's a very tall building for Barcelona. We went to the lobby and it looked modern and I like modern buildings. I love the way the W hotel sits out in the sea. All in all, the W hotel is the best place to stay in Barcelona.

ps-you can go to google earth and see what the W's landform looked like before it was done :)

favorite veggie burgers in Barcelona

 This is vegan-bunny, you can see her sticker everywhere. 

Her website is vegan-bunnies 

(beware if you are a meat eater or if you love animals).

 This is a vegan restaurant called Gopal whose good friend is vegan-bunny.

 They have the absolute best veggie burgers in Barcelona. 

My favorite is The Classic.

If you ever end up in Barcelona, 

you should go get a veggie burger at Gopal.

Salvador Dali by Victoria

Salvador Dali was a surrealistic painter.

The objects in Dali's paintings are normal objects placed in an unusual way or form, like melting clocks and crutches. Dali's paintings were realistic but hard to understand. Most his paintings were from his dreams. Salvador's older brother died & when Salvador was born his parents acted like he was his brother which made him confused as he was growing up.

Maybe his unique childhood inspired his need for attention and unusual ideas. He did a lot of crazy things as an adult to get attention. One time he gave a speech about his art while wearing a deep sea diving suit. 

When he was growing up, Salvador's imagination made him a great artist.

The crutches in his paintings represented his wife, Gala. 

She was his support system.

This is a picture that Dali painted of himself and his wife rising to heaven.

Figueres by Harry

Figueres is a wonderful city north of Barcelona. As you may have guessed, it was a not as crowded as Barcelona.  We went into Salvador Dali's museum. Salvador Dali was born in Figueres. This city was not what I thought it would be like but it was good. This city had awesome buildings and the roof tops looked like the waves of an ocean.  The walls where amazing shades of brown.  I love looking at all of the buildings together. 

(bread on walls above)

The Salvador Dali museum had a dome made out of glass on top of the old theater.  The outside walls on the museum were covered in ceramic models of the local bread on them.  Yes thats right bread.  The bread was shaped like a golden brown triangles. Guest what else?  There were giant fake eggs on the roof of the building. Now I think you will not believe me. 

I hope you enjoyed this tour of Figueres.