Barcelona: Day 27 : Row Your Boat .

***Music Monday will be postponed until tomorrow because of the Madrid trip***

Unfortunately, today was the last day in Madrid. I think we've all come to like it quite much here, and it's not just the weather. Today was going to be a short day -- and then we were going to be able to have some free time before we hopped on the train to head back to Barcelona. We ate once more at La Mallorquina for breakfast, which honestly has been the best breakfast we've have so far -- it's literally like eating dessert for breakfast. Kendall and I kept liked our first meal so much that we had it all three days while in Madrid (after all, Clemson was footin' the bill...) And then we moved on to the activities of the day!


The first stop was the Central Cultural Circulo de Lectores. This is the same architect that worked on the Santa Catarina market, as well as the natural gas building headquarters (if you remember that) and also the railway design down Avinguda Icaria. He actually formed the firm EMBT with his second wife and they worked together.

I didn't end up getting too many notes on the actual place, other than that they can use it for conferences and meetings and things of the like. The architect was also into doing furniture, so in this case he really just designed the interior space, as the exterior of the building already existed. Note the interesting mix and seamlessness of materials, as well as the interesting freeform designs. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We only visited one other site today, and that was the Torres Blanco housing tower. It almost looks like lily pads stacked on top of one another, or a series of cylinders bound together. It's actually a really tall tower, way higher than the buildings around it. There are some sweet balconies coming out of the apartments and the rooftop has a sort of terrace and balcony and garden. Some of the group tried to sneak in, but it seemed like security was pretty on top of things and kicked people out, which was unfortunate. I guess you can't win 'em all... It was designed by Oíza, who was very into organic structure, which is definitely evident in this building.

After this, we had the rest of the day until about 6pm to do whatever we wanted. After absolutely loving the park the day prior, Ryan, Brittany, Ian, and Jenn decided we definitely needed to go back and have a lazy day there. We decided to rent some rowboats and had an absolute blast there; we also explored some different parts of the park, and moseyed on past the Prado Museum and into some shops and such. We had plenty of time to grab a meal and shop in some stores before we were due back at Hostal Cruz to go with Kathrin back to the metro and the Atocha station where we would catch our train.

important to those clemson kids going to barcelona next semester -- we signed 2 of the buoys out in the lake, so see if you can find them!!!

On the way home, it was getting dark out, and eventually you could no longer see anything, with our train steadily barreling along at around 200mph. Getting off, it felt like we had been on a plane or something, after sitting on there for 3 hours. Coming home to Barcelona felt exactly like that -- home. It was like we had gone back to the States. What a welcome sight it was to come back into familiar metros and streets! Madrid was definitely great, and absolutely packed full, but I think we were all ready to continue our adventures in Barcelona! Until tomorrow, buenas noches.