16th August : Barcelona

** Today I have decided to take a break-day. I am not feeling great, most probably grounded on a very unsettled stomach. So much for the Pad Thai I had for supper last night.

As soon as I am able to move more than 25 metres from my ensuite I will continue my round of museums.

I just realised that I walked 24.5 thousand steps (about 15 kilometres) yesterday in mid 30s heat. I think that this may also be why I am so under the weather today

Stand by ...........

About 11:30 I started to feel way better so I showered for the third time today & went to just one museum, the one that is both the closest and does not have any other museums I want to see, close by. A bit of planning for tomorrow will never go astray.

** On my way back from the museum I took a slightly different route and became aware of the strangest building I have ever seen. Having visited the Sagrada Família yesterday I knew instinctively that the house must be the Gaudi house, he who redesigned the Familia Sagrada soon after construction was started. I never went in as there was such a crowd outside.

** The Egyptian museum of Barcelona.

This is a private museum and has only been open since the early 90s. The collect is owned by a Spanish hotelier, who like me has a strong interest in the Bronze Age, but unlike me, had plenty of money to serve his hobby. The museum is interesting but for my purposes, I only was interested in the Bronze Age artefacts, not the Iron Age ones.

The artefacts include images of Rameses ll & Rameses lll as well as Khefre from 1500 years earlier, he of the great pyramids. And here are two facts that may help you scoop that 10 million dollar prize or at least that bottle of wine for coming in 1st place in a charity quiz 

Two questions. We call it Egypt today but what did the Egyptians call their country 3000 to 6000 years ago? The second question, the rulers of Egypt were called Pharaoh but what does the name actually mean?

First answer is Kemmet meaning 'black land', referring to the colour of the soil after the annual flooding of the Nile, and the second answer is "pp aa" and this translates as "big house". Why, because being the biggest bully in town. The king would live in the biggest house.

The following two both show the cartouche of Rameses Vl 19th - 20th dynasty

Statue of Rameses lll

The following more than likely were to get the queen in the mood 😁

The Sandles of the day

Your not too soft pillow

The latest dress from Memphis. Dated to the old kingdom (2700 - 2100 bce)

The necklace is dated to the pre-dynastic period 4000 - 3000 bce

In the hand of Champollion, who decrypted the Rosetta stone. He showed how the same sentence could be written in different ways.

A photo of the three written languages on the Rosetta stone Across the next three images. The words circled in yellow say the name of the king, Ptolemaius. This identification across all three scripts allowed for hyroglyphics to be read and then understood.

Had I not come over feeling ill the following were my plans.

** Over the next two days I intend visiting the following museums 

Today

• Picasso Museum
• Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
• The Egyptian Museum of Barcelona 

And the following museums tomorrow because of their distance from the city and their closeness to each other.

• The National Museum of Art 
• Museum of Ethnology & Culture

Unfortunately due to my miscalculation over Monday being a public holiday I will not be able to go to the town of Girona. This means I will miss the Salvador Dali museum and the tour through the ancient Jewish quarter. As we would say in Australia, such is life.