There was nothing fixed on my schedule Monday; I was awake by 6:00 am anyway. I decided to scope out the one university location that I had not yet visited. It is located about 30 minutes from Barcelona and I needed to take the train. I am sure you all think I am silly for making these trips twice, but I just feel more secure if I know where I am going. I get lost even when I think I know where I am going!
At Placa Catalunya the train station is a different station from the metro station and a different ticket--I can't use my T-10 metro ticket for this trip. So I left about 10:00 am and had a nice train trip outside of Barcelona arriving at the stop for the Universidad Autonoma in about 30 minutes. I got off, located the library without any problem at all, and then wandered around a bit. I really like college campuses, so I enjoyed the weather and the campus. (thinking about Minnesota weather made it even nicer!) I returned to Barcelona later on and judging from the number of students waiting for the train, I must have timed it for when they were done with classes as it was quite crowded.
We also had some entertainment on the train. There are often musicians on the trains who will move from car to car in the metro or on the trains playing music and then "passing the hat" for a donation. This time a young man with an amplifier on wheels got on and proceeded to play a pan pipe (I think it is called) accompanied by music played through his amp...right beside me. I would have enjoyed it more from a distance!
The next day, I took the metro to the Zona Universitaria to visit Lluis Anglada, Joan's friend and colleague, who had earlier given me names and lists of places to visit. I wanted to touch base with him and thank him for his help. Lluis showed me around his office and I met Ramon, one of the guys that works in the tech side of things. He had met Steve Elfstrand at some European conference and is working on a version of Vu-Find for the Barcelona Consortium. Lluis and I chatted about the state of libraries in general and he asked me if I had visited the National Library and I said I thought I would do it in the afternoon. He offered to make a call to set up a tour for me and he did.
Later on in the afternoon, I met my Chinese friend, Eva, from the language school. This was our last chance to visit before I leave Barcelona. Since I had a spur of the moment chance to visit the National Library, I thought I would take her along. I met her in the Placa Catalunya and in an effort to avoid walking down the Rambla with its hordes of tourists, I took us on a side street. (I had walked up that way and had no problem). Of course, because I had an appointment, I took a wrong turn and we ended up arriving at the National Library about 15 minutes late!
We located the librarian who was to give us a tour and she took us throughout the library showing and telling us the history and the collections. The building itself is very old and started out as a hospital with "the first stone laid in 1401." (http://www.bnc.cat/eng/About-us/Historical-Building ) Imagine how difficult it would be to retrofit a building like this with electricity, climate control and other modern conveniences. To avoid changing the historical building structurally, they used raised platforms to enclose the wires/etc and then built long workstations with computers on them. So some library users sit at a different level from others making good use of the space.
Our guide mentioned numerous collections that have been donated throughout the years. There is a Cervantes Library with more than 8,000 items. We saw a grand piano donated by the family of famous composer, Enric Granados. There is also a player piano with a number of "rolls" (I think that is the right term) of music and both still get played. We went into several places that the usual library user does not get to see and finished our tour by walking back outside along the 2nd floor patio to our starting place. No one is allowed on the patio either! Click here to read more about the "curiosities and anecdotes." This is the same hospital where famous architect, Antoni Gaudi, died after being run over by a tram.
My friend Eva was very impressed that she ended up on the tour of the National Library. We visited the public library that is nearby too. We had some ice cream at Burger King and then she went off to an "Intercambio" meeting and I returned to La Residencia to get ready for my visit to the library at the University of Pampeu Fabra. So Monday and Tuesday are done.
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