Monday December 7

We spend most of today cleaning and packing so that we will be ready on Wednesday for our flight home. Packing always takes me longer than I think it will and I want this all taken care of so that we can enjoy our last day in Barcelona. I finally got a photo of the man who sells propane for the on demand hot water heaters and stoves.  He walks up and down the streets everyday banging a wrench on the side of these large canisters.  The noise can be heard for blocks, even inside our apartment with the windows closed. So different from home.Finally we are ready to go to the opera.  We are going to see Lucia Di Lammermoor, which is a tragic opera based on Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor. Here is the floor plan and the seats range from the €14.00 we paid for our seats to €300 for a seat in Zone 1.  Imagine, it would cost €600 or $900 Canadian for a night at the Opera!

Zone 1: €299.00     Zone 2: €199.00     Zone 2B: €187.00     Zone 3: €161.00               Zone 4: €117.00     Zone 5; €80.00     Zone 6: €56.00     Zone 7:€38.00                            Zone 8: €14.00     

The first lime green dot on this plan, on the lower right side in zone 8,  along with the red dot beside it were our seats.  Right up next to the ceiling, with no view of the stage at all!  However, we did have a little TV screen to watch the opera and there were English subtitles which were a huge help in following the plot of the opera.  The picture quality was quite poor but it was great having the subtitles.  Bob summed up the plot this way ”It took the heroine two and a half hours to die!”                         

The music and the singing was wonderful and of course the venue was absolutely stunning.  I didn’t know if I would enjoy it, not being able to see the stage, but really it was OK.  Of course it would have been so much nicer to see the actual stage instead of a fuzzy rendition but the only tickets available were in Zone 5 and it would have cost €160, or about $240.00, a bit too expensive for us!

Here is Bob standing by our seats, right up near the beautiful ceiling, and a few more photos showing the theatre, the orchestra way down below us, the cast, and the lobby after the performance.

The Teatre Del Liceu.

On the way home we see many beautiful lights and some sad sights too.