A day of music and art -- and some sad news

The plan was to walk down to the old part of the city, see the cathedral and then visit the Picasso museum, but we got a late start because of some bad bews. We got an email from Peggy, who is taking care of our dogs, that our dear old girl Maggie is failing badly. We were hoping this wouldn't happen while we were away--but it did. Maggie is in her last days and I only hope she can hang on until we get back home on Thursday.

So it wasn't unti about 10:30 that we set off for the Cathedral. It's gorgeous, of course, but what delighted us was the cloisters where there is a pool and a gaggle of white geese.

By the time we got to the Picasso Museum it was afternoon and there was a huge lineup for tickets. Rather than waiting two hours we walked down the street to another art museum of contemporary European art. It had an amazing exhibit of figurative work, both two- and three-dimensional. Here is some of what we saw.

I think that figurative art is flourishing in Europe.

Lunch was tapas and sangria, then we walked home for siesta. Very Spanish, si?

Earlier in the day we had seen a poster for a free concert at the cathedral so in the interests of keeping busy and not dwelling too much on poor Maggie's condition, we decided to go. This meant another  walk down to the old city, but it was totally worth it. We didn't have any idea what a treat we were in for. The Millfield Camerata is a choir of about 25 young men and women who sang beautiful arrangements of religious music, from the middle ages to American spirituals. It tuns out that this is an award winning choir of teenagers from an English private school.

After the performance we walked back to the Picasso museum and there was no lineup so in we went. I enjoyed seeing the large collection of his early work from age 14 on. By the time we'd finished there my knees gave out from all the walking. It was all I could do to hobble to a restaurant for a light dinner. We had to take a taxi back to the hotel. 

Tomorrow is our last day here. We leave very early the next morning for our flight back to Canada. I only hope that Maggie will be able to wait for us.