Our next and final stop in Barcelona was at Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.
From Wikipedia: The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan artand design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme. The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929. The Palau Nacional, which has housed the Museu d'Art de Catalunya since 1934, was declared a national museum in 1990 under the Museums Law passed by the Catalan Government. That same year, a thorough renovation process was launched to refurbish the site, based on plans drawn up by the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann, who were later joined in the undertaking by Josep Benedito. The Oval Hall was reopened for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, and the various collections were installed and opened over the period from 1995 (when the Romanesque Art section was reopened) to 2004. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (Museu Nacional) was officially inaugurated on 16 December 2004. It is one of the largest museums in Spain.

Digging further in Wikipedia, I found this: Montjuïc or Montjuich, meaning "Jewish Mountain" in medieval Latin and Catalan, is a broad, shallow hill in Barcelona with a rich history. It was the birthplace of the city, and its strategic location on the Mediterranean and the Llobregat River has made it significant throughout history. The hill has a medieval Jewish cemetery, declared an area of Cultural Asset of National Interest in 2007. Montjuïc has been the site of various fortifications, including the Castle of Montjuïc dating back to the 17th century. The area was also associated with political imprisonments and executions, and held significance during the Spanish Civil War.
The hill was chosen as the site for the 1929 International Exposition which led to the construction of several buildings, including the Palau Nacional and the Estadi Olímpic. Montjuïc was also the location for several venues during the 1992 Summer Olympics, with the Olympic stadium as the centerpiece. The hill is now home to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and various parks and gardens, and can be accessed via the Funicular de Montjuïc and the Montjuïc Cable Car.

The roads in the slopes facing the city were once the Montjuïc circuit Formula One race track, hosting the Spanish Grand Prix on four occasions. However, a terrible accident in the 1975 race saw Rolf Stommelen's car crash into the stands, killing four people; as a result the Spanish Grand Prix never returned to Montjuïc circuit.

We really enjoyed Barcelona. We were in Barcelona one other time: July 15 – 18, 1973, with part of the last day at Montjuic Park. We had booked a trip to Spain for spring break 2020 that was going to be 6 nights in Marbella (in the Costa del Sol area) and 5 in Barcelona. Since that would have been about 3 months before this cruise was scheduled to arrive in Barcelona, we had not booked a post-cruise extension there. However, both trips were cancelled due to COVID, and this trip was in the reverse direction, so we booked the pre-cruise extension in Barcelona. It’s also a good idea to arrive early for a cruise to avoid missing your ship’s departure.

The previous post can be found at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-801727-1.html, while the first post of this series can be found at https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-801137-1.html. The next post will be the drive to Tarragona and photos of and from our ship.