Greetings from Camp Nou!

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Yesterday we went to Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona, one of the world's biggest and most popular football clubs. It was packed with visitors from all over the world. (And Bruce Springsteen fans hovered outside the grounds, awaiting a concert by Springsteen that evening.)

Barcelona is the club for which Ronaldinho played until a few days ago. The stadium seats almost 100,000 people, and they offer a nice self-guided tour with audio guide. There is also an excellent museum describing the history of the club, which (we hadn't known) is closely tied to the Catalonia independence/autonomy movement. In both the museum and the humongous store, there were small displays of Celtic Club (Glasgow) paraphernalia and we believe that the reason is because both football clubs' origins are bound up with historically nationalist movements within their countries. The founder of FC Barcelona, Joan Gamper, was sanctioned by the Franco dictatorship for that reason.

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Photos

Aqui estamos!
en Camp Nou

Statue attacks fan!
Jack did not witness the attack, but was able to apprehend the culprit because it was rooted to the ground and could not escape

In the stands
The phrase "mes que un club" means "more than a club" in Catalan.

BRUUUUCE!
wasn't anywhere in sight, but his stage messed up our view of the pitch.

In the press room
"Ask me about my brace"

In the museum
The founder of the club brought soccer to Barcelona from Switzerland, where he had learned it from some English and Scots.