Just across the Guadalquivir River from the city center, it now hosts a bustling fruit and vegetable market, numerous tapas bars, and the Museo de la Cerámica de Triana, which highlights the district’s tile-producing history. After visiting the museum, it’s fun to wander and admire the lavishly decorated facades of the ceramics workshops that once populated this quarter. Once home to authentic markets, characteristic restaurants, and a thriving local ambience, it’s now awash in tacky tourist trinkets and lousy restaurants. Filling a complex of ancient and medieval buildings alongside Barcelona’s cathedral, the center uses a beautifully lit, well-described exhibit and plenty of historic artifacts to introduce the man and his accomplishments. To accommodate a steadily increasing influx of visitors in this wildly popular city, Barcelona’s main attractions are getting wise to the advantages of advance ticket sales. For last-minute types, another option is to buy an Articket BCN, which covers six top Barcelona museums and allows visitors to walk right in anytime at the Picasso Museum. Casa Batlló and La Pedrera, two more popular Gaudí sights, now offer pricey fast-pass tickets (in addition to regular advance tickets). Once a prison that held political opponents of Portugal’s longtime dictator António Salazar, the building now houses a well-presented, three-floor exhibit about the repressive regime, which endured from 1926 until 1974. At Lisbon’s Museum of Ancient Art — covering the 15th and 16th centuries, a time when the Portuguese ruled the seas — a planned renovation should make this fine space even more inviting (but may cause disruptions or even closure in 2017).