Barcelona - Part 1
More about our Mediterranean vacation. On Thanksgiving Day, Nov 22, we flew to Barcelona, Spain, and spent a couple of days exploring the city. It's a vibrant, fascinating place, with a good mixture of present and recent past. Barcelona feels alive, with people working and shopping and eating out, all side by side with its wonderful architecture. There's a sense of whimsey to a lot of the buildings, even those predating Gaudi's amazing creations.
We had only a few days there, so tried to make the most of it. Our first full day, a Saturday, had picture-perfect weather, so we spent the entire time walking as much of the city as we could. From our hotel, we headed south to La Rambla, and strolled along it to the Colom Monument and the beautiful harbor. It's doubtful that Columbus ever set foot in Barcelona, but the city claims him because two of his ships were built there, which seemed like a pretty good reason to me. Here's the very elaborate Columbus Monument and the gorgeous harbor.
Then we turned away from the water into the old city, where we enjoyed the tiny streets and old buildings, plus the old Cathedral. Sadly, Barcelona, having always been an intense working city, paid little attention to its ancient history, allowing almost all of its Roman and earlier buildings to be destroyed over the years in the name of progress. Many newer buildings have some Roman blocks in their foundations, salvaged from the rubble of the destroyed Roman building. We found one small piece of a Roman wall, nearly all that is left intact, despite this having been a major Roman port.We also found the remains of the synagogue that served Barcelona's sizable Jewish population before the 1390 anti-Jewish riots, when most of the Jews were murdered, and the few remaining alive fled. Since then, there has never been much of a Jewish presence in Barcelona. This photo was taken in "El Call" area, the old Jewish quarter. The former synagogue was up this street. "Don't worry, you are exactly where you need to be!" the graffiti informed us.
On this glorious day, we also visited the old market and the ancient hospital complex, plus simply strolled along various streets, enjoying the buildings and the shops. We saw some Gaudi works that day, but saved most of them for the next days, which you'll see soon in Barcelona - Part 2.
The food in Barcelona was excellent, as it is in all of Spain. However, finding a place to eat it at what we consider "normal hours" posed a challenge. Dinner is not served until 9 pm or later, so we simply wrote off that meal. Instead, we opted for nightly tapas, which are delicious and available from about 5 - 8 each evening. Breakfast was served at the hotel, and we had hopes of finding a quick bite around noon, but didn't see much open then. Trying to eat at 7 am, noon, and 7 pm simply didn't work, but we were brave and coped, eating more at the meals we did manage.
Here's a question for those of you familiar with Spanish hours. When to typical Spanish people eat various meals and how many do they manage in a day? Also, what hours do people work? Little was open at 10 or even 11 in the morning, and many people seemed free by 6 in the evening, so what hours are actually worked? And finally (this one intrigued us) what do people do between tapas time (the tapas places were packed by 6 each evening) and dinner time (9 or 10 until midnight)? Go back to work? Go to bars? Go home? Catch a movie? Have an affair? We were dying to know!
Tags: