Barcelona

The last, and longest, stop of the quick Catalan tour is Barcelona, the second-largest city in Spain. Like most European cities, most of the interesting buildings are nicely grouped together in a relatively small and walkable area of town. In this case the area is know as the Barri Gotic, a section near the harbor that includes La Rambla, a street with a wide pedestrian area down the center that leads to the harbor.

Barcelona from the Parc Guell (more on this next post)

 La Rambla is filled with outside dining areas, a waiter or waitress's nightmare as you have to cross the street from the restaurant. The other group of workers on La Rambla are the living statues, a fixture across European cities, but there is about one every 10 meters. At one point there were even dueling Johnny Depps -- an Edward Scissorhands and a Captain Jack Sparrow.

La Rambla, from the harbor end of the street

The streets in the Barri Gotic are wonderful -- narrow, crowded and filled with shops. The area is also home to a large cathedral and Roman ruins among other attractions. Just outside is the Picasso Museum, which had a good collection of his early, pre-surreaslist work and a very interesting collection of later paintings he did called Las Meninas based on Valazquez's work.

A bridge over a narrow street in the Barri Gotic

La Seu Cathedral. The repair of ancient buildings business is booming throughout Europe if you're looking for an investment.

Roman ruins

On a hill overlooking the Barri Gotic is a section of town called Montjuic Hill that houses an odd trio -- the Miro Museum, the Palau Nacional (National Palace) and the 1992 Olympic site. Like the Picasso Museum, the Miro doesn't allow photography, so I've included photos of the others. The Palau Nacional now hosts the National Art Museum of Catalunya.

The Olympic Stadium

The Olympic grounds

The walk up to the Palau Nacional

Palau Nacional, now the Catalunya National Art Museum

More Barcelona in the next post.