Getting off the Blah Blah bus in Barcelona was like waking up from a medieval dream and finding myself in Buenos Aires.
A big busy city where the high stone apartments shadowed the streets. A lot of people were out marching at a quick pace. After we checked in the fifth floor apartment with our Ukrainian host, we ventured outside and had lunch at a restaurant where I ordered, following an appetizer of anchovy toast, a slice of croaker, a fish I don’t believe I’ve had before. It had a similarly taste and consistency to trout.
Eating lunch, I watched the ongoing spectacle of motorcycles darting dangerously in and out of traffic. It made me think that there should be a European motorcycle classic that takes place in Barcelona where bikers, helmeted like medieval knights, have to race through an army of taxis.
Done with lunch, we headed down streets through the Gothic Quarter that got increasingly crowded as we neared La Rambla, the famous long tree-lined pedestrian avenue that leads to the Columbus statue peering out over the bay. And I thought that the Champs Elysée was crowded! Zut alors! Or rather, Dios Milo! It was like tourists the world over had gotten word that all international flights would be suspended next year and decided to get one last look at Barcelona.
So once again among the throng passing vendors selling candy, fruit, hats, banners, postcards, and packets of seeds(??). It made me feel less of a pedestrian and more like a concert goer pushing along with the swarm to avoid getting trampled.
We ducked into a market which looked like a cornucopic banquet hall but was even more jammed than La Rambla.
Squeezed back out on La Rambla we made it to the Columbus statue.
From the statue, we slowed our pace and wandered the docks where boats were waiting to take tourists for a cruise.
Don’t ask me how we got back to our apartment. We had gotten up before dawn to catch our bus so by this time I was a walking zombie. I vaguely remember stopping for ice cream. Then bed where I’ve just awakened after sleeping for ten hours.
Still packed! Hope you can get to the maritime museum. The reproduction galley ship is a wonder to behold.
yes, still packed. Lots of Japanese tourists here (and in France also). As well as other Europeans judging from languages heard. Sadly, I don’t think we will make it back down there for the galley ship.