Barcelona

This city is a diverse and hopping place. Punk rockers, girl skate boarders, a huge Indian population, drug dealers, prostitutes, business men, pickpockets, free bicycles, styling ladies and of course the very unusual Sweetie & Pooks.

2000-year-old Roman Towers, in the heart of the city

Whoa, there are a lot of prostitutes on our street. Last night, when we walked by this alley, not knowing it was the location of our next hostal, there was a police van and some kind of big shakedown going on. What we didn’t see was the dozens of prostitutes standing along the street. Today, walking down the street with our bags and everything, we noticed them. Fortunately, our place is one block further down, which is oddly free of shady characters. And that one dodgy block (it really is only one block) seems to get more vibrant and less seedy at night. Don’t worry, moms, we were fine.

Barcelona cathedral

So many places to explore and glorious surprises we happened upon. It’s been much more of a sightseeing venture than the other places we’ve visited, partly because there is so much to see. The variety of architecture is incredible, from the old churches and cathedral to the playful Modernista buildings of Gaudí & co. The Barri Gotic, in the old city, was our favorite area. It feels like a hundred buildings from different places and times all smooshed together. The narrow streets and high buildings make it difficult to navigate and easy to enjoy being lost.

Pictures do the job better than descriptions, but some of our highlights were… Park Guell, where Gaudi took a shot at landscape architecture and hit the jackpot; the Cathedral, with its stunning gothic architecture and overwhelming collection of altarpieces.; Casa Batllo, another beautiful Gaudi creation; and our favorite sitting-spot, the Plaça Reial.

Parque Guell (can you find the moon?)

Markets! We’ve seen them in other cities, but Barcelona has a ton of them! They’re all delightful open-air covered spaces, with amazing varieties of fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, and so on. We loved them. Our favorite purchases were pineapple (pre-sliced with fork included) and figs.

Jamon, jamon, o jamon? Each of these was 100-200 euros per kg!

There’s a wide pedestrian boulevard called La Rambla in the heart of the city. We encountered probably 10 times more Americans in that area than we have in the rest of the country so far. A big change from the Canaries, where people said, “Wow, you’re from the US? We don’t get many of you here.” The hordes of people on La Rambla attract street performers, including elaborately costumed creatures interacting with the audience (a centaur, Atlas holding the globe, a clown riding a bike with a skeleton companion – there were dozens). One of our favorites was a ridiculously skilled juggler, who had some 100 people transfixed.

In the end, we would go back to Barcelona in a heartbeat. But it was a sensory overload to say the least, and Valencia seemed the perfect follow-up destination.