Barcelona - Two

Since our apartment is right next to the Old City, we chose that part of town for our next days tromps. The one thing you will find in just about any European city is old stuff - buildings that date back to the Middle Ages and older. If you have any interest in history, these are very fascinating. It is also just neat to see things that hold that are still a part of day to day life compared to our attitude here of if it is 30 years old rip it down and build anew.

The Old City is marked by numerous small and twisting streets and alleyways so navigating them can be a challenge - especially if your partner decides that we are going to do the walking tour backward. This means you have to do everything in the guidebook in the inverse.

Walking across La Rambla to enter into the Old City

One of many many courtyards inside the Old City
Don't get the impression that this is a museum.
People live and work here. There are tons of shops and cafes and restaurants.

To be honest I don't remember where this was but I think it was near the Cathedral

Side door to 13th Century Cathedral

Ok now I remember, Wife was taking a picture of this covered walkway along a road between the 14th Century City Center Buildings - Again these are still in use.

No wait, this is the picture of Wife shooting the covered walkway. I still don't know what the earlier picture was.

We stumbled on this even though it was not in the guide book. It is the ceiling of a courtyard to another 14th Century building used as the Ministry of Culture. There were a couple big tour groups going through this when Wife and I stumbled in. This very nice security guard saw Wife with her camera and pointed this out. Click on it to see just how much detail there is.

Barcelona actually dates back to Roman times about the first century BC. This is part of only remaining segment of the Roman City walls and dates to around the 4th Century BC. We also saw this old synagogue that had been in use from Roman days to 1492 when the Spaniards expelled the Jews.

We went down to the waterfront (Barcelona is a seaport) for lunch and then strolled around it. Wife was taking these shots because I had been carry around the tripod for two days and I insisted that she use it.