Barcelona Scenes, 2

Another day's nearly random rambling from La Rambla to L'Eixample...

In the market La Boqueria, a new crepe shoppe

Not catering to the locals, I think; not sure I
approve; nonetheless, we had second
breakfast and elevenses at La Boqueria

Caganers--look it up--have gone from Nativity Scene novelty
to major industry; we would have bought a Trump, but nothing
about him is amusing

Walking past the Palau Guell in search of the London Bar,
which was closed

On Rambla de Catalunya

A few days before Palm Sunday, and everyone is stocking up
on decorative palm fronds

Always looking up at all the gorgeous architecture, it's a wonder
we haven't been run over or fallen into a construction site

On Passeig de Gracia

The red brick is the old Montaner publishing house, the
nephew of which became one of the most prominent and
productive Modernistas

Mid-afternoon BCN lunch--at Cerviceria Catalana, which
Rebecca had put us on to--the first of three visits

Dessert menu

Wonderful cocoanut pudding

Back on the street

Still our favorite, Casa Comalot

La Pedrera

Casa Battlo

World sentiment

Barcelona Scenes, 1

We think this is our fifth visit to Barcelona, although two of the visits were very short. The first two were a week or more, and our current visit will go two weeks. Barcelona is a fascinating place, if art and architecture are your interests. Add food and drink, perfect spring weather, and one of Europe's better campgrounds, on the sea, and two weeks may not be enough. Besides, we have transitioned into abide mode, apart from travel mode, and are content to stay put for a while. (South America, in travel mode, was exhausting.) Anyhow, the first two days here we just lazed and read in the campground. The third day, below, we took the (free) shuttle into the city and just walked around mostly, visiting old friends, noticing changes. Then we took another day off. ¡Que bueno es no hacer nada y descansar después!

There are now tapas chain restaurants that serve cafeteria-style;
pick up a tray and scoot along, requesting whatever appeals,
filling your tiny plate for E12.95; no more pushing and shoving
as at the neighborhood joints; on La Rambla, catering to the
cruise crowd, no doubt

The Liceau always does a Wagner

A city of interesting street lamps, here in the
Bari Gotic

Ride to the sound of the cannons, I always say; except here it
was really loud fireworks and a rowdy celebration of the
International Day of the Roma; we fit right in

Excuse me, but hasn't The Church been crowd
funding for a very long time now?

Wine tasting machine in the food floor of El
Corte Ingles, Barcelona's Galeries Lafayette;
we've seen similar machines in Queenstown,
but they charge rather more than the 40 cents
here

E600 jambons

Old wine, new wine drinking apparatus

Must look into this

Spain's favorite contemporary author (and my favorite
contemporary Spanish author); HarperCollins now says the
English translation of The Labyrinth of Spirits (conclusion
of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series) will be out in
2018

As always, we're fascinated by the architecture,
Modernista and otherwise

The eye-ball building

We had a nice menu del dia lunch at Cafe del Academica in
the Bari Gotic, but forgot to take pix; here is the afternoon
snack at a little hole-in-the-wall churro place; too late did
I remember a vow made in Madrid to never again order
separate servings...

New sculpture outside the Palace of Catalan
Music; pigeons/seagulls have already marked it

Girona; Or, Never Judge A City By Its Bus Station

We passed through Girona en route from Barcelona to Figueres. Granted, we were on a bus, a bit jet-lagged, but Girona looked pretty pedestrian, or worse. It did not occur to us to go there again. Reading about it in the guide book in the Pubol parking lot changed our minds, however, and happily so. Girona is an old and distinguished city, scenic, well preserved and well-presented. We spent just an afternoon there, and might well visit again. What's not to like about a place that is quite nice itself and that is an hour's drive from a) Barcelona, b) the Costa Brava and the Mediterranean, c) the Pyrenees, and d) France?

After the suburbs and big-box neighborhoods, you cross the
river, above,

Find yourself in something of a forest,

And then turn onto the view of the old city...

Crossing a scenic diversion of the river

And there you are, in a beautiful old town

With plenty of new trappings...here another food-truck-themed
restaurant, like one we saw in Buenos Aires

Seagull eye-view of the old city, with the
basilica and the cathedral foremost

Funny faces on the older basilica

Old city towers and walls

128 steps up to the cathedral

A very late but not flamboyant Gothic, with an unusual design:
the second widest nave in Christendom (only St. Pete's is wider);
although the chancel is not so wide nor high; read on...

As is almost always the case with Spanish cathedrals, the choir,
or, here, the organ, prevents a full west-east view of the building

Cloister

The diagrams explain how Girona's cathedral is different (it's
the second from left)

Capital on column in cloister; something has gone terribly
wrong here

Moving right along now to the so-called
Arabian Baths; Moorish in origin, perhaps,
but definitely Roman in design

With hot and cold rooms, etc.

City walls, cathedral and buttresses

Inside the older, smaller, basilica

More old walls

And a bit of Art Nouveau

Another beautiful place to return to...