Walking Tour

Today we found a free walking tour of Barcelona. There is a travel company that runs a bar (which is literally called Travel Bar) and also has events like the tour, pub crawls, and Spanish cooking classes. It was a good tour that took us through a lot of the old city. This was our second free tour (the first was in Madrid) and our second non-Spanish tour guide (this one was Swiss). He knew a lot though and told us a lot about the history of Barcelona, the current movement in Cataluna to gain independence from Spain, and a lot of tips on what to do/eat/drink in the city. We saw the steps where Ferdinand and Isabella recieved Columbus after he sailed to "India," a church that was almost destroyed by Franco ( in cahoots with Mussolini) during the Spanish Civil War, and, of course, a lot of important churches. After the tour we had discounted beers at Travel Bar and signed up for a couple more events (more on those when we do them).

After we left the bar (after only one drink each, I promise) we checked out Mercat de la Boqueria, which is big market full of every kind of food you can imagine. We wandered through it and stopped at one of the restaurant booths for some handmade ravioli with pesto. It was as delicious as it sounds. Tonight we head to bar that is supposedly full of "20-something internationals" in order to, hopefully, make some friends. It's harder since we are not in a hostel but it would be nice to have some more people to hang out with while we're here.

Fruit stand at Mercat de la Boqueria

Shrine to Santa Eulalia, co-patron saint of Barcelona

Bar del Pi, once frequented by Ernest Hemmingway

The shockingly ugly home of the Barcelona Architects' Association. The artwork on the left is Miro's imitation of Picasso's work and on the right is Picasso's imitation of Miro's work. According to our guide the two artists were rivals who did these quick sketches to mock one another. They were both firmly anti-Franco and refused to have their work publicly displayed in Franco's Spain. Somehow, Franco got ahold of the two sketches and took the opportunity to display the work of both artists.

This sculpture sits right inside where the old Roman city of Barcano, later Barcelona,  used to be.