Postcards from Around the World

The first thing my daughter and I did on arrival in Barcelona (after dropping our cases off at the hotel) was to join a free walking tour starting from Plaça de Catalunya and finishing at the waterfront. Of course a free walking tour is not exactly free, you are expected to offer a donation at the end of the tour, which in this case was well worth it.

Feeding the pigeons in Plaça de Catalunya

We wandered around the many back streets and the Gothic Quarter a stone’s throw from La Rambla and believe me there are so many narrow alleyways that when we tried to find some of the places later on by ourselves, we got completely lost.

Carrer Petritxol, in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter – it has a lot of shops, murals, and art – and home to one of Barcelona’s most delectable treats: the perfect hot chocolate and churros.

Just about every shuttered doorway is covered in murals and graffiti and I was frantically snapping shots as we moved on.

Barcelona is a shopaholic’s paradise as well as being full of historical buildings and art. I was fascinated by these tiled murals that decorate the walls in this narrow pedestrian street, Carrer Petritxol, in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter.  It runs from Portaferissa to Plaça del Pi, not far from La Rambla. The murals tell stories of past events and famous residents or visitors.

There are several art galleries along this street as well as shoe shops, soap shops and chocolate shops!

The end of the tour was at El Cap de Barcelona from where we headed down to the beach and the Makamaka restaurant for cocktails and some food.

Created in 1992, the Head of Barcelona is a 64-ft. abstract statue by American Roy Lichtenstein.

(The header photo is the balcony detail on the Casa Pia Batlló, which is located on the corner of Rambla Cataluña and Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes. The building is in the Modernist style, built between 1891 and 1896 by the architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas.)

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Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

40 thoughts on “Postcards from Around the World”

  1. What a fabulous trip you did with your daughter. Fun. We loved walking around the streets, and the architecture and street art not forgetting the food were all highlights. Did you do much shopping? Leather bags were plentiful if my memory serves me correctly.

  2. We’ve done guided walks like this too and they’ve been great. A fun way to learn about a new place. And like you we retraced some of our steps later in the day, but we had more success than you. 🙂

    1. Yes, they are great ways to see a new city, we even took the hop on hop off bus too which was also good. I don’t mind getting lost, you find the unexpected that way.

  3. The tiles are great, Jude. As you say you could spend ages looking at the details. I don’t remember seeing those ones, but there was such a lot to see, everywhere you looked, in Barcelona. What year did you go? Not sure if it was before or after my visit.

    1. There is so much to see, you really need a week or more or several visits. We were there in October 2016. My last trip abroad! Things went rather pear-shaped after that.

      1. Wracking my poor tired brain to think when but I think ours was a couple of years after that, probably around my 70th. I did love it, but I don’t especially want to go back. In our 6 days we saw quite a lot, including lovely Girona. The regret was Monserrate, and maybe further up the coast to the Dali museum, but in the scheme of things there are places I want to see more. Some of them are not so easy to get to from here, though, so I have to content myself with what I have. About to stagger upstairs with the washing. Catch you later!

    2. You must have been before me as it was your mention of the Sant Pau complex that made me put it on the list.

      4. You’ve both brought back many memories from the summer of 1985, when I spent three weeks in Barcelona, then three on Mallorca, and another three back in Barcelona. Side trips included Girona, Montserrat, and Figueres (for the Dalí museum). Barcelona seemed to have more vegetarian restaurants than any city in the United States. After the death of the dictator Franco in 1975, there had been a resurgence of all things Catalan, with nationalists often crossing out signs and inscriptions written in Spanish. But I’ll invoke in Spanish, echoing the words of bilingual Galician poet Rosalia de Castro, tiempos que fueron, the times that were.

  4. So many wonderful things Jude I wish I had found when I was there. Love the tiles. I got lost as well 🙂

  5. You made good use of your time. We no longer go to that part of town. It’s become so horribly touristy. It’s a shame as it has such charm. And yes, I do know I’m a tourist too.

    1. The first time in a city you just have to do the touristy things, but if you go back then you begin to really see a city more like a local. I just tend not to go back to places.

  6. I love the graffiti and the tiled murals! I’ve found these ‘free’ city walking tours are usually excellent and worth a decent tip.

    1. Yes this one was well worth the tip. And filled in a couple of hours until we could check into our hotel.

  7. On my first visit (of two) to Barcelona, I went straight to La Boqueria market off La Rambla. Such an interesting and colourful place with an amazing choice of produce inside.
    Best wishes, Pete. x

    1. Well I went in late October and it was still very busy, but I prebooked tickets to the popular places so avoided queues.

  10. Those back streets around the Gothic Quarter are so atmospheric, and hide some fabulously earthy tapas bars – we were there just a few months ago, as you might remember. It’s still a wonderful city.

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