Barcelona: Day 2

Barcelona
67 degrees, sunny

Buenos días, gentes

We kicked off our second day in the city with a walking tour of the old, gothic city.  We walked through so many side alleys, back street, out-of-the-way courtyards, that I honestly couldn't tell you where we went.  But, I can tell you that it was absolutely beautiful.

Plaça Reial

We began here in the Plaça Reial which is a large square that one can only imagine how glamorous and regal it must have been when it was first built.  Narrow streets lead out of the square on all sides and down one of these we went to the pine church.  One of the oldest catholic churches in spain.

Across from the church- the oldest decorated facade in the city

We walked through the old jewish quarter where the streets are some of the narrowest in the city and the houses are stacked one on top of the other.  

street level looking up

We passed through the city hall square,

and on to a wing of the national catherdral that contained a beautiful little park with thirteen white geese (the number of geese has to do with the age and the number of time st. eluelia was tortured during one of the many religious purges that took place in spain- can't say i remember which one it was)

The guide took us into a secluded church and courtyard where Gaudi went to pray every day.

Most of the walls were damaged like this in the civil war.  It gives this tiny square a lot of character.

At the end of the tour, at the recommendation of the guide, we stopped into a hole-in-the-wall chai tea shop and had some outstanding chai and indian pastries.

We went to La Boqueria mercat afterwards.  There is something here for every culinary taste.  And not just something- heaps and piles of somethings.  Check it

you get the idea...

We also stopped into an espadrilles shop where I got my very own pair of handmade shoes.  

stacks of handmade espadrilles

I love them despite the rather unpleasant blisters they are causing on the bottoms of my feet.  Maybe not a "walking around" shoe after all.

So many wonderful moments all in one day.  It's hard to keep track sometimes!

Marion, Annie, Carolyn, Alex, and Lauren outside the modern art museum.

look at those rays.