Barcelona, Spain is like Vancouver, British Columbia –millions of tourists pour into each city every year. After four days, we still had not exhausted its rich treasure chest of sights and experiences. Inevitably visitors end up crossing or on its main pedestrian street, La Rambla.
It was my first time in Spain whereas for Jack, it was his fourth time. We arrived just a few days before Catalan’s national holiday. La Rambla was the first street I strolled about in Barcelona.
La Rambla only has one lane of cars are allowed on either side of a very wide pedestrian boulevard. It is one of several long street spines which cuts diagonally across downtown Barcelona through different architectural layers of the city’s long, proud history and neighbourhoods.
Like most tourists and locals who work downtown, you often end up on or crossing the Rambla enroute to your destination. The pedestrian thoroughfare has mini-plazas with street vendors, buskers with shops and services. It is always milling with people all the time during the day, any day and into the evening. There is a subway stop or two along the Rambla, as well as major transit bus stops at intersections.
Part of Barcelona’s identity is tied to the La Rambla. It is not like the Champs des L’Elysses in Paris, where still a large part is devoted to fast car lanes. Instead, imagine taking a downtown major street for Yonge St. in Toronto (which actually extends 20 km. north into the suburbs from Lake Ontario), or Robson St. for several kilometres in Vancouver and make all of it car-free to allow streams of people to overtake the pavement.
La Rambla might be annoying to folks who hate crowds and tourism, but such key streets in a major city, are part of daily economic and human dynamic. There were many different visual sensations of art, architecture, history, food and social interaction. Our hotel was 1 block away from La Ramblas. Daily we wandered into the Rambla not just to see layers of
history, but to literally get to other places just a few blocks away –Boqueria Market, major cathedrals of medieval vintage, other historic plazas with fantastic cafes and restaurants where red wine and coffee was ubiquitous.
Barcelona city as part of the Catalan province, has seen violence over centuries and struggle for independence from Spain. The Rambla was one of the featured areas in 2017, where there were local protests for Catalan independence –later quashed.
So let me give you a flavour of what we saw during our brief sojourn in Barcelona, on the Ramblas and near by. We gave up on cycling in this area because there was so much to see and absorb slowly on foot the vitality of history, culture and people. Our bikes were left in our hotel room.
So we went merged even for a short time, into the life, craziness and passion of Barcelona.
Thank you for giving us the grand tour of Barcelona! There is much to see in this historical city. I like the way you made reference to Vancouver. Happy Easter!
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Well, it’s true Vancouver gets as many tourists as Barcelona. Glad you enjoyed the virtual tour. 🙂
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It’s so beautiful! I love the idea of a pedestrian lane that goes on and on, Jean! ♡
Diana xo
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It’s long enough to go down to the port of Barcelona where there are some Olympic Games infrastructure, in addition to the Columbus statute. Great to see you Diana.
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Good to be seen Jean! Slowly coming back fro my break. Losing dad, I dropped a lot of stuff that seemed unimportant in comparison. 💗
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Sometimes slivers of ache never go away completely. It’s like life is shot with rain and snow ..in sunshine. A local told me a long time ago, Calgary experienced a hr. or so of snow, rain, thunder and lightning all simultaneously.
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Oooh, I like the looks of that Cathedral—now I need to go!
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🙂 You will love Barcelona. There are several cathedrals of significance. I haven’t even mention Spanish liturgical art in the National Museum of Catalonian Art. Interesting since I’m not familiar with Spanish artistic imagery of Christianity. In the medieval art, Virgin Mary appears in navy blue or black robe with touches..of pink/rose.
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Spain certainly has a lot of architecture to behold, and it sounds like the best way to see La Rambla was on foot, just like you did. That pedestrian area sounds like it showcases the heart of the city with food, art and people all round. I would have been stopping all the time to take it all in, just like how you took all these photos. Interesting to see a whole feathered duck is sold just like that through the windows.
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The feathered duck type is not eaten here in Canada which is what I found interesting. The mallard duck is very common in Canada in our rivers and lakes.
Absolutely La Rambla pulses with activity and tourists. Recently Barcelona authorities are looking at ways to ensure their city areas are still liveable without stopping the visitors from coming to city.
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And that looked like a mallard duck in the window. Sometimes too many people in a certain location makes it hard to enjoy…then again, sometimes the more people, the more is gives a buzz to a certain place.
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Love the pictures! Glad you had a good time.
It seems many locals who live in the centre are quite fed up with tourism. Not with tourists themselves, of course (well only with the ones that get very drunk, go outside naked, piss on the street or arrange parties in the a.m.), but the fact that it is more and more difficult to find an apartment to rent for a decent price because they were all turned into airbnbs, normal shops and supermarkets are turned into tourist crap shops, etc. So basically what already happened in Venice some years ago. It is a very complicated problem…
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Actually same AirBnB problem is creeping in various parts of Vancouver (and Toronto) where the hotels decry competition etc. and condo owners don’t want transient traffic wearing down their lobbies, etc. The loss of local feel for stores with goods for living, instead of souveniers would be headache for those living nearby. I did read of the Barcelona municipality working on some regulations… hope something better is in place without driving a lot of tourism dollars away for the economy.
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How wonderful to be in Spain! We did a cycling trip in the Picos de Europa quite a few years ago. It is a big regret of mine that we did not go to Barcelona at that time. You have captured so much of this vibrant city. I do hope we have the chance to return one day.
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Barcelona is very dynamic and a lot of stuff to see. It’s worth a stop for at least 2 days or more. That’s my only exposure to Spain so far.
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How magical and wonderful. Spain…one day!
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One day you’ll get to Europe..after you get bored with Asia. 😀
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I especially liked the statue of Columbus and how he was pointing and saying: “Canada? It’s back that way– and I sure hope your bikes have paddle wheels!!” Some of your best photos ever, Jean. Great post, thanks for sharing!!
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Funny 🙂 We were on flying bikes over the ocean.
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How lovely post. We love Barcelona and haven there twice. Have You ever been in Samba Carnival? If not, look at my newest post. My daughter participated in it also.
Have a wonderful day!
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