Barcelona
Tuesday–Thursday October 16–18, 2001
Barcelona is a tremendous city where quality of life is something the local government takes seriously. This large market is located near Las Ramblas, a world–famous street with lots of pedestrian life, including dancers and artistic performers. We could show photographs of fine architecture, the modern transportation network, many old and beautifully designed buildings, but instead how about a few shots of La Boqueria?
Here is one of the entrances to the very popular market.
The market is filled with vendors selling everything—meat, eggs, vegetables, fish, olives, fruits, bread and flowers. We did not see any supermarkets nearby in a large and very dense urban area. What a surprise.
Residents eat lots of salted and dried fish—bacala to North Americans. In Barcelona preserved cod fish comes in many forms.
The a purveyor of fine mushrooms has an eye–catching display.
We spent a few days in Milan, and then flew to Barcelona from Milan Malpensa. We found out right away that Barcelona is a great city because it is a pleasant place to be. We visited art museums, the nautical museum, the history museum, old churches, one of the great public markets in the world, buildings designed by Gaudi, including the not yet complete Sagrada Familia, and saw people happy to be living in their city. Gaudi’s works are on the Unesco World Heritage list. We especially liked Casa Milà aka La Pedrera.
Next—back to Italy to see Assisi, Siena and other hill towns in Umbria and Tuscany.
