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September 2003
Catalonia - Barcelona
David Aaronson2005-09-27 22:32:12
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We arrived in Barcelona around midnight to find that the city was absolutely packed with people. Las Ramblas, the main pedestrian thoroughfare was filled with street performers, locals and tourists alike. When we finally got to our hotel (which means when we finally found someplace to park for our hotel, which was just off Las Ramblas) we had no problem finding a restaurant open past 1 AM. The next morning the first place we visited was the Barri Gotic (old quarter). This is the oldest section of town filled with Gothic buildings, antique stores and street musicians performing Abba songs on the hammered dulcimer (1).
This is the Cathedral of Barcelona, with scaffolding of course (2). It also includes a substantial set of cloisters attached to it that can be visited, although not during lunch time. This is possibly the most crowded place in Barcelona, narrowly edging out Las Ramblas on a Friday night.
Inside the main cathedral is pretty much what you expect. A lot of little side chapels that you can't technically take pictures in, although possibly everyone else except us did anyway. These are the choir stalls in the central section of the cathedral. It's a bit fuzzy but near the bottom right of the picture you can see some of the coats of arms that are engraved/painted on each of the stalls.
L'Eixample is an upscale shopping and residential section of central Barcelona. This is one of it's best known sites, the Block of Discord (which works as a pun in Spanish) (4). The building at the far end with the unusual top is Casa Lleo Morera which was designed by Domenech I Montaner who is the other exceptionally big name in Barcelona architecture besides Antoni Gaudi. The building with the stepped roof is Casa Atmatller designed by Puig I Cadalfalch. Next to that is a Gaudi work (if you couldn't tell), the Casa Battlo. This building is supposed to represent the victory of St George over
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See photographs from:
Spain Gallery
