We left Syracuse late afternoon and although the flight was delayed, we had no trouble making our connection at JFK. We took a Delta flight to Barcelona and arrived on time along with all our luggage. Here's my annoying neighbor settling for the long slog.
We were met at the airport by a guy hired by VBT and he took us by bus to the hotel (the poor bus driver got ticketed for double-parking in front of the hotel while we unloaded!).
Our hotel was in the section of downtown called Old City and within it Barri Gotic, right along Las Ramblas, a famous pedestrian walkway. Only a block or so away was La Boqueria, an open-air market with lots of stalls for buying fresh produce and meats. Yes, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have invaded this quaint old-world market too.
There were also many short order places, tapas bars in the world of spanish culture. We opted for a sit-down place for a light lunch. I chose paella and while I have had many americanized versions, this was the real thing. Unfortunately, I had already started to clean most of the mussels and clams from their shells before I decided to take the picture.
During lunch we were serenaded by multiple combinations of street musicians. This group was pretty good. They hoped you would tip them. Unfortunately, there were a lot of pan-handlers too. They were also looking for your change.
There's Jaime looking at something else and another couple who sat at our table.
After lunch we walked through the stalls some more. Here is a meat market with every conceivable part of just about any domesticated animal. See how many body parts of how many animals you can identify!
They don't call this Old City for nothing. Here are pictures of a couple of streets (alleys, really).
They have a "city bike" program,
We walked down on Las Ramblas all the way to the harbor where there was a circle with a monument to Christopher Columbus.
All along Las Ramblas, there were hawkers, tourist shops and street performers. There were "statues" of a guy on a bicycle, an artist all in white and if you got too close, they might move. I didn't get a picture of my favorite one but this one was pretty impressive. Apparently they are regulated so there aren't too many of them. The intricacies of the costumes I think would be enough of a deterrent. Then they stand around and pretend to be statues. I'm guessing they got most of their money from people who wanted pictures taken with them.
Here's Mike and Jaime getting a beer with "lunch". We picked this place so we could sit next to the heaters!
More coming when I figure out how to translate my google blogger page back into english!
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