El Born, Again

The two most famous neighborhoods are El Born and Barri Gotic.  Our apartment is right on the border line of El Born and Barceloneta, so it is easy to lose oneself in the narrow streets that make up El Born.

We sort of followed the Rick Steves' walking tour for El Born, but we also improvised, cutting this way and that to follow our wanderlust, or an interesting looking street.  If you look at a map of El Born, it's a mish-mash of streets going every which way.  The streets are quite narrow, some of which can only be walked, others have which do have room for a car.  A car going one way, of course.  There might be a street or two that can handle two-way traffic, but not many.

First we covered some of the Barri Gotic, by the Cathedral.  Because, why not.

The Palau De La Generalitat at Plaza de Sant Jaume.  It is the office of the autonomous government of Catalunya.  I'm not exactly sure what that means, but given the major tensions that exist between Catalonia and the rest of Spain, it has to be pretty contentious place. 

Throughout Barcelona, there are lots of Catalon flags, as well as protest signs about political prisoners.  And people think the US has a lot of division.

The famed Carrer del Bisbee bridge, which evokes Venice's more famous "Bridge of Sighs," connects the Generalitat with what was the Catalan President's residence.  While it looks like it went all medieval on us, it was actually only built in the 1920's.  It's still pretty cool; I don't have anything like this in my neighborhood.  Do you?  (Didn't think so!).

(Note to Barcelona's tourism office -- "Bridge of Sighs" has a much better back story, was built longer ago, and is in a very scenic spot.  No wonder it is more famous. My suggestion -- change the name to something more colorful, such as "To Hell With Madrid" or something.  You can thank me later.)

There are some pretty cool postboxes in Havana, but this one on the Casa de l'Arcadiaca has them beat.  Built in the late 1800s by modernista architect Lluis Domenech i Montaner.  Not bad for what is the city archives.

The city archives has an inviting courtyard just inside, with a beautiful fountain and tiled mosiacs (see below).

After the Cathedral, we strolled through the famous Santa Caterina market, considered the "second market of Barcelona" after La Boquiera.  Renovated in 2006, the roof is a sweeping homage to Gaudi.  Just a short walk away from our apartment, it has some beautiful fruit and vegetable stands, seafood, and meat stands. 

 This signs are all over the old city.  They were used to let carriage drivers know which direction to enter a street, and which to way to exit (Salida).  It's pretty cool that these have been left up; once we noticed one, we noticed 20!

After strolling past the oldest church in Barcelona, the Capella d''en Marcus, from the 1100s, we went down the iconic Carrer de Montcada.  The street has multiple museums on it, including the Picasso Museum (we went ten years ago, we will definitely go back at some point on this trip).  There are multiple museums on this street, once one of the most posh streets in the city.  The museums used to be mansions. 

At the bottom of the street is the famed Church of Santa Maria del Mar.  The rose window photo above is from the church, which was built by the money from shipwrights and merchants.

The statute of Mary on the altar always has a ship model at her feet as sailors have a tradition of asking for her protection.  Unfortunately much of the inside of the church was burned during the Spanish Civil War, as local leftists took out their anger on the Catholic Church for backing Franco (who, last SNL checked, is still dead).  Fire marks still blacken parts of the ceiling.

 A typical narrow street of El Born, shooting off of the area surrounding the Church.

The facade and towers of the church are iconic, and the little plaza in front is a favorite spot of many to hang out.

After the church, we cut through a number of side passageways to Bar del Pla (bar of the plan) and had a great lunch of tapas whilst seated at the bar.  There's a lot to be said about getting lunch or dinner at these small tapas spots.  The mussels and tomato broth were great, and deconstructed suckling pig tacos hit the spot.  The small beer I had with them was good enough that I had another.

Then we wandered back out, taking whatever side streets struck our fancy.  I'm getting to know the El Born neighborhood pretty well.  (I just immensely increased my odds of getting lost the next time we wander out in El Born).

 This view of one of the Towers of Santa Maria del Mar has already become an iconic look on our trip, as this street is one we travel quite often.

This dude represents something, and is part of the main square at the bottom of El Born.

The famed Barcelona Head Sculpture was created by an American artist for the 1992 Olympics.  It brings together the colors of Miro, the tiles of Gaudi, the Cubism of Picasso, and some of the American artist's signature look.  Not sure it is really in El Born, but we walked to it anyhow.

Apparently this lobster sculpture was a marketing tool for a seafood restaurant that closed down years ago.  The good news is, the lobster stayed!