Rambling Around La Rambla

After La Boqueria, we walked the mile plus back to our apartment.  It was a misty, rainy day, so I cancelled the outing to the acclaimed bunkers in the hills high above the city.  We wouldn't get the full effect of the sunset (as there wasn't one), and nor would we want to be walking around on rain-slicked stones.

On the way back, we popped into a quirky little church on La Rambla, Betlem (Bethlehem) church.  It's not the greatest church in Barcelona either, but there's enough to see that I call it one of "Ten Minute Churches."  While most churches in Barcelona are Gothic, this one is Baroque.  Not over the top Baroque, which I do like, but more understated.

Built from 1680 to 1732, it was also burned in 1936.  

Skull sculptures fascinate me.

The birth of Jesus.

What the literal hell?

From there, we visited my second-favorite fountain, the Fuente de la Portaferrissa.  I like it because of the very ornate tiled wall mural showing old Barcelona.  It's a water trough We had bought some figs at LaBoqueria, so I offered them to Don.  He declined, saying that he would wait till he could wash them.  I stuck a couple of the figs under the fountain and we scarfed them down.

Absolutely beautiful fountain.  It was

built in 1604, and stands near one of

the old gates to the city, hence

the mural.  The mural only dates

from 1959, but the rest is over 400

years old.

And then I remembered we were very close to the sunken garden containing Roman graves along an old Roman road that led into the city.  The Roman custom was to bury bodies of the dead along roads outside of the city.  So, relying on not always reliable memory, I led the four of us up a narrow passageway and to the plaza with the graves.  It's known as Via Sepulcral Romana.

The tombs are from the 1st to 3rd Century and were discovered when a 1588 Carmelite convent was demolished (unfortunately) in the 1940s.  When I first saw it in 2019, it boggled my mind.  It still boggles my mind today.

Roman tombs.

From a fountain not

far from the tombs.

Fig washing at the Font de Canaletes.  Not

sure the figs love Barcelona; it's where

they got eaten.

A rare photo -- a blogger in his element:

an uncrowded La Rambla.

Back to the apartment by 4pm, we decided to relax until catching a taxi around 7:30 pm.  We tried to get a drink at the hotel's rooftop bar, but it was closed because of the rain that had fallen on and off.  So instead we got drinks at the lobby bar, which was packed because the rooftop bar was shut down.