Day 106: Tossa de Mar/Barcelona, Spain

Our last morning in Tossa de Mar...I got up early and took a few photos of the beach as seen from our balcony.






We were both very sad to have to leave the peaceful, beach bum lifestyle we've been enjoying for the past 4 days, so we maximized our time in Tossa de Mar and spent a little while on the beach before driving to Barcelona. Here is a parting shot of our hotel as seen from the beach (not sure if we already mentioned that it's a converted mansion):




We had an easy drive to Barcelona (about an hour and 45 minutes with a little city traffic) and a very easy time finding our hotel. We're staying at the Hotel Jazz which is a modern boutique hotel very close to the center of things.

Our afternoon was all about exploring the city so we started with Las Ramblas, which is the famous tree-lined avenue with tons of cafes and stores along it and a center walkway filled with people selling all sorts of things, including caricatures, paintings, plants, and birds.




We stopped at La Boqueria, a covered market area where they sell tons of food, particularly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish.




This is a photo of one of the plazas - Placa Reial - which is filled with palm trees and iron lamps decorated by the famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi early in his career.




We walked all around the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) and visited the Cathedral (called Le Seu) which has a cloister area with fountains and geese in the center. Apparently having geese there is a tradition that goes back 500 years, although there is disagreement as to why.




The cathedral allows access to the roof, so we took the elevator up and got to walk along a catwalk with views of the city. Unfortunately the cathedral is under construction so the views of it are a little marred by the crane and scaffolding. Here is the front of the cathedral from the plaza in front of it.




This is one of the many picturesque winding streets of the Gothic Quarter.




At the end of the Ramblas is a large monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus, which has an elevator inside up to a "mirador" with views of the harbor and the city.

This is the Mirador de Colon:




Here is a view of the entire Ramblas from the Mirador:



This is a view of the harbor and the palm-lined avenue in front of the marina area:




We walked along the harborfront area and around an area called La Barceloneta, which has tons of seafood restaurants and an extremely crowded beach area. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant with views of the harbor area, then we walked all the way back up the Ramblas to our hotel.

We are definitely out of practice with all of this city exploration after our lazy past two weeks in France and on the Costa Brava! And we have a 7:00am alarm clock set for tomorrow morning to get an early start to Monserrat...it's a rough life!

ILM