Barcelona: Walking up
the Ramblas Marketplace Through the Center of Town by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
Before
stepping out onto the foot of the Ramblas for a walk with baby Florence, I
looked at the Hôtel Güell that Antoni Gaudi built for his wealthy and loyal
patron. The doors reminded me of those
at the Sagrada Familia’s entryway.
The
doors sweep your gaze upward to the view of some of Gaudi’s trademark gumdrop
chimneys. The doors are the only things
an ordinary tourist can see. (The Hôtel
Güell was a theatre history museum at the time.) You can see what the interior of this museum
looks like in an art book, since you cannot visit it.
The
Ramblas is like the Champs-Elysées in that it the Ramblas has been turned into
a tourist haven with souvenir shops and a McDonalds.
The
Ramblas at the time was not as nice as the Champs-Elysées. The boulevard is made up of individual
sections called a rambla in the singular.
The Rambla Santa Monica with its sex shops reminded me of Place Pigalle,
the red light district in Paris.
I
walked down to the port and looked at the Columbus Statue. Queen Isabella of Spain financed Columbus’s voyages
to the United States.
It
is quite interesting that her State of Castilla took precedence over King Ferdinand’s
Aragon and Catalonia. I hoped that I
would have the chance to visit Castilla one day, but was quite happy that I was
given the chance to visit the Spanish Catalan region.
I
continued walking along the Rambla Santa Monica, which was rather tame in the
morning. This Rambla is filled with
newsstands with newspapers from all over the world, flower stands in some
areas, and improvisational con artists looking for customers to play card
tricks or find balls under shells.
One
man was even jumping through a spinning wheel made of fire. Andean musicians played their panpipes
everywhere.
It
was a cacophony of sound and yelling, but rather fun and nice to leave when I
wanted to eventually.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
Click here for: Ruth Paget's Amazon Books
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