Three days in Barcelona

We have been in Barcelona since Sunday afternoon. After the quiet of Mallorca, the big city bustle takes some adjustment. It has rained steadily for two days, but we still have managed to walk around Barcelona to observe the architecture. Almost every apartment has a balcony of some sort to look out on the street or interior courtyard. It is also the city of modernism, and has many houses and buildings designed by the famous architect Antonio Gaudi. Below is a pic of La Pedrara Caixa de Catalunya, an apartment house designed by Gaudi.









And we have walked, and walked, and walked again, seeing incredibly detailed buildings and tapas bars everywhere. It seems that all of Barcelona eats tapas. Tapas are “small snacks”. Some might seem like an hor d’oerve with bread and/or cheese and some meat or olives. Others could be a pudding or yogurt with some fruit. And others could only be considered a dessert, made with ice cream, chocolate or cheesecake. We sampled them all! Here we are the first nite waiting for our tapas.






Not everyone in Barcelona eats out all the time. We visited two markets with an abundance of fresh foods of every description. The few pics below can't describe all the fresh items available.

Barcelona is also a city of motor scooters and bikes. The city has a network of bikes to borrow at various locations. Using a card, a bike is unlocked from a rack and then locked into another rack near your destination. We saw a maintenance truck today taking some of these bikes on a trailer. We imagine from time to time they have to rebalance the system to get more bikes to the places of high demand.

We head home tomorrow (Wednesday, 5th May). Hope you enjoyed our biking and cultural adventures!

Ken and Kathie