The Rambles [Barcelona city centre]

Armed with my kindle [whilst playing with a sample of Rick Steves Guide to Spain, I accidently clicked on the wrong bit and bought the book], we set out to do the walk of the Rambles [down the main street].

We got off the subway and went up the stairs to the main plaza. Immediately we saw lots of people in green, stripey shirts and slowly figured out that there must have been a big football match between Ireland Celtic and Barcelona FC. The Irish must have won, as they were all singing rather loudly, and the pubs were all full of loud cheering Irish. [lots and lots of police all around the place too, just watching].

We wandered down the street, passing fountains, souvenier stalls and icecream shops [had to stop at one of those].

Halfway down we saw an alleyway where the food markets were. Putting the kindle away [I'd got distracted and went the wrong way for our walk anyway], we went into the markets. Wow, what an eye-opener; lots of hams and meat hanging above the stalls, dried fruit, spices, fish, fruit and vegetables, so much stuff and so many different smells. Matt and I were in awe.

Cameron found cashews, and Matt and I found fresh glace cherries.
                           
                                      

We also saw these pigs in the meat shop, but sorry Lindy, they weren't for sale.

Cameron eventually dragged us out of there and we continued down the street, all the way to the harbour.

Whilst Cameron sat on the park bench, Matt and I wandered around the harbour and over to the Christopher Columbus monument, which told the story of his voyage to discover the Americas in plaques around the sides.

On the way back to Cameron, we passed a statue of  Thomas Edison. It took us a minute or two to figure out whether it was a real statue or a still-life performer. He was very good, only his eyes moved, even when we took the photo.

We took the metro back to our apartment, had a siesta break, like the rest of Spain. Lots of places close from 2-4, and then stay open late. Restaurants and food places don't start serving dinner until after 8. [When we'd left in the morning, the guys were fiddling with the router, so we had to see if we had internet. We did, so got a chance to check the mail, etc]. We took the metro back into the city about 7, wandered around the Gothic quarter and found a restaurant for dinner, yummy salmon steaks again [Matt ordered smoked salmon instead of salmon steaks in the hotel restaurant in Trier and was a bit sad. Give him credit he ate 3 slices though and well and truly enjoyed the 3 scoops of ice cream afterwards].  

Next to the restaurant there was a huge sculpture made of steel, that looked like a piece of  wire netting. Matt and the 2 boys at the next table took it in turns to climb on it, seeing how long they could hang on for with their arms and legs wrapped around. Matt did 27 seconds, [took him a few tries though]. Then it was back to the apartment, leaving the next day for Valencia.