Details

As I've said before, this isn't a vacation-photo blog with postcard-ready, wide-angle shots of popular sights in Barcelona. These are images that you probably won't see on Frommer's or tripadvisor - the ones you have to be on foot to get to, or at least be willing to crop much of the image to isolate something even more interesting. (2nd blogpost of the day! I'm on a roll!)

(Plus, I don't even have a wide-angle lens :) this leaves me with only tight crops anyway!)

So, here's a bunch of photos I took last week while wandering around:

Casa Comalat

This is a detail of a building that is a couple of blocks from my apartment. Amazing mosaic work! It is under construction/renovation right now, which is really sad for me because if you click here you can see it's a cool building. At the moment there are huge sheets covering the front. If you compare this view with one of the others that are in the above link, you can see how the construction has dirtied the spaces between the tiny tiles. I hope I am still in Barcelona when they finish construction.

Around the corner is this mosaic on the side of a church. "Mare de Deu Del Carme."

J. Murria, 85 Roger de Llúria

Wow.. This is a beautiful store. It's a gourmet delicatessen that dates from 1898 and is part of the Modernist Route of Barcelona. A complete image and their site is here. Below are more details..

Vinos de Alella

Marques de Monistrol

agh shiny!!

Chartreuse! Tarragona is a town not far from Barcelona.

Modernist Farmácia

Plenty of these in Barcelona. I believe this one is also on Roger de Llúria. The window-box above the pharmacy is typical of this area.

Around the corner - dragon detail in a gate. Plenty of dragons to be found in Barcelona.

?? It looks cool. :)

This door is on my street. Elaborate!

The next street... spanish redundancy. Redundancy and graffiti. Sounds about right!

My street

I love the interior plaza!

The corner of my street, at sunset. Take that, Cedar Park!

Casa Milá/La Pedrera

Well, here is one of the wide touristy shots I told you would be uncommon - but I had to put this in order to put a better perspective on the next photos and I have never posted about this building before. This is Casa Milá, also called La Pedrera. It's one of the most famous landmarks of Barcelona, and has a very interesting history - see the link if you like! Also, it is famous for going against city building code on multiple counts... what do you think of that, mom?
Casa Milá / La Pedrera wiki link

Famous streetposts on Passeig de Gracia

Now that you've seen the building, I can show you the man painting it! Also you have a better idea of how huge it actually is.

Close-up of the painter

Day trips from Barcelona by train: Vilanova i la Geltru and Castelldefels

Two Catalan towns within a short and cheap train ride from Barcelona south are Vilanova i la Geltru and Castelldefels. Both round trip train tickets from Barcelona cost less than 5 euros, and I think it would be easy to see both towns in one day.

First: Vilanova i la Geltru.
A very very quiet town, at least it was when we went in late February. There's not a whole lot to do and I think it's probably a better town to visit if you have a boat, want to stop off at the marina outside of Barcelona city and have a seafood dinner. Other than that, there are some nice old buildings to look at and not a whole lot more that we could find. We happened to come at carnaval weekend, so during the day there were some kind of parades by the schoolchildren. It was more of a kids' protest, though... we'll get to that.

A banner for carnaval hangs from a balcony.

When I look at this picture, I only remember that the old men behind me were having a conversation about the dog, and that it had been running around there for 3 days. They'll probably talk about it tomorrow, and next week, too..

Typical street in old parts of Spain.

Cool tile street signs.

This is a kind of scarf that you can find in every tourist store in Barcelona, but never never have I seen it in use outside of a flamenco show. In this town, these scarves were draped out of almost every balcony - I assume for carnaval.

tiny door

church window

Church belltower

My favorite picture from that day - there is a stone dog resting on the balcony.


Protesting?

I've noticed that, from an American perspective, Catalans protest A LOT. There is always some injustice that they feel the need to retaliate against. How many times have I gone to Plaza Cataluña, only to see it is shut off from cars and filled with hundreds of people waving banners and yelling? Honestly I have no idea why these kids are dressed as business-people, but there were different "companies" and "industries" represented. These kids pictured seemed to be the desk-job protesters. Apparently for carnaval they also throw boiled sweets at eachother, but we found the ground covered in rotten eggs instead. Maybe one type of food for each day?

Castelldefels
A small town almost immediately to the south of Barcelona. It offers many things that Barcelona has eradicated: a wide, natural beach, cheap seaside bars and restaurants, and real feeling of a seaside city. It was a quiet kind of a place, a nice break from the crowded alleys of the big city.

Carlos and Alejandro

Proof that it's not Barcelona!

I think behind that hill on the left is Sitges, a town of which I have a blog post about (last year).

Barri Gotic / Gothic Quarter on a Sunday

The Gothic Quarter of Barcelona is old, cramped, dark, and full of charm. Here is the kind of place where you hear of visitors to Europe getting lost in the winding alleyways and loving it. Every turn of the corner varies greatly - street performers here, rows of restaurants or confectioners' shops here, and deserted alleys there. As always, click to enlarge the pictures..

A typical, old Gothic Quarter street.

Lights coming through the Christmas/Nadal/Navidad decorations.

Here you can get an idea of the narrow streets crowded by the tall apartment buildings.

Clásic Gótic Restaurant, on a street leading to the seafront.

Spraypaint artist in quiet Plaza Mercé.

Colors of the walls in the sunset

One of the exterior city walls from the old Roman settlement.

Some oddly-shaped rounded plaza in the Barri

One elaborate Santa/Papa Noel!

Um... curio store? Who knows... they have Phrenology head.

What would Europe be without delicious pastries?

Papabubble confectionary

Who knew there was a market for artisan caramels? The signage is sharp.