November 29, 2008: Barcelona (Day 2)
	November 27, 2008: Copenhagen (Day 2)
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Copenhagen to Barcelona

We had to get up very early on Friday to get to the airport for our morning flight to Barcelona, so it was dark when we left Copenhagen, and we didn't take any more pictures. When we arrived at the airport, we got all checked in and through security to find ourselves in European invention- the airport shopping mall. The concourse looked more like the inside of Northpark Mall than it did an airport- at least until you got way out into the actual gate areas. I took a number of pictures in the Copenhagen airport, including this one of Fred and Greg in the Copenhagen Airport.

The inside of the Copenhagen airport looked more like a shopping mall than an airport concourse, and this movie will show you exactly what I mean.

The flight itself was uneventful- about a three-hour flight as I recall.

From the Barcelona Airport to the Axel Hotel

We arrived in Barcelona about eleven in the morning, and in only a few minutes we had cleared EU Customs and were in the arrivals hall.

Just in case you've never been to the Barcelona airport, have a look at what it's like. This terminal won't be around much longer; an entirely new airport is almost ready over on the other side of the runways.

We changed some money (to Euros, this time), hailed a cab, and headed off to the Axel Hotel.

Our travel agent had booked the hotel months ago, so we could relax on the drive into the city. The route to the hotel was pretty direct. At left is a high-level view of the route from the airport, and at the right is a view of the last few blocks.

We passed a number of very interesting and beautiful buildings, such as the residences shown here and here and we took a number of pictures of them.

Below are some more thumbnail images for pictures that we took on the cab ride from the airport to the hotel. You can click on those images to view the pictures:

One thing I might mention now is that Barcelona is laid out in square blocks and at almost every intersection, the corners are beveled. This plan opens up each intersection, and provides a great deal of light into the buildings that border it. Below is an aerial view of one such block:

The interiors of the blocks seem to be of many different types. Some have parking and "common areas" and we also saw gardens and other separate and attached buildings. If you zoom out a bit and look at an aerial view of a wider expanse of downtown Barcelona, this block pattern becomes very striking:

In and Around the Axel Hotel

While we were here in Barcelona, we stayed at the Axel Hotel- a "family-run" hotel. The Axel is at one of those intersections that I said were made octagonal by beveling the four corners. The entrance faced the intersection, and then you went down some steps to Reception. Just off the reception area was the restaurant and then back behind that, with windows to the street, was the bar (with John, John Greg and Fred).

Our room was on the fifth floor; you can see which one it is in this floor diagram that was posted on the back of our room door. There was a queen‑sized bed that was quite comfortable, a desk and chairs and a wall storage unit that was very efficiently designed. The bathroom was not huge, but it was well-appointed and quite modern. In fact, the entire hotel looked as if it had just been thoroughly remodeled.

As you'll see in some of the pictures we took around the hotel, there is also a rooftop garden, spa and bar (not frequented at this time of year), and the view from this bar is pretty impressive.

From our little balcony, we had a nice view of the intersection and the buildings all around and even the mountains above the city. At right are thumbnail images for four views from the balcony; click on them to see what we saw:

During our stay, we took a number of pictures in and around the hotel. One of the most interesting things about Barcelona and its buildings is the extreme amount of detail that is characteristic of the outside of them. For example, click on the thumbnail image below to look at a closeup picture Fred took of a small part of the facade of one of the buildings across from our hotel:

A Walk to Plaza Catalunya

After settling into our rooms, Greg, Fred and I headed out for a walk around Barcelona. It was a beautiful day, and the first thing we did was to head down Carrer d'Aribau to Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, and then across the street to the small park where the University subway station is. We could have taken the subway, but it was a lovely day, much different than in Copenhagen, and so we walked. We angled southeast on Ronda de Sant Pere until we came to Plaza Catalunya. Along the way, we could look up the avenues that led towards the mountains that we could see clearly. When we got to Passeig de Gracia, we crossed the street into the plaza.

As soon as we entered the plaza, we passed by a beautiful fountain and statuary, and then crossed the broad tiled oval area in the center of the plaza. This is where we took pictures of the hundreds and hundreds of pigeons looking for a handout. At the south end of the park, there was another fountain and the Macia monument.

On the way to Plaza Catalunya and in the Plaza itself, we took some other pictures that we think you'd like to see. If you click on the thumbnail images below, you can take a look at them:

To get to Catalunya Plaza, we walked down one of the main streets in Barcelona, just south of the hotel. We could have taken the subway, but, as this film will show, there is a lot to see.

Catalunya Plaza was rife with pigeons, and included in my film of the plaza is a couple with their young children trying to feed them. Tippi Hedren would have been proud.

A Walk Down La Rambla

La Rambla is a street in central Barcelona, popular with both tourists and locals alike. It is a 1.2 kilometer-long tree-lined pedestrian mall, connecting Plaça Catalunya in the center of the city with the Christopher Columbus monument at Port Vell. Usually full of street theatre, cafés and market stalls, it serves as the emotional hub of Barcelona.

La Rambla can be considered a series of shorter streets, each differently named, hence the plural forms Las Ramblas (Spanish) and les Rambles (Catalan). From the Plaça de Catalunya toward the harbor, the street is successively the Rambla de Canaletes, the Rambla dels Estudis, the Rambla de Sant Josep, the Rambla dels Caputxins, and the Rambla de Santa Monica. Construction of the Maremàgnum in the early 1990s resulted in a continuation of La Rambla on a wooden walkway into the harbor, the Rambla de Mar.

La Rambla can be crowded, especially during prime time tourist season. Most of the time, there are many more tourists than locals occupying las Ramblas -- this has changed the shopping selection, as well as the character of the street in general. For this reason also, it has become a prime target for pickpocketing.

Spanish poet Federico García Lorca once said that La Rambla was "the only street in the world which I wish would never end".

The name rambla means, in Catalan, but also in Spanish, an intermittent water flow, and is derived from the Arabic 'ramla' which means 'sandy riverbed'.

The mall is actually a very wide paved median between two streets, and it is always busy, with vendor stalls all along its length, plus street performers and other attractions and activities. The two one-way (in opposite directions) streets between which it runs display a great deal of interesting architecture, and the side streets that branch off of it were certainly enticing. We took quite a few pictures while walking along La Rambla with Greg this afternoon. The first three in the first group are views of La Rambla itself, and the others are views of some of the more interesting buildings along this pedestrian mall. Click on the thumbnail images to have a look at these pictures:

La Rambla was really an interesting place, almost like a non-stop art fair and flea market. There was a little of everything, and I think you will agree after watching this movie.

In this movie we are walking along the center of La Rambla, passing a variety of stalls and performers, and being passed by a bevy of school kids.

Mercado de San Jose (Market)

We walked down La Rambla for quite a ways, just enjoying the afternoon and doing some people-watching. Every side street seemed inviting, but we doubled back towards Catalunya eventually. Then, off to the west side, we saw what appeared to be the entrance to a market area, so we went in.

Indeed, when we got into the market area, we found it to be something like a large "farmers' market" affair. I guess I expected vegetables and other produce, and there were certainly fruits and vegetables in abundance, but there was an amazing variety of other stuff as well.

In addition to the fresh fruits and vegetables, there were vendors who seemed to specialize in prepacked drinks and juices and a host of other things, such as fresh fish and all kinds of crustaceans. We could easily see that the Spanish diet included a lot of stuff that I wouldn't eat on a dare. For some reason, I just dislike having food look back at me; I have no idea how any of this stuff would be prepared. Actually, there were also quite a few stands where the vendors were preparing the food and people would stop to eat at a kind of lunch counter.

This market obviously offered a lot of picture-taking opportunities, and if you will click on the thumbnail images below you can see some more of the pictures we took here:

Typical Barcelona Side Streets

After we left Mercado de San Jose, we walked further down La Rambla just to see what we could see. On a whim, we turned east off La Rambla and went through a narrow passage into the Placa Reial.

I should probably say something about street names here in Barcelona. Not counting the expressways which, like everyplace else, are numbered, the largest and broadest streets are called "Gran Via Something." Major streets are just "Vias." Next down from that, and by far the most common, are the "Carrer," which would correspond to our streets. These "carrer" may be quite narrow. But there are even narrower passageways between the carrer and between buildings, and these are called "passages" (same as our word). All over town, there are squares and plazas, and most of them carry the designation "Placa," as in "Placa Catalunya."

The Placa Reial was quite large, and was bordered on all sides by apartment buildings. There were lots of shops and cafes all around the square. I think it is these community squares that give Barcelona a lot of its ambience. When we'd looked around the square we went through a "passage" to Carrer de Feran; this passage seemed more like an atrium surrounded by apartments than anything else. Then we continued walking through big streets and small working our way northeastward. These small streets were immensely interesting, with all kinds of shops and stores and even the occasional small museum.

We eventually walked through another open square and almost stopped at a sidewalk cafe, but it was way too chilly to sit outside. We turned northward (following our internal GPS to head back to Placa Catalunya), walked through a narrow passage and underneath a double-level arched walkway, and then came out into another square. Here, hard beside an old Medieval wall, we found an old church being restored. It was here that we found the schoolkids having their afternoon snacks (see the pictures below).

All along this route, we took lots of pictures. The lighting was tricky in the dark side streets, so not all of the pictures turned out. I've included clickable thumbnail images below for the best of these pictures; have a look at as many of them as you wish:

As on La Rambla, we found a good many sidewalk vendors along the side streets, and also this musical group.

Back to the Axel Hotel

From the square with the renovated church, we followed another small side street that took us back to a broader avenue leading back to Placa Catalunya. On the way, we passed the entrance to a large department store, and just the entrance was exciting enough that I made a movie of it that you can watch below. But I went inside to see if the inside decoration was as interesting as outside, and I found it to be a most unusual place. Here in the United States, it seems, most stores are very utilitarian inside, but this one was like being in an old museum that had been converted to a store. There was marble and wrought iron everywhere, as in this beautiful staircase.

Anyway, we got back to Placa Catalunya and then headed back to the Axel Hotel, basically retracing our route from earlier. The only different thing we did was to stop in an Internet Cafe so Greg could check his email. The Axel has some shared computers, we later found out, that have free Internet access, but it isn't available in the rooms.

Below are some thumbnail images for the pictures we took on this last leg of our walking tour; click on them to see the full-size pictures:

One of the major buildings bordering Plaza Catalunya is a large department store, and I thought that the side entrance to it was interesting enough to make in to a movie. Have a look and I think you'll agree.

Here is another, different musical group that we stopped to watch when we got back to Plaza Catalunya.

This evening, many of our "tour group" were arriving, so we spent the early part of the evening meeting them and having drinks in the bar. After that, we all went out to have dinner together at a neighborhood seafood restaurant. Greg, gracious as always, treated us all.

You can use the links below to go to another photo album page.

	November 29, 2008: Barcelona (Day 2)
	November 27, 2008: Copenhagen (Day 2)
	Return to the Europe/Cruise Trip Index