Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter

Having purchased a 48 hour metro/bus pass, I needed to go to the station to redeem it. I went bright and early to find hot air coming out from the underground station’s opening. I thought the ground and also stone buildings keep things cool (like cellars), but there must be a limit to this. Perhaps when it has been baked in the high temperature for days on end, an overnight isn’t sufficient to cool it down.

Down in the station I managed to get my ticket after a bungle using the commuter train company’s kiosk rather than the metro/bus company’s.

I used my new pass to go down to the port area for a brief walk before returning to the hotel for breakfast and readying myself for the 1030 walking tour around the Gothic quarter.

As with other walking tours, we didn’t go inside any buildings but heard history and anecdotes. The most memorable takeouts for me were:

Not all buildings in the Gothic quarter are that old! There was a bit of a revival of the Gothic style in the 1800s (I think) which saw buildings being erected in that style.

Catalunya will be having a referendum in October 2017 to vote on the possibility of independence.

The city is overtouristed. I can see with my own eyes what locals might be sick of: congested pavements, noisy pedestrians below residential blocks especially at night, queues at supermarkets stretching half its length, no peace and quiet in their local church, cycle tourists disrupting traffic, no seats on surbubans left etc. There are posters around encouraging tourists to be more considerate “Your Holiday, Our Everyday”.

The walking tour ended in the beach area so I took a long walk in the scorching sun along the various packed beaches. I took a bus back to where I had spotted some restaurants offering “menu del dia” and had a late lunch.

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On the way back to the hotel, despite being overheated, I stopped by the Cathedral for a visit.  It had many beautiful side chapels and very ornate choir stalls.  The entry included access to the roof by elevator which offered a great view of Barcelona.  I squeezed in Santa Maria del Pii as well which again had very ornate side chapels.

I returned to the hotel and cooled off in the air-conditioning. Still full in the evening, I had some muesli and milk and called it dinner.