Free tour of Barcelona

After sleeping until about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday February 24, (we were very tired from our trip), we had breakfast and went to our rendezvous location for the Sandeman's New Europe "free" Barcelona tour.  We have done tours in a number of cities in Europe and they have always been excellent.  This tour was one of the best. One does not pay for the tour, but a reasonable tip is expected.

On the way to the tour, we stopped at Casa Gispert, a wonderful store with olive oils, nuts roasted on the premises, spices and other treats.  We bought some olive oil for the apartment.  The store dates back to 1851.

Casa Gispert

We had a very good guide- Erik.  He is from Minneapolis, but has lived in Barcelona for eight years and is totally enamoured with the city.  

Our guide- Erik

We started in the old Gothic part of town, with the early Roman walls (250 AD) and towers.

Part of Roman wall and Royal palaces from the 14-16th century

Another view with side walls

Tower of King Martin who died  in 1410 of a combination of over-eating and laughing (at least according to legend).

King Martin was the end of a bloodline.  After him, the Castilians took over.

We were part of a group picture at the beginning of our tour.

The official tour group-- Alano and I are in the middle-I'm wearing sunglasses

We passed this banner promoting Barcelona---nice to have the emphasis placed on creativity, culture, sports and innovation (rather than taxpayers and subways!)

We stopped at the Main Cathedral in Barcelona-- beautiful gothic church completed in 1913.

We passed a building with an interesting mural in front of a nondescript office building.  Erik pointed out that the mural was done by Picasso in 1960.  While Picasso was born in Malaga, he lived in Barcelona when he was young.  His mural portrays Catalan culture.  The two figures represent giants in Catalan games and the people in between represent the Catalan tradition of creating human towers with up to 10 levels of people standing on top of each other (called a Castell (castle)).

Picasso mural

We also passed a wall that was a boarded up Roman aqueduct.

Roman aquaduct- boarded up

Erik spent some time explaining the various flags we saw around town.  The flag with the four vertical stripes in the right corner is the Catalan flag.  The Catalan flag with the blue star on the blue triangle represents an independent Catalunya.

Building with different versions of Catalan flag 

The flag with the yellow triangle and red star is the socialist Catalan independence flag.

Socialist Catalan independence flag

Our guide really liked how there were often layers of different architectures from different eras near each other.  This was a perfect example of it.

Layers of architecture

We stopped at a Roman cemetery that has been beautifully preserved.  Apparently, this area had been bombed by Mussolini's airforce during the Spanish Civil War.   When the area was cleared, a Roman burial site was found.

Roman tombstones- laid out in Roman fashion

We passed another beautifully decorated building.

We stopped to look at the well-preserved Catalan church, Santa Maria del Mar, one of the best surviving examples of the Catalan Gothic style with its plain surfaces, flat roof and less elaborate details than some of the gothic churches in the city.  It is apparently beautiful inside, with soaring columns.  This church, as well as a number of others in Barcelona, are free in the morning and after 5:00 p.m.  Since we were there mid-afternoon, the tour did not go in.

Santa Maria del Mar

We then stopped at a church which looked to have bullet marks.  Apparently, this was also the site of bombing during the Spanish Civil War, where 44 people were killed in a bomb shelter.

We passed by the City Hall, where there are three flags flying- Catalan on the left, Spanish in the middle (one of the very few Spanish flags in Barcelona) and the Barcelona city flag on the right.  By law, the Spanish flag must fly above other flags).

City Hall

I took this picture of a church from a narrow alley--- beautiful blue sky and great shadows today.

We also saw a memorial to the Catalans killed by the Spanish on September 11, 1714.   That date ended the War of the Spanish Succession, when the Catalans finally fell to Philip V of Spain. There are remains of the fighters buried on this site.  The Catalans celebrate this defeat every year and last year was the 300th anniversary of the battle.   We note that this is another September 11 that is a key date in history--- think also of September 11, 2001 in New York and September 11, 1973, the coup and death of Allende, in Chile.

Memorial with eternal flame

We also saw a sculpture that represents the highest point that the Catalans reach in the human tower building tradition (the Castells). Erik told us that once a human tower is finished, a young boy (with a helmet) then climbs to the top and raises four fingers ( representing the Catalan flag) and then the men climb down.  There are often competitions between groups.  The sculpture was created by Antoni Llena in 2012, and is entitled To the Castellers.

To the Castellers (steel tubes, 25 m tall) 2012

We stopped briefly in Placa de George Orwell.  Orwell fought for the anarchists on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War and was engaged in some battles not far from this square.  Our guide pointed out that, ironically, the square was one of the first to have electronic surveillance devices placed in it by the police.  The square is also known as Placa Trippy-- as it has been a place for buying drugs.

We ended our tour at the Parc de la Ciutadella (Citadel Park).   The site had been a Spanish fort for many centuries, always detested by the Catalans. It was turned into a park in around 1870.  It is not too far from our 'hood and Alano plans to run there before we leave town.

We wandered around a bit and found a plaque noting a bandshell that was dedicated to the transsexual Sonia Zafra who was murdered there in October 1991 by a group of neo-Nazis.

Bandshell where Sonia Zafra was murdered in 1991

Our guide had suggested that we walk a bit further into the Parc to see an elaborate fountain.  The fountain was built from 1882-1888 by Joseph Fontsere.  One of Fontsere's students was Antoni Gaudi, who also worked on the project.  Very elaborate piece, with four golden horsemen at the top.

Fountain with gold horsemen

Toby in front of the fountain

After our tour, we wandered around our 'hood and then walked up La Rambla, the main drag in Barcelona.  We picked up food for dinner along the way--- wonderful Argentinean empanadas, fixings for a big salad, a nice bottle of Roja, and manchego cheese and pears for dessert.   Lovely evening after lots of walking.  I managed to lose my Fitbit step tracker today. Alano still has his-- we ended up with almost 20,000 steps.

Finally, best birthday wishes to Nancy!!

I am posting this early on Wednesday February 25.  We are heading out for a five hour food tour with Culinary Backstreets.