Shopping!

La Rambla in Barcelona will MEAT all your needs.

Get it? Meat? You can use that.

La Rambla is the name of a street in Barcelona that is surrounded by a tree-lined pedestrian mall. It’s actually a series of smaller streets (Las Ramblas) that run together to become La Rambla. The streets are Rambla de Canaletes, the Rambla dels Estudis, the Rambla de Sant Josep, the Rambla dels Caputxins, and the Rambla de Santa Monica.

The area is filled with museums, galleries, street markets the Liceu Opera House and the famous Font de Canaletes. That’s “font” as in fountain, and not Comic Sans.

The area is popular and crowded with tourists and locals alike. It’s a good time.

This is a Wordless Wednesday entry with a bunch of words in it.

Photo by Ivan Walsh via Flickr

The following post was written by guest writer Gina Stark who maintains the travel blog Gitana. Please enjoy!

Barcelona is a city whose delights cannot, thankfully, be summed up in one article or one weekend.  But even with limited time for visiting, you can delve into many varied offerings proffered by this Catalan city of northern Spain.

Thankfully, a bounty of Barcelona’s beauty is located within a conveniently centralized area reachable by the mildly ambitious pedestrian.

It would take a concerted effort not to stroll La Rambla, the main grand boulevard of shops and mobs of pedestrians – locals and visitors alike.  It’s usually the first thing out of someone’s mouth when regaling you with a recent BCN visit, or when suggesting do-not-miss sights.  Outside of the colorful shops, you’ll find flower vendors, curiosities, musicians, culinary offerings and the venerable street artists.  These living sculptures have evolved into ever more creative and fantastic characters and creatures since my first visit, many years ago.

Street performer on La Rambla

If you need a sweet treat in your ramblings, keep your eye out for the lovely 200-year old art deco façade of Antigua Casa Figueres (at the corner of C. Petxina).  Somehow, entering this enchanted structure makes the anticipation of a sweet indulgence even more rich.  The name of the chocolatier doling out delights in this heavenly (or is it sinful?) space is Escriba. Try the hazelnut-infused chocolate, which is closer to oozing melted chocolate than what Americans are used to in a hot cocoa beverage.  Am I complaining? Claro que no!  My travel companion had the chocolate with cream (some of which I commandeered) Below, please witness the evidence:

So good!

Barcelona’s spectacular marketplace, Mercat de Sant Josep – aka la Boqueria – is another of the gems you’ll encounter at La Rambla 91.  If the booming, colorful stalls piled with mushrooms, olives, shrimp or cheese don’t make your stomach rumble hungrily, they will certainly whet your photographic appetite.  Read More »

Top of the world!

One of the best parts about backpacking through Europe is getting off the beaten path. Or over it.

For one million fake dollars (made of air kisses), can you guess the city and country pictured above? Hint, it’s in Europe. Did I say too much?

Yes, because this post is a Wordless Wednesday entry.

Bonus hint: The area pictured is quiet famous and will be featured this month on UpTake. Why? Because we like themes, but mostly it is pure coincidence. I see an opportunity and I run with it. Well, it’s more of a quick stroll. I’m not in a hurry.

No backpacks were harmed in the writing of this post.

Photo by kokorowashinjin via Flickr

Standing room only.

This would have been a fishing story, but it’s a Wordless Wednesday entry and they tend to frown on such things, namely the word part.

You’ll just have to trust me that this gentleman is fishing in Esteban, Galicia in Spain, and let the picture tell a thousand words (give or take a few hundred).

Photo by jl.cernadas via Flickr