La Rambla and surrounds

La Rambla

Spanish Architecture

After our Spanish lesson today my brother and I took a walk up to Plaza Catalunya, which is no longer the home to a hippy colony. The hippy colony were evicted some time back and the square is a tourist drawcard once more, with its fountains in operation once again. We took a walk down La Rambla, which is a pedestrianised avenue that is full of hotels, shops, and street vendors. Walking down La Rambla requires a lot of patience because there are crowds of people everywhere. The Summer crowds have arrived and you hear all sorts of languages being spoken everywhere. It is like a maze, with people coming into and out of side streets along the Rambla from all directions because in the surrounding streets of Gotica and Raval (neighbourhoods) there are also many hidden places of interest, shops, bars, restaurants and squares. As you walk down La Rambla you are constantly shuffling out of the way of street performers, street vendors, people trying to sell you tickets to a show or a bar tour or beggars. The buildings along La Rambla are quite old and there are some good examples of old Spanish architecture. We walked off into one of the side streets and came across a very old building which happens to be a museum. The building was obviously a church at one point but is now an art museum.

The Museum which we visited

The type of art that is displayed was very odd.  As we entered the building we noticed the holy crosses which were engraved into the stone walls of the building. There was little else beside some black speakers, which had a series of banging sounds coming out of them. The banging sounds seemed to reverberate and create an echo in the empty building. There was also a pile of IKEA magazines which had been glued together in an ornate way. My brother was astonished at the type of art and commented on the awkwardness of it. The security guard on duty looked at us both and shrugged his shoulders - seemingly in agreement of our disbelief. Thank goodness entrance to the museum was free as we were alarmed at what constituted the art which was on show in that museum. As we came out of the museum we were approached by a drunk Brazilian with dreadlocks who came to introduce himself to us in English!! Then we saw other poor and possibly jobless people lying about outside the museum next door, which is called MACBA, and is the city's number one contemporary art museum. We did not visit MACBA today as we decided to call it a day and may come back to that one on another day. This is one crazy place!!!

Stall selling pets in La Rambla

Stall selling sweets in La Rambla

Street performers

Street performer