After years and years of travel, I have come to realize that one of my favorite things in life is people watching. So sitting at an outdoor cafe like this one, as long as it has foot traffic, is heaven. This one is just steps from the Jaume 1 metro stop, into Placa del Angels, on the edge of the Barri Gothic in Barcelona. Got that?
I’m not that opinionated about the specifics of the traffic, just that there’s a parade of people and this particular one is at the crossroads …

La Rambla is the best known street in Barcelona. Don’t come here if you don’t like crowds. I do, so I’m happy here. I was feeling a bit over-protective of my family when we came here last night, however. (That’s why I didn’t manage any photos.) In the day, it is much more friendly. Anyway, it’s a “don’t miss” location, a spot one must walk to say you’ve been to Barcelona. Last night we watched a spray-paint artist whip up panels and clocks (!) of all things …

Instead of renting hotel rooms or suites everywhere, we did something different on this trip. In the places we stayed more than 2 days – Madrid, San Sebastian, and Barcelona, we rented apartments. More work, more variability, but definitely more room. In Barcelona we have a 110 square meter (almost 1200 sqft) 3-bedroom palace. It’s nicely furnished and has everything we needed for a lovely stay. Except for the wifi connection. Access and bandwidth seem to change at random with the hotspots moving around the place …

Got to Barcelona on Saturday evening. Sunday, we hopped on the hop-on-hop-off bus, which is something of a ritual we’ve adopted. While a little touristy-tacky, it’s a neat and easy way to get an overview of a city.  Some people actually use it to get around and stop at each of the designated sites; we tend to ride the loop in its entirety to get a feel for where we want to stroll later.  I’ve made the mistake of taking these bus tours in the middle of the day …

Growing up in Brooklyn, we called places like this “pork stores” although the official Italian name for them is “Salumeria.”  I may have said it before, but Spain is big on pig, and you can’t turn around without someone selling you something made from Pork.  I thought this store was quite nice looking, even if it did remind me of the climax sequence in Clint Eastwood’s “High Plains Drifter.”