19th April Rumbling down La Rambla


 So here I am sat on the balcony of our 12th floor AirBnB, enjoying a ham, cheese and coffee breakfast, (which one of us had to both buy and make), watching aeroplanes drop out a leaden cloud filled sky across a panoramic view of Barcelona rooftops. It's a hard life but someone has to do it.

A 10 trip Metro ticket in our pockets and we were off, travelling on a very sparsely decorated underground to explore the city. First stop Placa de Universidad, where we disembarked from the airport bus yesterday, for the short walk to Placa de Catalunya, Barcelona's equivalent of Trafalgar Square or Piccadilly Circus.

Still overcast, whilst we both found the temperature quite pleasant, the locals were wrapped up as it were a Siberian winter. Taking out time we wandered and pondered before rumbling on down the main pedestrian thoroughfare of the city, La Rambla. Full of the usual tourist tat on the ground level, casting our eyes upwards revealed some gorgeous architecture.

Being an infamous pick pocketing hotspot my radar was set to 'Ninja' levels of alertness with every bump and barge in the colourful but crowded Las Boquitaro market being met with a potentially lethal karate chop response. Thankfully we got to the end of La Rambla with pockets un-picked, just as the sun put in its first appearance of the day.

A lovely sun soaked wander around part of the waterfront followed, after which we retraced out steps on the Metro back to a locals only roadside cafe near our Airbnb, where a a couple of pizzas were washed down with ' Do grande cervesas por favor'. After which it was only culturally correct to fully embrace the Spanish tradition of an afternoon siesta!

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