La Rambla and La Boqueria- Saturday, May 16th

La Rambla is probably one of the most famous streets in Barcelona and is pretty packed at all times of the day. It's a beautiful street with a large pedestrian walk down the center, and trees lining and joining all the way down the street. It's lined with shops, and hotels, restaurants, cafes, theaters, you name it. And along the pedestrian center, it's lined with all sorts of stalls and you can find anything from original art, to fresh flowers, to exotic birds. And there are painted and costumed entertainers all along the way as well.




It was a great place to walk and people watch. One of the funniest things we saw was a Charicaturist who was painting a portrait of a woman, and I so wish I had taken a picture because I can not express how awful the representation was of her, and I would have seriously been offended if it was me, but since it wasn't me, it was pretty hilarious watching her face see it the first time! We did buy a fabulous little original oil of a street in Barcelona from a guy selling his uncle's art. What a great place.




At the end of the street is the famous monument to Christopher Columbus, and some amazing buildings... museums, palaces, you know, the usual!






Anyone that knows Chris and I knows that the one thing we have in common is FOOD! We love food and we're not afraid to try new things... one of the single most things we were excited about for this trip was trying the food!! So having said that, one of our favorite places in Barcelona was a fresh food market called La Boqueria that is right off the famous street of La Rambla.





It was so amazing to see all the varieties of fresh fruits especially, including many that we have never seen before, including Chris who tried all sorts in the Amazon... but we got a fresh fruit cup that was SO delicious. But they have so much more than just fruit, fresh nuts, meats, seafood, cheeses, sausages, vegetables, even fresh gelato and chocolates!




My favorite thing were these cups of fresh juices and smoothies in every fresh fruit flavor and combo you can imagine! I loved those! And skipping ahead, I was SOO disappointed when we came back a week later after our cruise only to find that it was closed on Sunday, good but so sad for me! We tried the Pineapple Papaya Mango, and a Strawberry Pineapple and another one that I sadly can't remember.



And of course, we got some Chorizo and Cheese on a stick, and for the life of me I can't think of why we didn't get some chocolate?? We had planned on coming back, and if we had known it was going to be closed Sunday, we probably would have eaten a lot more while we were there!!




And I was excited to get our first cup of fresh Gelato, in Mango and some local fruit that I can't remember the name of, but it was so yummy! For those of you who don't know... Gelato is the Mediterranean version of Ice Cream but it has less cream, is a lot more dense, and the flavors are more intense. And I couldn't get enough everywhere we went, and Chris made fun of me for it, but curiously he was always eating mine!