Barcelona Day 3

Barcelona Day 3 – Saturday
I put a lot of miles on today. It really feels good to sit for a spell.
I started the day by walking down to The Rambla and having capuchino at the Opera Café recommended by Steve Schwartzberg. It was full of local color including a lot of cigarette smokers. Other than that it was fine.
T hen I took a walk through the market again and saw all the variety of stuff. Yesterday I missed the whole baby pigs.
Afterward I walked the full length of The Rambla to the waterfront thinking I might get good views and maybe find a good place to have some seafood for lunch. No such luck. The harbor had pretty boats and Cruise ships but other than that not much except for a modern shopping center with all the usual stores, Ben & Jerry’s, and McDonalds. So I headed back up The Rambla to a plaza near my hotel which has OK outdoor restaurants. I got Octopus salad and fried eggplant. I was a pretty happy camper. While eating lunch I watched a man I suspect was a pickpocket talk for a long time with a middle aged woman tourist who had her purse sitting in the middle of her lap. I suspect she was flattered he was so interested in her. He kept pointing in a direction for her to look toward and I watched him carefully but didn’t see him open her purse. However, I suspect that later when she went into her purse she found her $ missing. Maybe I am just too suspicious.
I then walked through the “Cal” which is the old Jewish Quarter (very close to my hotel but I didn’t figure that out until today. It has very, very narrow walkways as the Jews were not permitted to build outside the Cal and so could only expand their houses by building them forward into the walkway. Of course they are “long gone.” The Sephardic Jews had a significant population here, and elsewhere in Spain, from the 7th to the 14th century. Everyone got along well for many years with Jews being very important as they were the “money lenders.” Then the Christian fervor of the middle ages gave them a mandate – convert to Christianity, leave, or we will kill you. All three options were popular. The only thing left to mark the Cal here in Barcelona is a small plaque on a building. How sad.
Then I visited the Historical Museum which is practically across the street from my hotel. This is in the the Gothic area as it was where the first city was built here. It turns out that it was built upon a much older Roman City which has been excavated and lies beneath the museum. You walk over the excavation on ramps. Question: Did you know that the Roman laundry technique used human urine as a laundry bleach/disinfectant? They placed vats outside the laundry so that passerby could contribute to this laundry additive.
After this I went back and crossed the Rambla to walk around the Raval area (previously the seedy part of early Barcelona). Much improved now but looks like it has more recent immigrants and graffiti. I went to the Contemporary Art Museum – my advice skip it. Not much in myopinion.
By now my feet were ready to rest so I decided to head back to the hotel. Then, as has been my experience so many times, something unplanned and very interesting catches you. As I was walking on the Rambla I heard “Frank Sinatra” type music (Jeff Goffo eat your heart out). There was some sort of festival happening in an open space off the Rambla. The musical group appearing was a trio (singer, saxophone, keyboard) sure enough singing old style music – and they were really good. They sounded like they were from Chicago and the singer sang tunes with an American accent. However, when they did introductions at the end they Catalan. This is an amazing place.
I limped backed to my hotel and decided it was time that I made my arrangements for getting to Madrid on Monday. Well technology failed me. I was unable to make reservations using the train website (if you think I’m kidding just try using their website). In desperation I thought – I’ll check out flights – they are probably about the same price anyway. When I hit the “purchase” button the site told me it couldn’t sell tickets on the weekend. So …… I went to the train station and bought tickets the good old fashioned way. Actually this was a good thing as it forced me to use the Metro (which was actually very easy and cheap. I plan to use the Metro tomorrow (my last day here). I am going to take myself on a tour of the Modernisma architecture.
10 pm
I went out for the evening not expecting anything in particular. First there was a square filled up entirely with Catalons (and their band) dancing the traditional Catalon dance where they dance in a circle and then jump. These were just plain old (and young folks) just having a good time. And then later in another square we were treated with opera – a tenor who obviously does this regularly (he had his CD player). But there was also a number of other people who just love to sing kind of backing him up. Then the most special – a middle aged soprano who was excellent. It was truly special. I love Barcelona!!!