Day 18 - Barcelona Gothic
Barcelona, Spain
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I’m in Spain! It was a late late arrival and yellow-tone-illuminated introduction to the medieval city of Barcelona last night. I inhaled a plate of sautéed asian greens and crashed immediately after in my 8-person dorm.
The morning continental breakfast buffet went down a treat and I put the in-house wifi to good use for a little fam’ and friends catch-up. I feel like I’ve been wanting to visit Barcelona for the longest of times. The centuries-old architecture, the infusion of gothic-era planning and modern development. Oh and of course the abundance of Antoni Gaudi masterpieces.
I made my way deep towards the heart of the Gothic Quarter in search of the meeting point for a Sandemans New Europe walking tour. Each turn immersed me further into a world more familiar to the fantasy video games I used to escape in as a kid. The compact dark alleyways that glow up high from the slightest access to the sun, to the generous and tree-lined street market expanse of La Rumbla. A densely-packed activation of an aged urban framework.
Eventually I was greeted by a plaza at Jaume I Metro Station and waited for the clock to strike noon (the perks of being surrounded by old churches and their tower bells). The walking tour provided a frenetic and thoroughly entertaining crash course into the historic eras of society, life and conflict within the city’s Gothic Quarter. Leon - the tour leader - was a gem. If you want to fill your brain to the absolute max in a short 90 minutes then he’s the guy you need. He even manages to throw in a few solid puns and a poetic finale performance.
I wandered unguided for some time after the tour had ended discovering the yacht-populated coastline at La Barcelonetta then later arriving at a small public square along an edge of the old city wall. It was the perfect place for a lunchtime refuelling while watching a joy-filled collection of dogs making friends and playing games.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. I racked up a few more thousand steps, gazed upon Spain’s Arch de Triumph, and stumbled into even older buildings than those I’d visited earlier. As the sun set and the night grew thick there was only one thing left to do for the day; tapas. It. Was. Delicious.
(P.S. the sniffles may have hit harder than expected. Shout out to the legend that encouraged me to pack cold+flu medication before leaving home.)
