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A Piece of Barcelona- a Photo Essay

Barcelona is  feast for the senses with its delightful architecture, lively plazas, and tempting food. There was an alluring energy to Barcelona which  made me not want to leave.

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El Mercado de la Boqueria: One of the largest food markets in Europe

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All kinds of curiosities can be found here ; )
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EL Barri Gotic, Barcelona’s old city center. Many of the buildings date from medieval times.
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We happened upon a small procession

The giant people are known as gegants or giants, which represent the town’s figureheads or patron saints. In this case, we see Jaume I (King James I of Aragon) and his wife Violant of Hungary. Fun fact: James I was born in Montpellier, where I live now, not far from a cathedral I’ll be visiting tomorrow. He was known as The Conqueror, leading a crusade against the Moors and winning Valencia for Spain. Jaume was also a patron for the University of Montpellier, a lover of literature, and an author. In his autobiography he made it clear that he was very devoted to his wife Violant. Together they had ten children.

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Now let’s head to the beach!

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Neither the sand nor the palm trees are native to Barcelona; the sand was imported from Egypt and the the palm trees from the US for the 1992 Olympic Games
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A plate of the infamous tapas. here we have fried calamari, garlic mushrooms, fried green peppers, a kind of tomato bread, and patatas bravas– my personal favorite.
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We are sitting in the square where Christopher Columbus allegedly returned to Spain with his fleet to show off to Queen Isabella his new found booty: real live Native Americans
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And here is the monument in Columbus’s honor, showing the explorer pointing out to sea.

This is only part one, more to come.

hasta luego!

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