Mercado de La Boqueria: Market Time!
Waiting for the elevator, I took a peek down the center of our building. Several floors up, you would think sound would echo or reverberate up, but it doesn’t. Walking down any street in the city, you pass shops and restaurants. Occasionally, one passes a non-descript over sized wood door. From the street it doesn’t look like much, but once opened… a whole new world appears. Behind our door, beautiful tiled floor, wooden steps and a small elevator. Several floors of comfortable flats are located behind these double locked, secure doors.
Throughout Barcelona, we found colorful Pastisseria shops. The dessert creations are a work of art! Cakes, pastries, donuts, macrons… and so much more! Though they exist, I never found a gluten free location.
Venturing down Las Ramblas, we turned into explore Mercado de La Boqueria. Full of shoppers and tourists taking in the experience, this is where I would shop every day. World renown, this market has been serving people since 1836! Inside is a series of booths, over 200, each selling their own special item. Prior to the permanent building that is currently the market, make-shift tents were filled with food items are wares as far back as the year 1217! Farmers came from villages surrounding Barcelona and used these temporary stalls.
Each stall is inviting… colorful with products attractively displayed. There is a buzz inside the building. People taking pictures, others buying groceries. Meats and vegetables hanging in a way that draws attention to the stall.
This would be my booth! Fish fresh out of the nearby ocean. Everything you could think of… oysters, shrimp, lobster, clams and fillets of different types of fish.
My friend and I stopped by a fish tapas booth. We each ordered a skewer of a variety of fish… salmon, ahi, shrimp. The vendor carefully torched and seasoned our treat. We should have asked the price before buying because it ended up being $15 a piece! The sauce was delicious and it was quite a treat so at least we loved it…
Still without my luggage, I decided it was time to get out of my clothes! Enough is enough… so my friend and I headed to Desigual. One of my favorite stores, I looked through every nook and cranny and nothing really stood out to me. Thinking there might be something on the first floor, I looked for a way out. Not seeing a down escalator, I began to worry that I would have to take this slide down… Just as I saw something I might like to wear, hubby called to say my bags had been located in Zurich! One more day without clothes… but at least we knew they would be returned to me!
Knowing my luggage had been located, it was no longer necessary to shop for clothes. Just one more day in the same clothes haha! Walking back to our flat, we walked through the birds that appear every afternoon in Placa Catalunya. They are entertaining… hundreds of them pecking crumbs off the ground. Kids try to chase them down so they will flutter about, they always return right away.
Catching up from a slight case of jetlag and getting a bit hungry, we walked through the Gothic area to reach Placa Raeal. Always lively, we chose a sidewalk table at Rossini’s Italian restaurant. We have had several incredible meals in the past but it our friends did not get very good meals. I still liked mine.
Always buzzing with activity, after the sun sets, this plaza REALLY comes alive. The only negative about sitting at any outdoor cafe in Spain, beggars and entertainers constantly ask for money. Ordinarily, I ignore them and just keep eating and talking. These musicians were so good, especially the violin player. We ended up giving them some money. After dinner, I sent a video of the violin to Spammie (my granddaughter) to tell her she could move to Barcelona and be a street musician…
