Barcelona: The Good, the Old, and the Tasty

I love a good cathedral first thing in the morning! La Seu, the main cathedral of the Barri Gotic, is a fantastic building. It is dedicated to Santa Eulalia, an early martyr of the Roman era. She was a young girl who preached Christianity. She was tortured and killed for her beliefs. She is especially revered in Barcelona.

I love stained glass windows!

The white geese mean something. They are always in the cloister, I want to say there is one for each apostle...I don't know.

We went on a little self guided walking tour of El Born, a kind of trendy neighborhood that was once the home to Barcelona's fishermen.

I added a stop at Hoffman's, a local pastry shop (and culinary school) for their famous croissants. I recommend the mascarpone filled croissant, I maybe came here more than once...

And look at all these other pretty pastries!

The El Born Cultural Center is this cool place, inside is excavations of the remnants of the city from the 18th century. Catalonia has seen it's fair share of oppression. The people of this neighborhood were forced to dismantle their homes and community, brick by brick, and use those bricks to build the Ciutadella; a prison fortress used to oppress them.

Santa Maria del Mar is the church of El Born. It is sparse but beautiful, pure Catalonian gothic architecture. It caught fire in 1808ish, so many of the windows are newer...and I love them.

This is a memorial to a massacre that occurred on this spot adjacent to Santa Maria del Mar.

Modern stained glass? Yes please!

I wish I had the camera and skills to capture the beautiful colored light coming through those windows...sigh...

This close up will give you a better idea.

I love that at the church "del Mar" there is a modern window depicting a boat on the sea.

We were hungry at this point, very hungry. The Mercado Santa Caterina seemed a good place to get lunch! We bought fruit, baguettes, cheeses, and cones of jamon. That's right, ham in cones, like ya do.

 After lunch we continued our walking exploration, stopping by the oldest magic shop in Spain. My niece Stella bought a trick, which means she got to go in the back room to learn the secret so she could do it herself.

Another very tasty stop: Museu de la Xocolata! The history of chocolate, the methods, and statues made of chocolate! I really liked this Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. We bought our tickets, which were chocolate bars with bar codes on the wrapper, and in we went!

Obviously the chocolate museum has a shop and a cafe. We indulged with some suis aka swiss aka with whipped cream on top, and got some melindros to go with them. Chocolate in Spain is very dark and thick and rich.

A chocolate pieta right next to a chocolate Star War. A varied collection indeed!

We ended our day at Parc de la Ciutadella. Remember 2 minutes ago, how I said the people of El Born were forced to build an Oppressive fortress in their neighborhood? Well, much later when they were able to take control back they ripped that sucker down. Where it stood is a beautiful park, featuring Antonin Gaudi's early work in a fabulous fountain!

The Parliament of Catalonia building at the bottom end of the park.