El Rey en La Camba (Muy Frio)

"I'll take the "hoke" fish and have it grilled." I tell the waiter at the restaurant.
"Oh sir, you don't want that fish, we'll get you the monkfish grilled." he coaches me.
"And for you Madam?" he asks Makaila.
"I'll have this type of fish" she points to the menu.
"You want it with this sauce?"  he enquirers.
"What would you suggest? replies Makaila.
"Not that sauce, try this sauce, it is more buttery."
"Fine, I'll go with that. says Makaila.
"You have both made excellent choices!" shouts the waiter.

With rain threatening, we walked several blocks away to this major street called, Las Ramblas. I noted that at various places along the way it referred to itself as "The Worlds Most Exciting Street."

I'll give the Barcelonins credit for hyped promotion but they may not have been far from the truth...probably not on this particular Sunday but I imagine when the tourist season gets going, this street is one of the more exciting around. It is about a mile long boulevard with a center section just for the people to promenade. It is the place to see and be seen, (and of course, that is where I am going to gravitate if I am in town.)

You have your usual selection of street performers and immigrants selling watches, shoes and childrens toys and you have high-end fashion stores and trendy restaurants. (And some familiar American favorites like "Subway," "McDonalds" and "Dominos.") But the over all feel is of "street fair." And I get the feeling that the vast majority of folks were Barcelonins, the tourist season has not arrived and the locals have not yet surrended their beloved Ramblas to foreigners....yet.

But, if you look off on the side streets and some beautiful town squares off the main-drag you'll find numerous flea-markets.

We wandered through one that had hundreds of sellers of coins and stamps....and cigar bands.....and champaign tops (the little metal tops over the corks). I had never paid attention to those things and probably have opened only a half dozen bottles of champaign in my life but obviously lots of people have and they have a thriving trade champaign caps. The men traided them as if they were life-giving amulets. The also were trading beer bottle caps with great seriousness. I watched one man take a couple Heineken caps from his notebook with all the delicacy of a surgeon replacing a heart valve...probably more so....hey, this is a beer cap of great value! I made a mental note to save my PBR caps and return to Las Ramblas and impress the natives some day.

Along the way were three cathedrals which I wished to see. One was on the west side of the Ramblas and we wandered through the labyrinth of streets and came upon this old looking (surprise) cathedral, which alas, had seen better days. About a half dozen men were not collecting wine corks but they clearly had opened a few recently and the steel fence gates were shuttered. I guess once mass was done in this neighborhood, it was lights out...and we moved on.

The second cathedral was wedged into a small square off the major street. I know it is not that the cathedral was "wedged in" but that the city had grown up around it and thus it appeared wedged in. Had I not been looking for it, I would have walked on by. It too was locked tight, though there would be a flamenco guitar concert that evening in the sanctuary and judging by the cost, this wasn't a couple college students singing Bob Dylan. There was a picture of the sanctuary and that was all I saw.

In between times we walked Las Ramblas to the Sea. At the beach, the Mediterranean, was the harbor with sail boats and some cruise ships about a mile further west. All of Barcelona was there. Since it is February, the sea breeze was a bit cool, but the rain clouds stayed away and the sun played tag with us as we walked along underneath the huge pillar and statue of Christopher Columbus pointing dramatically to the New World. Spain claims the guy and is proud of him. Nobody asked, but I think we may have been the only two from the Columbus, Ohio area and their seemed a bit of symmetry to being there.

A final cathedral to see if we could fine....and when we find it....we hoped it was open. This is the famous "Catedral Barri Gothic" and we found it open for business. And indeed it was...they had an entrance fee and that was fair enough, the church was undergoing major restoration.

Like some other of the Barcelona Cathedrals, there is bare cinder block and bare stone...the effect is actually quite refreshing. But this cathedral had numerous chapels which were fenced off. The cloister was quiet and beautiful with 13 white geese...part of the legend of the 13 year old girl who told the non-Christian King to stop persecuting the Christians. The King then devised 13 tortures for this young girl....one for each year of her life. Fortunately the church did not detail all those tortures though one was putting her in barrel filled with knives and cut glass and rolling it down hill. Alas, she survived them all and today they have 13 geese residing in the cloister.

Great legend and it was fortunate for the girl that she was but 13 and fortunate for the caretakers of the cathedral today that there are but 13 geese. Knowing geese as we do...can you imagine her fate and ours if she had been 100 when she confronted the king?

Peace,  Bob