A change of plan
Feb 9, 2009:Before we got to Barcelona, I made a rough itinerary for each day. It was quite a tight schedule to be honest, but it’s better to have more choices when you’re travelling.
On Sunday, we went to bed after midnight. We had planned to get up at 7 to see the Boqueria market and head for Montserrat for the whole day. But we got up late (no surprise), and left Isa’s house at about 9.
We decided to go to Montjuic instead of Montserrat, so we could spend more time looking around the market.
The nearest station to Isa’s house was Sarria. It takes about 10 minutes to walk — if you don’t get lost. We got tickets for 10 journeys for €7.50 (this includes the trains and metro).
You could take either from Sarria. We took the train because it doesn’t stop as much as the metro, so it gets to Plaça de Catalunya quicker.
Walking down the Rambla from Plaça de Catalunya, you can see the entrance to the market on your right. It’s big and colourful, so it’s hard to miss.
Wherever we travel, one place we always want to see is the local market. It’s where you always find the finest food as well as a big variety of things you can enjoy.
One of our favourite places in Seoul is the huge Namdaemun market, where it seems you can find everything.
Is there any place as alive as the early morning market?The Boqueria was filled with fresh fruit & veg stalls, butchers, fishmongers, freshly made fruit smoothies (Tip: Go further into the market. The smoothies are only €1 — much cheaper than near the entrance).
We could easily have spent hours and hours there with our cameras. It’s simply a fun place.
Created with flickrSLiDR.
The Boqueria market opens from Monday to Saturday, 6am-8pm.
After losing ourselves in the market for a few hours, we opened our map to check our next destination.
From Liceu station, near the market, we took the metro to Plaça de l’Espanya, thinking that was the quickest way to get to Montjuïc. But the way up from Plaça de l’Espanya was under construction, so we couldn’t walk through.
We really wanted to ride the cable car between Montjuïc and Barceloneta. It’s an iconic Barcelona ride as well as the quickest way between the two, and has a great view on the way. So we decided to go to Barceloneta and take the cable car from there (by metro it takes about 20 minutes from Plaça de l’Espanya).
When we came out of Barceloneta station, it was exciting to see the beach. It was very different from the centre of Barcelona.
On the way through Port Vell, we took a diversion down a small side street, just at random.
The buildings were tall and old, the streets dark and narrow, a really different side of Barcelona to the previous day. There’s nothing fancy or luxurious about the area, but it definitely has a local feeling, and we loved it.
There were balconies full of hanging laundry, blowing in the gentle Mediterranean breeze. This kind of scene is rare in Ireland, so I spent quite a while looking at it.
But the belly is the most reliable clock, as we say in Korea, and after a while walking in the alleys, we were starving.
Isa had advised us not to go to restaurants on the main streets (mostly for tourists and very expensive), so we had lunch in a very small restaurant with no English on the menu. We were the only foreigners there. The food was quite good, and at €9.90 for three courses, the set lunch menu was very good value.).
Barceloneta beach
Before getting the cable car, we headed to Barceloneta beach.
It was our first time to see the Mediterranean. The sea in winter was so beautiful and calm that you couldn’t imagine the crowds and chaos that must be here in the hot summer.
We headed down to the end of Passeig Joan de Borbó to get the cable car to Montjuïc. Unfortunately, the tower was undergoing repairs — oops, one of the bad points of travelling in low season.
Still, we were able to take a shorter cable car journey from another stop in the port (the cable car was running from the tower at Jaume I, in the ferry terminal, to the Torre de Miramar on Montjuïc — €7 one way).
From Miramar we had to walk to Castell de Montjuïc (The Teleferic de Montjuic is the speediest way to the castle, but it was also temporarily closed).
Getting to Castell de Montjuïc wasn’t easy. I mean, finding it was no problem, but the walk was hard. As soon as we get home, I should get fit for our big trip.Castell de Montjuïc was originally built in 1640, and expanded and improved between 1751 and 1779. It was a military prison, but now the Museu Militar (Military Museum) is there.
From the castle, there’s a panoramic view of Barcelona on one side, and many big anti-aircraft guns facing out over the port on the other side.
Created with flickrSLiDR.
So, in the end we didn’t get to Montserrat, but the day we had was worth our change of plan in the morning.
February 9, 2009 11:00 pm 
