Barcelona - La Rambla

The main attraction in Barcelona is La Rambla. This is the main drag, a pedestrian mall...the happening place.  Also the most likeliest place to be met with crime in Europe. We were warned, repeatedly, about this.  It seemed as though everyone has a story about being robbed, ripped off, scammed, etc. in Barcelona (and/or Madrid).  Even Rick Steves' has a page devoted to warnings, as well as on his website. We were in high alert.  I think we saw just about every tactic we had heard about.  There is something about traveling in a group of four, wearing a money belt, being alert, not being afraid of yelling "no", and not getting drunk.

Here's what the street looks like.....

The street runs from the waterfront up towards the mountains.  La Rambla and side streets are crowded and lined with stalls, stores, restaurants, and plenty of human statutes.  People are so creative and have elaborate get ups. Much more elaborate than we see at home. We saw them at all the big tourist spots.

We ended up at the waterfront, where the breeze made things a little more bearable. It was so hot!

People were feeding the fish, relaxing, walking around, engaged in public displays of affection, and generally enjoying the day.

We also finally enjoyed the local dish, paella......

It's rice spiced with saffron and then seafood.  It's really a dish that the common people eat, with whatever they have available thrown in.  Now it's a big tourist thing and not cheap. There are also plenty of places that serve frozen paella that's been nuked.  This is the real deal, we saw them cook it.  Sabrina and I shared a huge batch.  We don't like eating things with eyes staring up at us so Dave helped us out.

It was a fun day and we're all worn out......

We're still having fun.....