The Catalan Diaries: Barcelona: The City

Hello everyone, I'm pretty exhausted from the schoolwork and thing, so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking (or writing), plus they will illuminate Barca better than my wayward prose could any day!

So starting with the city, my first impressions were of the Gothic Quarter, in the centre of the city. Here we find the Cathedral, the Roman Ruins as well as a paved passage leading to an open square bordered on all sides by Catalan government and ministerial buildings, one may belong to their version of the mayor. Also when you walk this way you can wonder into the side church of the Cathedral where there are many religious monuments behind bars as well as an open space where for some absurd reason they have geese knocking about! Also in this area there are two ponds and some shrubs and plants - which isn't your normal sightseeing experience in a city's Cathedral!

Anyway the pictures;

Starting with the Cathedral:

And these are the Roman Ruins, around the corner from the Cathedral

And the same room from lower down:

This is the Catalan Ministerial building in the central square just beyond the Cathedral:

The first weekend I arrived, Pere took me to see these sites. There was a big group of people as you can see, and there was a procession of horses and horse and carriages coming through. The people riding the horse's were either dressed like traditional Catalan soldiers or more often rural farm-hands. It really was quite a site, I'll attach a couple of videos at the end of the post,

And this is a nearby Church, just around the corner. Pere told me its significant because in the Civil War there was much fighting here. The holes at the bottom of the stone walls are actually bullet holes. Infact Pere told me there was a massacre here, with many children being shot.

These are the ones inside the side church I aforementioned: