The problem with going out dancing tango at night is that the following morning I don’t feel like getting up before 10am (or later). By the time I am finally out on the streets I am often met with this……or thisOn Wednesday I set off to buy speakers for the computer and headed for Ronda St Antoni as it has a long run of electrical shops. (One thing I love about Barcelona, and actually other European cities too, is that shops of the same sort congregate together so you can easily browse without having to go too far) On this day I was met with the usual crashing down of persianas which signals at least two hours when I can’t get on with shopping. After 6 months here I am still always caught out.
I set off to walk down to the Maritim Museum to meet a friend for lunch – lunch here generally starting around 2.30 or 3.00pm.
Here are some of the sights on my route.
The Mercat Sant Antoni is one of several large steel skeleton markets in Barcelona. Until recently it was still open with fresh food and clothes and books and stamps and virtually everything you can want to buy, but it is now being refurbished.
There is a temporary replacement which sits in the centre of a now pedestrianised road opposite the original. Across the street by the metro entrance is a cafe called Els Tres Tombs which I have only now found out has nothing to do with Tombs but is named after the ritual which takes place on Sant Antoni’s day January 17th. Sant Antoni is the patron saint of animals – farm and domestic – and there are many festivals to celebrate this including a very famous one on Mallorca. The Tres Tombs signify Three Turns where animals – often horses – are taken around the streets to be appreciated and blessed. Other smaller animals are taken to church.

I then walked down Sant Antoni Abat and found these signs – I still am looking for the meaning of the red horse which appears all over the Ciudad VellaOn an old stone wall there were carvings of lions and this head- Sant Antoni himself?After I turned onto the Rambla de Raval I noticed yet again how much this part of the city is changing. A wide road has been created after knocking down some slums and the central part which is free from traffic is a relaxed place to stroll. Allthough the Rambla de Raval still carries a whiff of seediness there is also a tall hotel rising onto the skyline and a feeling of a place in transition where at the moment two worlds meet – the tourists are coming, new bars opening, people feed the pidgeons and read in the sunshine and women work on the streets.
Fernando Botero’s cat confidently stalks up the centre of the Rambla.