Tour of the Old Town
Sep 1st, 2013 by willmarks
It is required first to be a tourist before you can label your residence “home”. We are ready to be home in Barcelona so some steps have been taken. We joined the “Kids and Family Walking Tour”, hosted by Runner Bean Tours. I would recommend this for families with children, but not older than about 12. Our guide, Ann-Marie, was excellent with knowledge, enthusiasm, and pictures, which she had painted herself to provide helpful historical detail.
The tour began in Plaça de L’Angel, where she explained the history or myth of the Catalan flag. In the 9th century, after a battle, a count (possibly Wilfred the Hairy, love the name) wiped four bloody fingers straight down a gold shield which became the current gold and red striped flag.
In this same Plaça, to keep the youth (and adults) interested, Ann-Marie had us test the candy at La Colmena, a well known old bonboneria/pasteleria (candy/pastry shop), the age of the store acknowledged by a plaque, only reserved for truly long-standing establishments, on the ground by the entrance.
Ann-Marie then guided us through the Gothic Quarter (Barri Gòtic). This is the old city of Barcelona and was essentially built on top of the even older Roman city. We stopped in front of the Palau Reial Major (13th and 14th century), the residence of the counts of Barcelona and the Kings of Aragon. This sits in the medieval square, Plaça del Rei; common chatter (perhaps in the interest of tourism) is that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella greeted Columbus here when he arrived home from his first voyage to the New World, but those disputing the story argue that the royal couple was likely at its summer residence at the time.
Interestingly, below (meaning underground) the Plaça del Rei is about an acre of ruins from the Roman city that existed here between the 1st and 7th centuries. While our tour did not include a visit, the ruins are easily accessed through the Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat, in this same Plaça del Rei. For free, you can also look down at some of the Roman remains through nearby street level windows.
Next, we stopped at Plaça Nova to see the gate to the old Roman City as well as the Cathedral, where construction began in the late 13th century. Simply beautiful to look at from the outside, but admittedly we did not enter.
As I pen this, we have been back to Plaça Nova/Cathedral to observe the Sardana, a traditional Catalan dance that can be seen on Sundays at noon or Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. It is well worth watching at least once, to help understand what the Catalan people were forced to experience, only 40 years back. While Catalan independence is another story, like the idea or not, the dance itself is simply a symbol of pride, unity, identity, and it was one of the traditions/institutions (not to mention the Catalan language) disallowed by Franco during his near 40-year rule.
While the history was interesting, the highlights of the trip for the youth were likely the costume store and the candy making shop.
El Ingenio has been in business since 1838, with its wonderful and unique toys and homemade Carnaval masks; we paid an extra euro to visit the workshop, well worth it, if for no other reason than the photos.
We ended the tour at Papabubble, watching the production of hard candy, not bad entertainment for the kids, followed by a related reward for 3 hours of attention.
