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We're going to take you on a walking tour through the little back lanes of Barcelona exploring a neighborhood that many visitors miss. We' re going into La Ribera, and El Born. Only a few blocks east of the Cathedral and the famous Gothic Quarter, Ribera, is a local neighborhood - residential with shops, restaurants, bars, and it's a great place to visit. You will find many pedestrian lanes with no cars to upset the tranquility - it's an authentic slice of local life.
The route that we' re following brings you from one end to the other over to the big park and then back into the center of this walking zone. You don't really need a map but we've got some practical suggestions for you to help show you how to explore La Ribera and we will visit a Gothic church, and starting out at the concert hall, Palau de la Musica Catalana.
From Palau de la Musica we will take you along Carrer St. Pere over to the church and place of St. Pere and then down, around and over into the park and returning back over along Princesa to a couple of lovely pedestrian streets with malls and outdoor cafes, and continuing along back into the heart of this district, and then we'll do some meandering - kind of get lost a little bit, going this way that way to the Gothic church of Santa Maria Del Mar, and then back into the center of the Gothic Quarter.
Continue through the district of Sant Pere. The neighborhood is named after the former convent monastery of Sant Pere an ancient church on a small Plaza of Sant Pere.
This is a quieter part of town and it enjoys a slow pace of life in a world of its own, so you can hang out here for a while and just simply meander.
And as you walk along you're going to see the locals going about their business, shopping, talking, hanging out.
Here you can enjoy an ordinary working-class neighborhood set with an old-fashioned atmosphere a little bit off of the beaten track out from the center of Barcelona. It's fair to say that most tourists never get here.
A couple blocks south the Sant Pere neighborhood opens up, wider pedestrian lanes and more people. There's some shops and restaurants nearby. A lively neighborhood and it is just another block over to the big park where we find the Arc de Triomf. It was the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World's Fair, built in a redbrick Neo- Mudéjar style.
This is the Parc de la Ciutadella. Today it's the major park of Barcelona, a very popular spot, especially on a weekend.
Returning to the Old Town neighborhood of La Ribera visiting couple of lively little plazas. We're going to find that even though the residents don't have green parks, they do have lovely plazas and gathering places and pedestrian lanes and wide sidewalks along the streets, and with many big trees to enhance the environment.
You'll always see young families out with their kids, the local people walking the dog, and folks doing a little shopping, a little talking and doing a lot of sitting around at these cafes. The outdoor ambience of the place is really quite wonderful.