A Day out in BCN

After walking the dogs today I planned for a day out in Barcelona to do a little bit of Christmas Shopping.
MY first task was to drop Julie's glasses off at school, as she left them here yesterday evening. She popped in after work so I could help her set up an XL spreadsheet and we shared a pizza and jacket tatties. A lovely way to spend a Friday evening. 

 Getting off the train in Passeo de Gracia I walked down to Plaça Catalunya where there was a huge marquee. Inside there was an Ice-rink. I've never seen that here before and the joy emanating from inside was almost palpable. IT drew me close and I stayed a while watching people doing laps around the rink. It was really uplifting.

  Next stop was the Boqueria, the large  municipal fruit and veg market just off the Ramblas. I love it in here. The only things I can't handle are the meat and fish stalls so I generally negotiate a path around to avoid these as much as possible.  The colours are so vibrant and the people on the stall so friendly. This time of year mushrooms of various types are filling the stalls and adding their own richness to the place. I usually buy some fruit to munch on while I wander, as it's so fresh and almost impossible to resist.

Afterwards I headed for the Christmas Market beside the Cathedral. The stalls here we re just as interesting and colourful, and the Christmas spirit was so much in evidence. However the crowds were all a little too much for me so I headed off down the side streets to check out some of the smaller shops. There are so many interesting shops in this area that I completely lost track of time, and still I'd only bought the fruit to eat -no Christmas shopping done as yet. 

 

In one of the shops there was a splendid Christmas Tree that I couldn't resist photographing. However it was packed with people and although I'd have loved to buy some things in there the queues for the tills were too overwhelming so I have left that treat for another day.

I eventually found a  couple of my favourite shops and inside some items that were just the kind of things I was looking for, and some things that I didn't even realise I was looking for them. SO for the first time in the day my credit card saw the light of day. Ker- ching...

Tomorrow I'm planning a festive day indoors- Christmas cake to bake and other Christmassy things to sort out too.....