Barcelona to Madrid

One of the places we wanted to go and visit in Barcelona was the La Boqueria Market on Las Ramblas but it was closed due to the Easter Holiday break.  It finally reopened on our last day in Barcelona. Our check-out time was 11:00, our train departed for Madrid at noon and so we only had a short time to explore this wonderful place.

CNN ranks La Boqueria the best market in the world and they may be right.  The market has been on this site since 1217 when tables were put up to sell meat next to the city walls.  The translation for the Catalan word Boqueria is a "place where goat meat is sold".  Finally In 1826 the market was legally recognized, in 1835 an official structure was authorized, in 1840 construction began but did not finish completely until 1910.  This is the structure that you see today on Las Ramblas.  If you ever get to Barcelona you have to visit Mercado La Boqueria to experience one of the greatest sound, smell and color sensations anywhere.

Entrance to the La Boqueria Market

Huge crowds in every isle make it hard to move or purchase items

 One of many shellfish stalls 

 Spice and pepper stall

 A meat, sausage and salami stall

 Fruit and veg stall that sold individual servings of smoothies, fruit and veg 

A fish stall in the seafood section  

 A wide variety of nuts and dried fruits  

 An amazing variety of fruit and vegetables.  Some that I have not seen before

Dried meat stall selling a variety of individual portions on wooden sticks for 1 Euro

We only had an hour to explore the market before we went back to pick up our luggage and take a taxi to the train station.  We made it with some time to spare as we did not know what to expect.  The train station has security check-in with bags and passengers being screened.  We had made reservations in Vancouver which was a good thing as the train was completely full.  It was a high speed train that would take us from downtown Barcelona to downtown Madrid in a little over 2.5 hours, reaching speeds up to 301kph.  I was amazed at how smooth and quiet the ride was.  The seats were leather and very comfortable with lots of leg room.  Best of all, they served a hot lunch with drinks half way through our journey.

Once in Madrid, we took a taxi to the rental agency to pick up our keys and get directions to our apartment.  After getting it all sorted, we hailed a taxi, showed him the address and he dropped us off at what we thought was our apartment building.  But the keys did not work in the lock and we could not understand why until Rita looked at the street address.  It was Paseo Imperial and our apartment was on Calle Imperial.  We were next to a cafe and I went up to some older ladies and with no one understanding each other I showed them our apartment receipt with the correct address and they understood our dilemma and talked to one of the waiters in the cafe to call us a taxi.  We finally made it to our apartment, unpacked and showered before heading out to explore our neighborhood.