Barcelona Part 4 and final - The Boqueria Market and Christopher Columbus column .

A visit to la Boqueria Market, alongside  La Ramblas, in Barcelona is a must!  So many colours, and so many smells  that make your mouth water!  It's a crowded place, so amongst the heaving throng, you need to keep your valuables tucked away!

Here are just a few of the stalls of which I took photos.

Fresh fruit and ice cold fruit drinks.

No shortage of fresh fish and plenty of willing buyers!

Sweets and glacé fruit. Yum!

Fresh fruit and vegetables piled high!

Cheeses, hams, salami and dry sausages. Spoilt for choice!

More sweets and glacé fruits

The children were fascinated by this man in a park making large soap bubbles.

 Christopher Columbus monument;  the scaffolding is certainly not on the scale of that at Sagrada Familia church, but the monument was being cleaned!  Good to know that, in these times of severe economic recession, Spain is looking after its national heritage! The column is 60 m (197 ft) tall and was constructed in 1888.  At the top stands a bronze statue of the man himself, supposedly pointing towards the New World!

At the base there are four staircases, each flanked on either side by lions.

The octagonal base has eight bronze panels, each of which depict important scenes in Columbus's first voyage to the Americas.  See two of them above and below. 

An interesting way of getting around Barcelona; rent an electric 'car'!! Never seen these before anywhere else, but Barcelona seems to pride itself on its  eco approach and I think it's a good initiative, as long as there are enough charging points!

This lady human statue must have had excellent balance, as she was standing motionless on the bike saddle; other than the flicker of her eyelids, there seemed to be no movement! We saw her each day we were there - what a hard way to make a living!  The only time I saw her really move was when we had a sudden shower of rain, and then she took cover very quickly.  Guess if she had not sheltered, the yellow may have ended up in a puddle at her feet!

Last but certainly not least, we could not leave Spain without eating the famous paella! Looking at it now, it does bring back the gastronomic memories!

Sorry I am still finding it difficult to find time to catch up with everyone's blogs but I promise I will do so very soon. I am struggling to keep up with all the bottling and freezing of the fruit and vegetables in the garden. How can anyone say that there is nothing to do in retirement!  I have never been so busy, and of course in summer there is so much going on here in France.