Travel

Barcelona part 4 walking tour

Exploring the heart of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. Carrer de Ferran is the main road running through Sant Jaume, and while some cars are allowed, the street is mostly for pedestrians and is the busiest street of the entire Gothic Quarter, with many shops and restaurants along both sides and numerous side alleys extending out to form one of the town's best networks of lanes to explore. This area can provide an excellent focus for the next major portion of your walking tour. Then, come back again at night, for this neighborhood is filled with throngs drawn to the many restaurants and the small shops which stay open until 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. (they close in the afternoon for siesta). This dense labyrinth of attractive alleys is bracketed by another major pedestrian lane that also passes through Placa de Sant Jaume and runs roughly parallel to Carrer de Ferran, extending from Rambla, where it is called Carrer de la Boqueria, then continuing for a mile all the way across the district, changing names eight times as it winds to the Palace of Justice, making another great route to explore, enhanced by detours into various side alleys and little plazas. Rather than attempting to walk the full length of this eight-part street in one pass you might find it more convenient to focus first on the network of lanes between Jaume and Rambla, then cover the other half extending into the Ribera district tomorrow. Nearly every little lane is worth exploring in the broad area bounded by Sant Jaume and the Rambla, and between Carrer Portferrissa and Placa Reial, an area filled with bustling shopping lanes, small plazas, a major gothic church, picturesque fountains, innumerable eateries and a constant stream of locals passing by, all within a manageable, quarter-square-mile package. Because of this concentration of attractions, you could easily meander through this section by turning this way and that, depending on what direction looks best at each corner, which could give you a totally satisfying experience. To methodically cover it from one end to the other without missing anything, you could try the following more organized route, then maybe once you have covered the territory, dive back in again for a rediscovery, perhaps in the evening when it takes on a different character, filled with people shopping and heading for dinner.