Bon Nadal! Holiday lights and a festive market

In the middle of November the city starting to string up lights across the main streets of Barcelona, and as the days progressed more lights went up, spreading to smaller streets. Even our small street got a couple. On the main streets at night, it's quite impressive. In a city graced by numerous festivals, this season seems to bring out the biggest and brightest. We took a ramble to see the lights, and later, spent an evening at a festival by the water. It's great to see so many people out, enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes, and just being out in a walkable city with so much to do and see.

Walking in Light

Last week, we took a walk to Plaça Catalunya then up the fancy Passeig de Gracia and back down the attractive Rambla de Catalunya to do some gawking. It was a cool but pleasant night, and Barcelona's a wonderfully walkable city.

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes is a major thoroughfare a half block from our place. It's quite wide with maybe 5 lanes in the center, plus a pair of slip lanes on either side. But the scale is been tamed by wide walkable islands lined with trees between the three traffic lanes, and bike lanes in the slip roads.  These photos don't really do it justice, but I didn't wanna stand in the middle of the street to get the long-view shots. The tower University of Barcelona was lit up in a fiery red.

At Plaça Universitat, we headed down Carrer de Pelai which is lined with some stately old mansions.

We entered the large Plaça de Catalunya which had long strings of lights across it, and checked out the colorful rectangles going down Ronda de St. Pere, but the huge El Corte Ingles store stole the show with its animated 9-story wall of lights.

The Plaça was heaving with people all taking in the displays like we were. We headed up luxurious Passeig de Gracia which we expected to have the most impressive display and were not disappointed; unsurprisingly, its sidewalks were also filled with people taking in the sights. As we continued our walk, we got the first glimpse of the ornate Gaudi-designed Casa Batlló.

and finally to the Casa itself. It's absurdly beautiful -- even to my jaded rectilinear tastes -- but definitely over the top, and even more so with the changing multi-hued light washes tonight.

I've always preferred the sculpted look of Gaudi's Casa Milá, or "La Pedrera", but its lighting was surprisingly ... understated.

We hopped over to the parallel Rambla de Catalunya with its wide central walkable area and cafes. At the top, we were greeted by the playful Flirtatious Giraffe sculpture with colorful ball lights running the length of the Rambla.

Every street and plaza had its own unique shape and color of lights, and we took in one more on Carrer de Balmes on the route home.

Christmas Market at the Port Vell

This week, we hit the market at the old port on its opening night. It was filled with lights, decorations, and live music.  My favorite display was a three-story tall animated Christmas ornament with swirling displays, large enough to accommodate lots of folks sitting inside. 

Yup, we're holding adult beverages, outside, in public. This is a country that loves to eat and drink. Have you ever seen a fair whose food stalls have large live fire cooking, and sell octopus?

Anchoring the festivities was a giant Ferris Wheel; why not? We got some stunning views of the port and the city. The steep hill that cascades to the water is Montjuic, where the castle is.

With very reasonable prices -- 3-4€ for wine, mulled wine, beer, or vermouth -- it wasn't hard to have another. There were lots of food trucks, including one with a wood fired pizza oven serving authentic Neapolitan pizza (the Crown of Aragon, part of Catalunya, controlled Naples back in the day).

There's a lot about Catalan culture that's mysterious to us, including the "Caganer" pooping peasant and the "Caga Tió", or "Tio de Nadal" -- the Christmas log. It's a log, with a smiling face, wearing a blanket over its hindquarters. As we understand it, kids are supposed to sing songs and whack it with a stick, and it will poop presents. At another market this week (where we saw lots of Caganers), we heard kids and adults singing the song.

On the way home, just a couple blocks from our place, we noticed the old Moritz Beer building was decorated too. I was tempted to nip in for a nightcap but we were sated for this evening.