WALKING AROUND THE RAVAL

What we are going to do in this blog is show a particular way to discover the Raval and Las Ramblas. what you are reading now is exactly the same post as the one before, but as we want everyone to enjoy this route we thought that it would be good to write it in english too. We are going to recreate the walk that is done in the novel "El pianista" by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. This promenade appears in the first chapter and explores this neighborhood through the walk done by Ventura and his friends. We are going point out some special places that are the heart of the Raval and, somehow, the heart of Barcelona.

This promenade may take some time and our will is to take your time to enjoy it and discover our city as we have done. What may distinguish this walk from other "guided walks" is that what we are presenting is focused in a "non-touristic" point of view. According to that what everyone is going to see while walking around this neighborhood is the real Barcelona. We recommend you, our guest in Barcelona, to take time to enjoy what we think is a good way, not only to discover our city, but also the literature of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán.

In the next publications we are going to explain in more detail the different things that can be seen around the promenade that we encourage to do. Some things that you will see (the ones that we will explain later) are the following ones:

1. Iglesia del Carmen (Carrer Sant Antoni Abad).
2.  Plaça del Pedró.
3. Carrer Riera Alta.
4. Carrer del Carme.
5. Plaça del Àngels, where you can find the MACBA and the CCCB.
6. Carrer Tallers and  Carrer de Jovellanos; from here you access to Carrer Pelayo.
7. Plaça Catalunya and beginning of Las Ramblas.
8. Bar Boadas (cocktail bar at Las Ramblas with Carrer Tallers). 
9.  Palau de la Virreina (Las Ramblas).
10. Mercat de la Boqueria.
11. Theatre of Liceu and Café de la Ópera.
12. Calle Ferran and Plaça Reial.
13. La Rambla dels Caputxins.
14. End of the route: Rambla de Santa Mònica and Plaça Colón.

In order to make things easier for anyone that does not know exactly what we want you to visit, we encourage you to click at the following link where you will find a "simulation" of the promenade where you will see some pictures of what you will find:

We hope that you enjoy this promenade discovering our city!