Civil War

Our Spanish Civil War Guide

Cocktail Hour

Raise a glass to The Cathedral of the Sea

Choose your fish

Best Oyster Ever

Typical Gothic Quarter Street

Back of our hotel, the Old Roman Wall

Cathy and I have been fascinated by the Spanish Civil war. We have read many books about it. Barcelona was heavily damaged as the various factions fought it out. There were Communists, Left wing groups, right wing groups etc. It is all terribly complicated. I always knew there were Anarchist, but I was surprised to find out that the Anarchist were a political party. I would of thought of them all is being independent actors not organized at all. Now I know.

 

We took a tour of the some of the locations where the fighting happened. George Orwell of course fought and wrote about it. Our guide was unbelievably knowledgeable about the Civil War and as we walked through living history, he explained it all to us. He was very keen on saying that history repeats itself and drawing parallels between what happened then in Spain and what is happening now in the US. It is quite chilling and depressing.

 

I won’t detail Cathy’s adventure as she was attached by a giant cockroach as she was in a bathroom at a restaurant. We won’t return to that restaurant.

 

At the end of the tour, we went shopping for gifts. We walked through the Gothic Quarters maze of streets guided by Google Maps. It is amazing the maps are accurate in this maze. Tonight, we walked through the maze again to a fish dinner at Estimar, an excellent fish restaurant. We had probably the biggest and juiciest oyster we have ever had. Among other fish delights we had Turbo which is almost never available in Los Angeles. We then navigated ourselves back to our hotel. Tomorrow, we take the bullet train back to Madrid.

 

We feel more comfortable navigating in Barcelona, and it is a beautiful city with gorgeous architecture. Unfortunately, it is overrun by tourists. Our hotel, The Mercer, is an architectural gem located in the middle of the Gothic Quarter.