The Rambla of Barcelona

My favorite street in the world used to be the Rambla of Barcelona. Don't get me wrong. I still love the street and it still comes near the top of the list. But I will admit that on this last visit I was a little disappointed.
 
The Rambla that I grew to love was the most fascinating street I had ever seen. Stretching from Plaça Catalunya to the Columbus statue on the harbor, this pedestrian thoroughfare was full of kiosks, bird vendors, artists, and street performers. It was the street performers I liked best.  A typical act was a man dressed as a Roman soldier and painted bronze.  He would stand on a pedestal and hold stock-still until someone put a coin in his bucket. Then he would move to another position. They were good. You had to look closely to see that they were real.
 

Street performer on the Rambla in 1994.

I remember a soccer player who spent dozens of minutes bouncing a ball on his knees, shoulders, head, and foot without ever letting it touch the ground. I swear he had a flat head. And then there was the quartet of college kids in their street clothes playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. This is just a sampling. The Rambla was a smorgasbord of unique talent and pleasure.
 
After an absence of 17 years, I was anxious to show my daughter, Kaitlyn, what the Rambla was all about. I was shocked when our first passage down the infamous street found no street performers. Maybe we came too late. Again we tried, but earlier in the day. Still nothing. We walked up and down on four or five separate occasions, and only once did we see a performer.
 

Outdoor tapas restaurant, like this one, seem to be the new trend on the Rambla.

I don't know what has changed, or if we had really bad luck. I didn't see any bird vendors either. There were still a ton of people and a lot to entertain the eye. But it wasn't the same.
 

Street artist on the Rambla in 2000.

Ariel view of the Rambla, snaking its way to the port, from our airplane window.

The word “rambla” comes from Arabic meaning a dry riverbed or sandy tract. In the olden days of Barcelona, this is literally what it was. Just outside the city walls there was a stream bed that collected sewage and was an important drainage. In medieval times it was decided to extend the city walls to include El Raval and the riverbed was diverted. Gradually it turned into a street.
 
Technically, the stretch from Plaça Catalunya to the Columbus statue has several names: Rambla de Canaletes, Rambla dels Estudis, Rambla de Sant Josep, Rambla dels Caputxins, and Rambla de Santa Mònica. There are other Ramblas in Barcelona such as Rambla de Catalunya and Rambla del Raval, but none of them have enough notoriety to be known simply as “La Rambla.”
 

The Font de Canaletes.  Legend says that if you drink from this fountain you will fall in love with Barcelona and always return.

Today the Rambla is a wide promenade with plane trees growing on the sides for shade. One lane of traffic flanks each side. There are many landmarks along the three-quarter mile stretch, including La Boqueria food market, the oldest and largest in the city. The Liceu Theater, an opera house is little further down.
 
Our daily strolls also came with a somber note. It was on this street less than a year ago that an act of terror horrified the city of Barcelona. Beginning near Plaça Catalunyua, a man in a white van jumped onto the Rambla and zig-zagged for nearly half a mile, destroying anything in his path. The vehicle finally became disabled on the Joan Miró mosaic that lies near the center of the promenade. The killing spree left 13 dead and 130 injured.
 

Joan Miró mosaic that lies in the center of the Rambla.

On one of our final walks along the Rambla, Kaitlyn and I tried to take it all in. We inhaled the smells of the sidewalk cafes, listened to the jumble of languages, and even sat down and watched people walk by. Then we came to a tree, one of the many plane trees that gives shade to the walkway. On the mottled white bark were many notes, written in Spanish, Catalán, and English.  They all paid tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack.  One of them read:
 
“Once again an act of terrorism . . . This time in my beloved city. You have left a hole in our heart and in our many families. Forever Barcelona ♥ No more victims”