July 27: walk to Palau Güell
From Santa Maria del Mar I gradually rambled back toward El Raval.
4135
"Carl, I really feel like we're being watched." "It'll pass, honey. Just try to relax and enjoy the sights." These guys are, incongruously, right at the southwestern corner of Santa Maria del Mar.
4137
Just down Carrer dels Abaixadors, by Carrer de les Caputxes, a fine harvest of rebar mesh.
4138
At the southeastern end of the Plaça de Victor Balaguer along Carrer de la Nau, an exposed party wall saturated with truncated floor beams.
4139
The beams as well as the crags in the masonry are, predictably, popular with the pigeons.
4141
At the edge of the craggy wall is this fragment of another wall, finished with stone on the righthand side, as well as an unnerving back-of-sign graffito.
4144
Crossing Via Laietana near the seaward edge of the Ciutat Vella, looking out toward Barceloneta.
4147
Laietana slicing like a laser through the Ciutat Vella — and beyond: it continues through the Eixample as the Carrer de Pau Claris. The building on the mountainside is perhaps the Gran Hotel La Florida on the northeastern slope of Tibidabo.
4149
A grand bridge over the Carrer d'Àngel J. Baixeras, an order of magnitude longer than the Arlet one.
4150
It seems unlikely that a fleet of postal vehicles could be characterized as cute, and yet here we are.
4154
The sunny side of the bridge.
4157
A sky L somewhere along Carrer d'En Gignàs.
4158
These illuminated crosses, often with animated lights, are ubiquitous harbingers of farmàcies, as you've perhaps noticed already.
4159
Wow, this Carrer's name is totally metal.
4165
Hmm. Unexpected. This is at Carrer dels Escudellers across from Carrer Nou de Zurbano.
4167
Yet another building bridge, a multistory one, particularly appealing with its bay window despite a somewhat dilapidated state. This is nearly the full extent of Carrer Nou de Zurbano, which crosses into the Plaça Reial under the bridge. The southwestern arcade of the Plaça can be seen beyond.
4168
Then out to the Rambla at Carrer d'Escudellers. The statue is a monument to the playwright Frederic Soler, created in 1906 by the sculptor Agustí Querol and the architect Pere Falqués.