Flower Bouquet at La Rambla dels Flors

Colorful Flower Bouquet at La Rambla dels Flors - Barcelona

Not faraway from the animal stalls in my previous post we come across Rambla dels Flors or Rambla de Sant Josep.

Spring is coming and there is a sudden outburst of colors chiefly in the mornings when flowers are still fresh and flashy. The sound of birds and the exuberant plants on both sides of the promenade make strolling down Las Ramblas quite a pleasant experience, but as I said, in the early hours when the streets are less crowded.

The combination of flowers in this bouquet really caught my attention. I don't do wedding photography but the bride would surely look spectacular holding one of these.

Exotic animals at La Rambla: Iguana

If I am not in a mistake (you know that classifying animals is not my specialty) this is a green iguana. Exotic specimens like this can be bought in some of the several animal stalls at La Rambla, to be more precise at La Rambla dels Estudis, also known as La Rambla dels Ocells (Birds). The stalls give color to the walk, both those selling animals or the ones selling flowers, and are part of the history of this famous street. But there have been protests against animal vendors by animal rights activists. The City Council is trying to regulate vendors' activities and surely will end up reconverting the 14 stalls as there is a project to open interactive information stands for tourists on the same place. In the meantime they are still there as their business is totally legal thanks to a permit granted by the City Council itself. I reckon animals should live in better conditions but owners and their families should be compensated properly too.

FC Barcelona - Real Madrid Fever At Las Ramblas, Barcelona

Barça - Madrid yesterday ended up 3 - 3 thanks to a wonderful hat trick scored by Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi. Those of you who don't like soccer and prefer other sports please skip this part. As you know whenever there's an important match like this, Barcelona is somewhat soccer-dependant for one day. We decided to take a walk down Las Ramblas (I took some more pictures of human statues for my set at Flickr) and you could feel the prematch mood flowing in the wind. Lots of tourists and locals wearing Barça uniforms and even some very "happy" fans betting on who was able to run in Barça underwear around Plaça Catalunya like this young follower. Here is one of Las Ramblas street artists, in this case a man kicking the ball nonstop with every possible part of his body. I lost my count and get bored so I kept on going. By the way there is a man called the Maradona of las Ramblas doing the same stuff, who had the Guiness record for this activity and has even a fan club.