The View from the Top

Yesterday we took a detour from our walk along Las Ramblas, Barcelona's most famous street, and ventured into the Gothic Quarter which borders Las Ramblas.  The Gothic Quarter, the medieval section of the city, is a labyrinth of narrow streets.  Here we visited Barcelona's Cathedral.  The Gothic Cathedral was begun in 1298 on the site of an earlier Romanesque church, and it was completed 150 years later.  However, the front of the Cathedral was very plain, and in the late 1800s, during the era when "Modernista" architects were adorning the city with fanciful buildings, an ornate neo-Gothic facade with three spires was added.

The interior of the Cathedral is very impressive.

While exploring the church, we noticed that for 3 euros you can take an elevator to the roof of the Cathedral.  I don't know if this is new or not, but I had not noticed it on previous visits.  Since it didn't involve climbing steps (we had our fill of medieval staircases at the Alcázar of Segovia and the Cathedral of Valencia), we paid our 3 euros and went up.

The view from the top is definitely worth the price of admission.