Field Trip to Gothic Quarter

One of our field trips was to the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona, also known as Barri Gòtic in Spain. The Gothic Quarter in Barcelona city might have the most traces of Spanish history evident today. Walking around in the area one feels as if they are transported to the Barcelona in the Middle Ages. Its narrow cobblestone streets contain the most concentrated array of thirteenth to fifteenth century buildings in Europe. There are parish churches, town houses, government buildings, city halls, build headquarters, industrial structure, and the famous Cathedral, all dating to that time period. During our field trip one of the things we did was to go to the Santa Mart del Pi Church, which was completed in 1391. Xavi explained to us how the church was built and funded by local citizens something that really fascinated me. We went inside the church and I thought it was extremely beautiful. I really enjoy the Gothic Style and architecture used in building the church and thought the stained glass windows were really cool as well. Another thing that we did on our field trip was to see examples of apartments dating to the middle ages. An old woman even let us into one of these apartments where the tiny claustrophobic stairwell d[Photo]ated back to the middle ages. A bunch of students climbed up the stairs and stuck our head out the top window, a something that was a funny and enjoyable experience. This field trip really lead me to appreciate Barcelona's rich history in the Middle Ages.

El Raval Field Trip

Our last field trip in our Barcelona Past and Present class was to el Raval area in Barcelona, which is a neighborhood in the Ciutat Vella district that borders La Rambla and is home to 200,000 people. We started at La Rambla near Placa Catalunya and went through all of the winding streets. The area had many clothing shops and places to eat, and it was great to see all of the side streets of the famous La Rambla. Xavi took us to the MACBA building (pictured in this blog), which is the Modern Art Museum in Barcelona. While I have personally never been inside, the outside was very nice and modern, with a glass facade facing the square in front of it. Xavi also explained to us that a lot of skaters come to the area from all of Europe in order to skateboard and do tricks since it is a very respected and well-known place for modern skateboarding (see picture). When we were in one of the squares in el Raval we saw a few young skateboarders trying out some of their dangerous new tricks. One boy tried to jump about five feet, kickflip his skateboard and land, but we saw him painfully fall about 10 times. It was really hard to watch for a lot of us and I thought to myself that this boy would never be able to land such a difficult trick. Another boy was holding a camera filming the skater, I guess to record the trick if its ever landed successfully. This camera man seemed to be an injured skater, as he was limping around whenever he walked. Xavi explained to us that some skaters come to the Raval area from Germany on a very cheap bus with no money and just sleep outside at night and skate during the day. They come to Barcelona because of the nice weather during the wintertime. I could never imagine myself doing such a thing but I guess these people are really passionate about their skating hobby. I could never n be homeless for a span of time just to skate but these skaters seem to be a lot more high maintenance than me.

Roman Barcino and Museu d'Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona Field Trip

My class and I went to Barrio Gotico and the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat de Barcelona on our first class field trip . We explored remnants from ancient Rome throughout the Roman Barcino area and the museum had an amazing underground exhibition showing many Roman ruins. Even though it was forbidden to take pictures, I was still able to shadily take some with my digital camera. It was extremely interesting for me as a History Major and History buff to see actualy Roman ruins from thousands of years ago. Xavi gave us details about different Roman ruins throughout the area and the museum, including how the people of Barcelona used to excel in making wine, the Temples they built (including the remains of the temple of Augustus), and the different forms of pottery they made. I have included a picture of our class outside in Placa del Rei with Roman era buildings in the background and one picture I took underground in the museum of Roman columns and ruins.