Day 344 - Las Ramblas

La Rambla is a popular 1.2 km tree-lined street in central Barcelona. La Rambla is actually a series of shorter, connected streets, and is thus referred to as 'Las Ramblas' in Spanish.

Las Ramblas is a crowded street that increasingly caters to tourists. You will likely find more tourists than locals, and thus the street has lost much of its authentic, local character. Food quality is poor, prices are very high, and the street is filled with a carnival type atmosphere. Despite its popularity among tourists, I disliked this street more with each walk, and we eventually avoided it altogether. The best part of the street are the trees, which are very pretty.

At the bottom of La Rambla is a bike station, which showcases Barcelona's latest public transit system, a community bike program called 'bicing.' With over 200 bike stations located across the city, local residents can grab a bike just about anywhere in the city. For 30 euros a year, residents get a card and can access the bikes for travel in the city up to 2 hours at a time. Genius! Unfortunately bicing is presently only available for local residents. We could have used one of these bikes on a number of occasions.