Catalonian Independence

It started as a typical day for a tourist in Barcelona – breakfast at the Boqueria Market, strolling around La Sagrada Familia, a few tapas, another stop for cake and expresso, strolling past the remarkable architectural wonders in the Eixample neighborhood.  By 3pm near the Gaudi designed Casa Batllo a crowd was beginning to gather wearing Catalonian flags and holding small paper banners saying “Libertat, us volem a casa” (roughly  Liberty, we want you home), and “Help Catalonia, Save Europe”.  We asked someone about the save Europe part and his answer was that because the EU supports human rights they should be supporting Catalonia’s right to vote on independence. 

Hams at at Boqueria market

Game at the market

La Sagrada Familia

Snails on a church!

Joe and Sabrina with a coffee and gelato

Bat decor on a light fixture

Casa Batllo

Woodwork detail at Casa Battlo

Independence rally

We took a wonderful tour of Casa Batllo that included some really cool virtual reality visuals on a smartphone and watched the crowd build from the windows. Through the VR you could see how the rooms would have been furnished, sea creatures emerging from the walls, and how the ventilation system worked. By the time we exited the building, there were crowds as far as we could see up and down the boulevard.  Every time a federal police helicopter flew overhead there were derisive whistles and catcalls and upraised middle fingers.  When a Catalonian helicopter flew overhead there were cheers.  The Spanish government has declared it is taking over Catalonian government (including the police) at least temporarily, although it did not dissolve the Catalan parliament.  I don’t think Catalonia will go down without a fight. (The papers the next day reported 450,000 people).

We walked along fairly easily until we got a major intersection where the crowds went in four directions.  We wormed our way through for a block reaching a more open street then continued our walk back to our apartment.