We had an appointment for the morning of our last day in Europe. But before the appointment, we decided to pay a quick visit to La Boqueria, an attraction very near to our hotel (and in fact reflected in the name of our hotel, the Eurostar Ramblas Boquería).

La Boqueria is a large open-air market that sells food. All kinds of food, from any food group you can think of. Everything is very fresh, and the place is lovely to look at. It has been called the best market in Europe. The full name of the market is the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, the “Sant Josep” part being a reference to a convent which was once in the area. There has been some sort of market in the vicinity since at least 1217, when a meat market is known to have existed just outside the city gates. “Boqueria” is thought to have come from the Catalan work for “goat” (boc), reflecting the fact that goat meat was commonly sold here at one time. The market existed in a number of forms over the centuries, but was not physically enclosed until the middle of the 19th Century. A metal roof was added in 1914, adorned in the modernista style that was popular at the time. More information, including a color-coded layout, can be found at the La Boqueria website.

Flowers are not sold in La Boqueria, having been evicted to an adjacent area of La Rambla. If you are walking up La Rambla and happen upon an area where flowers are sold, you should be able to turn left and see La Boqueria.

We didn’t have any trouble finding it at all, as our hotel was next door. The keepers of La Boqueria are no fools, and have made the entrance on the La Rambla side look as inviting as possible. The entrance is flanked by two meat stands (maybe not so inviting to a vegetarian, but no doubt extremely appetizing to most Spaniards and other cured meat aficianados; I didn’t notice if they still sold goat), and just inside the roofed area are some colorful fruit stands with their wares artfully displayed (the one on the left is especially pretty).




Also toward the front are vegetables, dried fruit, nuts and candies, among other things.



We arrived reasonably early in the morning (around 9 A.M.) because of our appointment later in the morning, so the crowd was lighter compared to later in the day (it peaks around lunchtime). Some of the stands were still setting up for the day.

We headed toward the back and found a huge assortment of fresh seafood.




We didn’t have too much time to look around, but apparently there are many other types of food for sale, including poultry, game and preserved foods. There are also many stands where you can get a quick bite to eat. The quality is uniformly high, but in general the prices are not particularly low. There are bargains to be had if you look hard enough, though. We actually didn’t buy anything – we’d just eaten breakfast and weren’t really hungry, and we weren’t in a position to buy anything that needed cooking or refrigeration.

After briefly looking around separately, we rendezvoused near a jamón stand (one thing Catalonia seems to have in common with the rest of Spain).

Then we headed back to the Metro station on La Rambla to set out for our appointment: a return to the Sagrada Família.