The Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) in Barcelona is a perfect place for a walk. The streets are winding and narrow, making it more fun to explore around the next corner. There are tons of boutiques that sell just about anything you can imagine, from gaudy (pun intended) tourist trinkets, to the designer clothes at the upscale boutiques of Passeig de Gracia. You’ll find a large assortment of restaurants and cafes, and in the evening you won’t have any trouble locating a place to have a drink, or go dancing. If your tastes are more art and architecture, the Gothic Quarter will not disappoint. Barcelona’s Cathedral is in the center of the district and should be one of the places that you have on your “must see” list. Many people think that Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia is Barcelona’s Cathedral, when in fact it was only just consecrated as a church in 2010. Make sure to visit both of these great landmarks. Visiting the Cathedral is free, but the visit to Sagrada Familia will set you back 12 Euros.
Speaking of Gaudi, the Barri Gotic is where you will find many of the most famous buildings that he designed, including Casa Batllo and Casa Mila. I’d suggest making plans to visit the specific places that you absolutely want to see, such as the major tourist attractions, specific boutiques, the museums, and some of the many plazas. Then, when you have had your fill of planning and doing the typical touristy things, take an evening to just meander around the smaller streets and alleyways, like the one in the photo above. I always say that in an interesting place like the Barri Gotic, you can’t get lost. You can only discover new places that you would never have had the chance to see, if you planned your route. To me, this is the best place in Barcelona to explore on foot, so bring a good pair of walking shoes!
SPAM
Over the last week, my blog has experienced the unpleasantness of being deluged by spam messages in the comment area. Over 2,000 of these spam comments have come in during the last 6 days, and I’m stuck with the task of filtering through them, to make sure that none of the good comments get deleted. I am used to getting spam, all blogs with comment forms get spam, and while it is a pain to deal with, I can handle 50 or so a day. However, now I just can’t afford to spend the time doing this anymore. I’d much rather be doing something like taking photos, writing another blog post, or eating glass shards. I was already using a spam filter (Akismet) that works well to flag the spam posts, but it wasn’t perfect. So the solution, at least the solution for the moment is, that I added one of those dreadful captchas that you have to fill out before posting a comment. Sorry! I’m the first one to hate these things, and I wish there was some other solution. So if anyone out there on the interweb can lead me to a better and more reader friendly solution, I’d be grateful.
I appreciate every single comment that is posted here on my blog, and so I hope that this won’t deter you, my beautiful, intelligent, funny, and discerning readers with awesome taste in blogs and photography (how’s that for boot licking?) from posting comments in the future.
Now pardon me as I go listen to Wagner’s RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES and chant:
Death to Spammers!!
Enjoy more travel photos and stories:
That’s a lot of spam!! I think I can handle filing in 4 characters to make a comment. :) Great shot here! I love the blue stars in it!
Captcha is fine as long as it is not freeing you up to eat glass shards. I simply will not be party to that. :)
Another great shot BTW. The coloring effect you use (total novice here) seems especially appropriate for the setting.
Simply beautiful!
Testing testing n all that . . . .
great image – the blue really pops!
Here’s a test comment using Chrome.
The stars in the image look like I’m walking through a Lightroom gallery :)
Beautiful site design and photos! Hope the captcha does the trick!
What a great nighttime view!
Great site Ken and congratulations on the Nat Geo cover, what an honour! Hope this gets through ok :)
Beautiful Barcelona street
Lovely photo…! Using Chrome to test post a comment. The tab order for the comment form works incorrectly for me – it takes me from the email field to the captcha field directly, skipping the ones in between.
Fantastic HDR. Love your Dude
I want to go to Barcelona now!
¿Vienes?
Look good works well from Geoff in U K
That’s what we use too – a combination of Captcha and a spam filter (I can’t remember if we use Akismet or the other one). That’s done the trick for us. Before, we were getting thousands of spam comments on a daily basis and now I get two to three per day. MUCH more manageable! [Just a suggestion to make it a bit more useable – it might make more sense to put the Captcha above the “Post Comment” button. My eyes tend to glaze over what’s below the Post Comment button . . . but that’s just me.
Man, I love Barcelona. The whole city screams poetry and artistry. Lovely photo!
Test it for you mate
As always another beautiful photograph!
Trust me, this photo is worth taking an extra second to enter the captcha! Beautiful!
I adore Barcelona, and this photo captures the gothic quarter beautifully.
Captchas aren’t that big of a deal, so glad you implemented it – that much spam is liable to drive anyone mad. :)
Looks good
Gorgeous photo, Ken.
Your work is certainly worth navigating a short 4-character CAPTCHA fence — great decision.
:)
Lovely photo–and love the stars! Always wanted to go to Barcelona, but never been.
P.S. Thanks for continuing to share your work with us, it’s stunning. :)
Wow, great photos – such a beautiful place. I hope to be able to visit Spain someday!
Ken — Check out Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin — it pairs well with Askimet, although some suggest it as a replacement. Requires the commenter to checkbox instead of decipher a Captcha, but it really works at stopping spam!
Great Blog. Great Photos. Congrats.
Great photo Ken. Love those blue stars! You are definitely the artist of light. I am always intrigued by your lighting and color choices. Very nice.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to test out the Captcha. I’m glad to see that it’s not that big a deal. As a bonus, I have had ONE spam comment to deal with since installing it. Needless to say, I’m very relieved about all this.
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Nathan, thanks for the tip. Since the Captcha seems to be doing the trick, I’ll stick with it for now.
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Barcelona is a great place for photography and so much else. It’s no wonder that everyone who goes there come back with positive memories. Thanks for all the great comments!
Akismet works pretty good for me although it does falsely accuse some comments sometimes. I’m not a fan of captcha either, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I like the one you’re using though, short and you can actually read it ;)
I love the vibrance and contrast of the blue stars in this shot.
Your photos are fascinating. While some painters create art that looks like photographs, your photos look like paintings!
We use Askiment and it catches most of our spam. A few messages end up going to spam that shouldn’t, but we check it every few days to be sure. Once we approve them, they never go again. I personally get annoyed with captcha, but for blogs that I follow regularly I will go through the second step (most of the time).
Deb, I get annoyed with the captchas too! I had to decide if I was going to risk deleting good comments along with the hundreds of spam ones I was getting each day, or use the captcha and deter some people from commenting. Lesser of two evils.
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If anyone has a better idea, I’d love to get your thoughts!
Gorgeous shot, Ken! I love Barcelona, especially the Barri Gotic neighborhood. I’m hoping to someday relocate there!
Beautiful shot……it looks like it has come straight from a movie set.
Great Photo! I love the stars!, sucks about the spam you are getting Aksimet has worked fine for me :/
I too love Barcelona, especially at night. But I don’t think Casa Batllo and Casa Mila are considered part of Barri Gotic, they’re a bit north of it.
El Born or the Ribera area is also fantastic at night.
I was just there last week and wish I could have stayed longer!
Nice picture. I’ve been to barcelona last summer, but there was a lot of people, not like in your picture
Beautiful picture. Oh Barcelona! Was there in 2008 and would love to get back! Maybe next year?
I also use captcha, and it works well, although it is a little frustrating for some. If only there was a way to be rid of spam completely. As for Barcelona, It is a city I liked a lot, and this photo is lovely, thank you
Nice picture. The best place in Barcelona
Most of people decide to stay in this neighborhood because is impossible don’t fall in love and I’m agree with everyone!!