Today we took it easy – even by our standards. Our guide book includes a number of self-guided walking tours, so we decided to check out the walk through the area where we are staying. I’ve already covered many of the more famous buildings on previous posts, so instead I’ll talk about the more unusual things.

First stop was a courtyard / park built beside a water tower. You enter through a nondescript covered alley. Without the guide book, you would never know there was anything there. But once inside, you will find a small park with trees, benches, a wading pool and a sand beach, with fresh sand brought in every summer. The original late nineteenth century plan for this area included features like this to make the neighbourhood more livable, and because the beach was, you know, so far away.

Another pleasant feature of this apartment is that every quarter hour (only during the day, fortunately) a local church bell rings. Today we found the bell.

The church had originally been in the old city, but when this district was being built in the 1880’s they wanted to give it a little character, so the old church was dismantled, stone by stone, and moved to the new location.

In a bit of artistic license, or fancy, the bell tower came from a completely different church.

To end the day, something completely different. I have a weaknesses for interesting beer, which often means micro breweries. This is not something I expected to find in Barcelona, but I discovered one has recently opened here. The brewery is open for tastings on Friday evenings but it doesn’t have a liquor license, so it has to operate like a private club. You register for the “event” online, and then show up at the door of a seedy looking warehouse where your name is checked against the “guest list” before being admitted. But once inside, it looks very familiar.

A sampling of the local favorites was a great way to end the week.