Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
popular tapas bars and takeout kiosks
(worth hunting for:
Pinoxto
and
El Quim
de la Boquería
) scattered around the mar-
ket, but it's overwhelmingly a place for food
shopping, and customers often wait two or
three deep at the most popular stalls.
La Boquería is named after the old city
gate that once stood here, when local
farmers set up outside the city walls to sell
their produce. In the 1840s, permanent mar-
ket structures began to take shape, though
the overarching steel roof wasn't installed
until 1914—the heyday of Catalonian
architecture, as it happens, which explains
the panache of that colorful, modernistic
entrance arch. Closed Sundays.
La Rambla 91 (
&
34/93/318-20-17;
www.boqueria.info).
(
El Prat (13km/8 miles).
L
$$$
Montecarlo,
Les Ramblas 124
The landmark entrance of La Boqueria market
near the Rambla in Barcelona.
(
&
34/93-412-04-04;
www.montercarlo
bcn.com). $$
Duques de Bergara,
Berg-
ara 11 (
&
34/93-301-51-51;
www.hoteles-
catalonia.com).
Open-Air Markets
8
Naschmarkt
Bazaar for Noshing
Vienna, Austria
Inside the Ring, Vienna often seems like
a city drenched in late-19th-century
nostalgia—a slow-moving dream of Vien-
nese waltzes and Germanic stodginess set
in massive gray stone. But just outside the
Ring, a more dynamic, multicultural Vienna
emerges. While Vienna has two dozen
permanent open-air markets, the hustle
and bustle is palpable at the Naschmarkt,
a picturesque collection of stalls strung
along several city blocks, just off Mariahil-
ferstrasse in the 6th district.
The name sounds like a place for nosh-
ing, or snacking (in German,
naschen
means specifically to nibble sweets), and
there's no question that Naschmarket is a
superb spot for hungry grazing. Histori-
ans, however, insist that the name was
originally “Aschmarkt,” either because it
was located by an old ash dump or
because milk was sold here from ashwood
buckets. (Perhaps it's no accident that
locals gradually let the name morph into
something more appetizing.) Whatever
the origins of the name, there's been
some sort of market here since the 16th
century; it has officially been a fruit-and-
vegetable market since 1793, migrating
from nearby Karlsplatz to the present loca-
tion in the late 19th century when the
