| Barcelona
General Information |
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Population: 1.5 million
Country: Spain
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +1 hour in winter, +2 hours during daylight-saving
time (last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October)
Telephone Area Code: none, though all Barcelona numbers start
with 93
Weather: Barcelona enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with cool winters
and hot summers. For sun and celebrations, the best months to
go are May, June and September. The heat is at its harshest in
July and August, with highs sometimes reaching
37 °C (98.6°F).
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Barcelona is a city with charming streets, busy with people and
full of life. There is nowhere better to make Barcelona's acquaintance
than La Rambla, the bustling avenue, famous for the vivid colours
of its flower stalls. |
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Barcelona
is the city of marvels. The old town, comprising the Gothic Quarter,
the Ribera and Raval districts, and famed for its historical monuments,
narrow streets and bohemian atmosphere, is a perfect place for a
stroll. A wander through the maze of streets is essential in order
to understand the different periods in the history of Barcelona
and to admire its finest monuments: traces of the Roman wall glimpsed
between well-preserved Gothic buildings, the remains of the Jewish
Quarter, witnesses to the industrial expansion of the 19th century
and the design of the 20th. Musicians in the medieval streets provide
the ideal accompaniment. |
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The city also has the biggest selection of modernist architecture:
a genuine open-air museum. Most of the buildings, built in this
unique style, are in the Eixample, a district planned in 1860 by
the engineer Ildefons Cerd' which constitutes a unique model of
European urban planning. The Sagrada Famalia, the Casa Batll', the
Casa Amatller and the Casa Mila are some examples of this. |
Barcelona is the
only European capital with over four kilometres of beaches where
you can enjoy the most modern amenities, the beaches are not far
form Barcelona's historical and cultural landmarks, and they have
opened up our modern and cosmopolitan city to the sea.
Today, the Olympic Harbour and the old port, the Port Vell,
are some of the main meeting places, with many bars, restaurants,
shops and recreational areas.
Barcelona is, without a doubt, a city of marvels: on
foot, by bicycle or bus, it is a magnificent spectacle which you
should not miss.
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| Events |
| Barcelona
is perhaps less chronically addicted to partying than cities in the south
of Spain, but it puts in a fair effort with some wild occasions dotting
the calendar year-round. There's plenty of dancing and a few fancy-dress
parades during the 10-day Carnaval in February/March. On April 23, the
Dia de Sant Jordi, also the Day of the Book, is a local festival celebrating
Catalunya's patron saint. The Berbena de Sant Joan (also known as La Nit
del Foc, or Fire Night) kicks off midsummer celebrations on June 23 with
drinking, dancing and fireworks. Barcelona brims with music, dance and
theatre during Festival del Grec, held from late June to August, and around
August 15 the Festa Major de Grècia sees the streets of Gràcia
decorated and full of dancing and music. The last huge hoorah of the summer
is the Festes de la Mercè, celebrated around September 24, which
includes concerts, dancing, a swimming race across the harbour, and a
correfoc (fire race). During the International Jazz Festival from late
October through the end of November, the city finally cools with some
jazz and blues. |
| Getting
There & Away |
The
airport is 14km (8.7mi) southwest of the city centre at El Prat de Llobregat.
Barcelona is a big international and domestic destination, with direct
flights from North America and many European cities.
The main train station is Estació Sants, 2.5km (1.6mi)
west of La Rambla, with some trains also stopping at Catalunya station
on Plaça de Catalunya. Only a few trains use Estació França,
1km (0.6mi) east of La Rambla.The main intercity bus station, Estació
del Nord, is 1.5km (0.9mi) northeast of La Rambla, close to Arc de Triomf
metro. |
| Getting
Around |
Rodalies
(Cercanías) train line 1 runs between the airport (zone 4) and
centre of town (zone 1). The trip costs about &euro2.15. Trains run
daily every 30 minutes from 6:13am to 11:15pm. It takes about 17 minutes
to reach Estació Sants and 23 minutes to Catalunya station.
The A1 Aerobús service runs from the airport to Plaça
de Catalunya via Plaça d'Espanya. The trip is about 40 minutes
and costs €3.30. Suburban buses EA and EN leave every 90 minutes for Plaça
d'Espanya; they take about 50 minutes and cost €1. There is generally
no shortage of taxis available to/from the centre. It's a half-hour ride
and costs about €15-18.
The metro is the easiest way to get around the city. You may
need buses or suburban trains to reach some places. And buses run along
most city routes every few minutes. You can buy multiple-trip city tickets
that offer worthwhile savings. |
| Activities |
| There
are plenty of good beaches are close by if you want to swim, but you may
want to go further out to escape the crowds. Bullfighting is not a hot
favourite in Catalunya, although you can catch it on some Sunday afternoons
in summer. Football is a religion in Barcelona, and the local team, Barça,
is one of Europe's best. The 'building' of human castels (castells) is
taken as seriously as any traditional sport; you are likely to see castellers
erecting human towers in town festivals. |
| Attractions |
La
Rambla
Five separate wide streets strung end to end, La Rambla (also
called Las Ramblas) is a tree-lined pedestrian boulevard packed with buskers,
living statues, mimes and itinerant salespeople selling everything from
lottery tickets to jewellery. The noisy bird market
on the second block of La Rambla is worth a stop, as is the nearby
Palau de la Virreina, a grand 18th-century rococo mansion, with
arts and entertainment information and a ticket office. Next door is La
Rambla's most colourful market, the Mercat de la
Boqueria. Just south of the Boqueria the Mosaíc
de Miró punctuates the pavement, with one tile signed by
the artist. The next section of La Rambla boasts the Gran
Teatre del Liceu, the famous 19th-century opera house. Below the
Plaça Reial, La Rambla becomes decidedly seedy, with strip clubs
and peep shows. La Rambla terminates at the lofty Monument
a Colom (Columbus Monument) and the harbour. You can ascend the
monument by lift. Just west of the monument, on Avinguda de les Drassanes,
stand the Reials Drassanes (Royal Shipyards), which house the fascinating
Museu Marítim. It has more seafaring
paraphernalia than you'd care to wag a sextant at - boats, models, maps,
paintings, ships' figureheads and 16th-century galleys.
Barri Gòtic
This barri contains a concentration of medieval Gothic buildings
only a few blocks east of La Rambla, and is the nucleus of old Barcelona.
It's a maze of interconnecting dark streets linking with squares, and
there are plenty of cafes and bars, as well as the cheapest accommodation
in town. Most of the buildings date from the 14th and 15th century, when
Barcelona was at the height of its commercial prosperity and before it
had been absorbed into Castile. Around the Catedral,
one of Spain's greatest Gothic buildings, you can still see part of the
ancient walls incorporated into later structures. The quarter is centred
around the Plaça de Sant Jaume, a
spacious square, the site of a busy market and one of the venues for the
weekly dancing of the sardana. Two of the city's most significant buildings
are here, the Ajuntament and the Palau
de la Generalitat.
Museu Picasso
The Museu Picasso is Barcelona's most visited museum. It's
housed in three strikingly beautiful stone mansions on the Carrer de Montcada,
which was, in medieval times, an approach to the port. The museum shows
numerous works that trace the artist's early years, and is especially
strong on his Blue Period with canvases such as The Defenceless, ceramics
and his early works from the 1890s. The second floor shows works from
Barcelona and Paris from 1900-04, with many of his impressionist-influenced
works. The haunting Portrait of Senyora Canals (1905), from his Pink Period
is also on display. Among the later works, all executed in Cannes in 1957,
are a complex technical series (Las Meninas), which consists mostly of
studies on Diego Velázquez's masterpiece of the same name.
La Sagrada Família
La Sagrada Família is truly awe-inspiring - even if
you don't have much time in Barcelona, don't miss it. Practically the
life's work of Barcelona's favourite son, Antoni Gaudí, the magnificent
spires of the unfinished cathedral imprint themselves boldly against the
sky with swelling outlines inspired by the holy mountain Montserrat. They
are encrusted with a tangle of sculptures that seem to breathe life into
the stone. Gaudí died in 1926 before his masterwork was completed,
and since then, controversy has continually dogged the building program.
Nevertheless, the southwestern (Passion) facade, with four more towers,
is almost done, and the nave, begun in 1978, is progressing. Some say
the shell should have been left as a monument to the architect, but today's
chief architect, Jordi Bonet, argues that the task is a sacred one, as
it's a church intended to atone for sin and appeal to God's mercy on Catalunya.
La Pedrera
Another Gaudí masterpiece, La Pedrera was built between
1905 and 1910 as a combined apartment and office block. Formerly called
the Casa Milà, it's better known now as La Pedrera (the quarry)
because of its uneven grey stone facade that ripples around a street corner
- it creates a wave effect that's further emphasized by elaborate wrought-iron
balconies. Visitors can tour the building and go up to the spectacular
roof, where giant multicoloured chimney pots jut up like medieval knights.
On summer weekend nights, the roof is eerily lit and open for excellent
views of Barcelona. One floor below the roof is a modest museum dedicated
to Gaudí's work.
Montjuïc
Montjuïc, the hill overlooking the city centre from the
southwest, is home to some fine art galleries, leisure attractions, soothing
parks and the main group of 1992 Olympic sites. Approach the area from
Plaça d'Espanya and on the north side
you'll see Plaça de Braus Les Arenes,
a former bullring where the Beatles played in 1966. Behind it lies Parc
Joan Miró, where stands Miró's highly phallic sculpture
Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird). Nearby, the Palau Nacional houses the Museu
Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which has an impressive collection
of Romanesque art. Stretching up a series of terraces below the Palau
Nacional are fountains, including the biggest, La
Font Màgica, which comes alive with a free lights and music
show on summer evenings. In the northwest of Montjuïc is the 'Spanish
Village', Poble Espanyol. At first glance
it's a tacky tourist trap, but it also proves to be an intriguing scrapbook
of Spanish architecture, with very convincing copies of buildings from
all of Spain's regions. The Anella Olímpica
(Olympic Ring) is the group of sports installations where the main events
of the 1992 games were held. Down the hill, visit masterpieces of another
kind in the Fundació Joan Miró,
Barcelona's gallery for the greatest Catalan artist of the 20th century.
This is the largest single collection of the his work.
Gràcia
Gràcia is one of Barcelona's most satisfying outlying
areas. It's traditionally been home to strong artistic and political communities,
students and intelligentsia, but also to a population of average joes,
who lend it a no-frills, down to earth atmosphere. Plaça
del Sol is a pleasant place to sit during the day, surrounded by
cafes and well-grounded 19th-century architecture. At night, the square
becomes a popular meeting place, with a number of bars nearby. |
| Shopping |
Barcelona's
range of shops makes it a Shopping City of international standing. In
Barcelona, traditional establishments, which date back hundreds of years
and are housed in beautiful buildings in the Gothic Quarter of modernist
Eixample, coexist with recently built shopping arcades, where you can
buy the latest fashions; long-established department stores, which sell
the most characteristic design products made in Barcelona; specialised
shops; franchise chains; leading international names; and shopping centres.
Wandering around Barcelona's streets and browsing in its shops is, without
a doubt, an unforgettable experience. The wide pavements and pedestrianised
areas are perfect for a quiet stroll. As you turn a corner you might come
across a modernist chemis't shop or an innovative window display. There
is always a surprise in store.
The city has plotted out a route for this wealth of shops:
the remarkable, five-kilometre-long Shopping Line. The route makes it
possible to visit Barcelona's main shops, which are a integral part of
its urban fabric, and, at the same time, walk around places of reat interest
ot tourists. The Shopping Line links up the city's different shopping
areas which have evolved naturally during its history, and enables people
to get from one to another on foot: the Port Vell, La Rambla, the historical
centre, The Gothic Quarter, the Pl. de Catalunya, the Eixample, the main
thoroughfare of the Diagonal and the new business and shopping district
of the Diagonal.
Visitors to Barcelona can also use the buses on the special
Tombbus service, which can be identified by the sticker Barcelona Shopping
Line. They operate along the Shopping Line from Pl. de Catalunya to El
Corte Ingl's -Diagonal and back again.
To sum up, we can say that Barcelona has a range of shops
which can be gauged in terms of quantity and quality. They provide a high
level of service and customer attention of very competitive prices, making
Barcelona an extremely attractive shopping city which is ready to deal
with the most stringent demands. |
