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| Ranking Among Int'l Cities/Regions: #12 |
| Venturers: 10 |
| Mid-Venturers: 10 |
| Centrics-Venturers: 10 |
| Centrics-Authentics: 9 |
| Mid-Authentics: 8 |
| Authentics: 7 |
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• Antoni Gaudi’s surreal Sagrada Familia Cathedral has been under construction since 1895
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| • Barcelona had no street names until 1770; family shields were used as identifiers |
| • Columbus’ 1493 reunion with Ferdinand and Isabella is said to have occurred in the Placa del Rei |
| • La Rambla, the city’s busiest street, was once a mountain-fed stream |
| • Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia; Catalan is one of Spain’s four official languages |
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Gaudi and beyond
You don’t have to be an art lover to appreciate Barcelona, but it helps. With the city’s eye-popping architecture (thanks to the creative Antoni Gaudi) and world class museums, even dabblers may become converts during their stay. No wonder Americans love it best among Spain’s cities. The outdoor cafe scene is alive and well, from the historic district to the waterfront; late-night music and dancing are so popular they often spill into the streets. Spacious green parks and a variety of neighborhoods, each with its own distinctive look and spirit, give the city the edgy, cosmopolitan zing for which it is known.
About Barcelona
Few European cities have blended historic and modern architecture with the panache of Barcelona, a city that relishes its Catalan roots but lives firmly in the present. Its user-friendly harbor district — revamped for the 1992 Olympic Games and further enhanced for the 2004 Barcelona Forum of the Cultures project — is a huge draw, thanks to a network of outdoor cafes, restaurants and shops that line the waterfront.
In all, there are nearly eight miles of shoreline and 2 1/2 miles of beaches in or near the city where more than 7 million visitors come each year to sunbathe on the Mediterranean, take sightseeing excursions, ogle expensive yachts or sip cocktails by the water’s edge.
Outdoor food and flower markets, cafes and tapas bars are everywhere in the city, but especially along La Rambla, the central thoroughfare and, some say, its heart. Also popular is the Collserola, one of the largest urban parks in Europe — at 10 miles long and about 3 1/2 miles wide — where visitors enjoy nature in the midst of the city. Festivals abound, and they tend to last through the night, as anyone who has tried to sleep in a hotel too close to the fireworks and merrymaking can tell you. In addition to the Old City and the waterfront, important districts include the Eixample area, characterized by streets in a grid of neat squares, and Montjuic Hill, the site of the Olympic Games.
Some 5 million visitors come to the city every year, an astonishing 2.5 million of whom stop to admire Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, considered one of the most touristed cathedrals in the world — and surely the most eccentric. A half-million or so also pay homage to the architect at the Casa-Museu Gaudi, while more than a million make time to visit the Picasso Museum. Barcelona has emerged as one of the most important cruise ports in the region, accommodating some 1.4 million passengers annually who come to town for a Mediterranean cruise.
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• See the sights by bicycle on a group excursion by Bike Tours Barcelona, which offers English-speaking guides.
• Get an aerial view of the city’s various neighborhoods on a hot-air balloon ride.
• Keep your eye out for fox, boar and wild cats — not to mention more than 130 types of birds — at Collserola park, which runs between the Llobregat and Besos rivers.
• Spend an evening at the so-called Pink Eixample, a section of the Eixample offering almost 100 bars, restaurants and shops catering to the gay community.
• Climb aboard a Golondrinas sightseeing cruise, in operation in the Barcelona port for more than 100 years.
• Get a jump on Halloween at El Rey de la Magia, one of Europe’s oldest magic shops (1881); L’Arca de l’Avia for costumes dating from the 18th to 20th centuries, and El Ingenio for a mask or fancy dress costume.
• Try the signature snail dish at the Restaurant Los Caracoles, which has been serving up the delicacy since 1835. And yes, there are many other more mainstream offerings on the menu.
• Explore the sewer systems of Barcelona at the Museu de Clavegueram, with tours daily except Monday.
• Get quirky at the Museu de Corrosses Funebres, a museum of 18th and 19th century hearses; the Museu de Cera wax museum — complete with Chamber of Horrors, and the Museu de l´Erotic, which can be seen as fascinating, humorous or alarming, depending on your point of view.
• Puff on a Havana cigar from the Casa Gimeno on La Rambla, known for the quality of its smokes — but don’t try to bring one home, as Cuban cigars are still illegal in the United States.
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• The whole family can enjoy the Poble Espanyol, a living-history museum showcasing Romanesque and Andalusian architecture, restaurants, museums and even a children’s village with crafts and games.
• Spend a day visiting the Jewish Quarter, a thriving cultural center between the 11th and 13th centuries, and look for the Hebrew plaque on the wall of No. 1 Carrer del Marlet, which was uncovered during construction in 1820.
• Save your calories for the annual four-day Chocolate Trade Fair, held in October at the Barcelona International Congress Centre where you — and 35,000 other visitors — can sample and buy products from some of the country’s top chocolatiers. The rest of the year, visit the Museu de la Xocolata for a look at the origins and uses of the confection.
• Explore the Eixample district, created in the 1850s by architect Ildefons Cerda, where streets are set in grids and shops face the streets with gardens in the inner courtyards. Or learn about the Modern Movement of architecture at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion at the foot of Montjuic Hill; the pavilion features lectures, workshops and temporary exhibitions.
• Relive history at its most gruesome at the Placa Nova, where public executions took place for centuries, including that of a notorious local bandit named Joan de Serrallonga.
• Sip a frothy suizo (hot chocolate) at a granjas cafe — they are located throughout the city — and be sure to try a local pastry, such as a melindros sponge cake.
• Wander through the Mercat de la Boqueria, the city’s best-known food market, and put together a picnic lunch to enjoy at a park or on the waterfront.
• Pick a bouquet of posies at the Rambla de les Flors, one of the places in the city dedicated solely to selling flowers; this establishment has been operated by four women of the same family for more than a century.
• Slather on the sunscreen and hit the beach. Be aware that keeping the sand and water clean has been a city priority since the waterfront revitalization project began in the ’90s.
• Try your hand at preparing a Passover meal at an annual two-day spring workshop taught by chef Janet Amateau (www.sephardiccooking.com), a school set midway between Barcelona and Girona.
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• Get around via a Barcelona Bus Turístic hop-on, hop-off tour, which takes in the city’s top attractions, and use a Barcelona Card for discounts on public attractions, museums and transportation.
• Tuck into a Catalan meal at the Els Quatre Gats restaurant, where Pablo Picasso and his contemporaries would meet for a few drinks in their heyday, and where live music accompanies the meal.
• Set aside an afternoon to visit the Fundacio Joan Miro on Montjuic, where a permanent collection honors this great artist and favorite son.
• Take a walk. This compact city is just under five miles by 5.4 miles, and there are a whopping 435 pedestrian streets to choose from.
• Shop for souvenir candles at the Cereria Subira, the oldest shop in Barcelona (1761) which still retains its original decor, or browse for sheet music at the Casa Beethoven, which has been in operation since 1886.
• Examine the world’s first submarine at the Museu Marítim (Maritime Museum) housed in the medieval shipyards at the Drassanes, considered one of the city’s most important Gothic buildings (1378).
• Make a wish at the Fountain of the Three Graces in the Placa Reial, and pay attention to the streetlights that illuminate the square; they were designed by Antoni Gaudi.
• Visit the Roman necropolis on Carrer Canuda, which wasn’t discovered until a bomb fell on the site during the Civil War in 1936.
• See a show at one of Spain’s oldest venues, the Teatre Principal, which was first used to entertain audiences in 1667.
• Delve into religious art at the Pedralbes Monastery, a complex — complete with church, dormitory and refectory — that represents the best of Catalan Gothic architecture.
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For more information, consult Barcelona Tourism at www.barcelonaturisme.com (click on English) and the Tourist Office of Spain at www.spain.info. For travel agents who are Spain Specialists, go to www.okspain.org
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