Life's a beach in Barcelona. (Barcelona)

Member Name: Picasso

Product:	Barcelona
Date:	16/01/06 (799 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A city with plenty of culture and great places to eat

Disadvantages: Pickpockets

Catalonia lies in the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsular and occupies six per cent of Spain. The wonderful city of Barcelona is it's capital and we were there for four days late September 2004. The city is divided into three main sight seeing areas, The Old Town, Eixample and Monjuic. All three are completely different. For my review, I have taken each area and highlighted my favourite places.

THE OLD TOWN

La Rambla.
Said to be Spain's most famous street, this tree-lined avenue has stall after stall selling everything imaginable. Exotic flowers, local crafts and even colourful parakeets. This is a thriving pedestrian thoroughfare, cutting through the old town all the way down to the port and the beach. In-between stalls, you will find many street artists including fire eaters and human statues. Put a coin in their boxes and they will perform for you, let you take photographs and give children sweets. This is a great area to take refreshments too. Sit with a long cold drink and some tapas, take the weight off your feet and simply watch the world go by. A voyeuristic heaven!

Barcelona Cathedral.
The building of this beautiful gothic church begun in1928 but was not completed until early in the twentieth century. It was built on the foundations of a Roman temple and Moorish mosque. A white marbled choir screen depicts the martyrdom of Saint Eulalia, the city's patron. There are a couple of elevators, which will take you to the cathedral's terraces. Here you can walk a short distance and take in the phenomenal views. A word of warning here, there wasn't much room for people passing and if like me you don't have a head for heights, you might want to pass on this. I definitely had a case of vertigo and clung to the terrace walls for dear life.

Museu Picasso
Well I had to visit the museum of my old namesake didn't I? This is one of Barcelona's most popular attractions and houses over three thousand of Picasso's paintings, sketches and ceramics.

The Old Town has it's own Arc De Triomf and other places worth visiting are the Monument Colum. This is a 200 feet column with a statue of Columbus at the top. Again, a lift will take you to the viewing platform for views over La Rambla. I managed this, there was more room to move and the views were fantastic. A great place to take photos. Visit Port Olympic too, built for the 2002 olympics, this is a trendy area of town, with fashionable yachts and a bustling café culture.

For the children, try the beautiful park of Parc de la Ciutadella, which has a large boating lake, wonderful gardens with picnic areas and scores of parrots living in the palm trees. Parc Zoologic is also popular with children. Unlike most zoos, the animals are separated by moats and not kept in cages. The zoo is home to many primates, the most famous being Snowflake, a rare albino gorilla who sadly died shortly after our visit.

EIXAMPLE

La Pedera (or otherwise known Casa Mila).
This is a corner apartment block designed by Gaudi and is eight floors high, around two circular courtyards. There are no straight walls in the building. We took a tour with headphones provided. The place is like something from a fairy tale especially when you go to the roof area. Here the colourful sculptures air ducts and chimneys have such a threatening appearance they are known as witch scarers. The rood top view is remarkable.

Sagrada Famila.
Described as Europe's most unconventional church, the Sagrada is certainly unique and is the greatest work of Gaudi. He lived and worked on the site for sixteen years, becoming a recluse. He is buried in the crypt. At his death only one tower of the façade had been completed, but work continued after the Civil War and has continued to do so. It was still going on at the time of our visit. And guess what? Yet another elevator to take you to the top. Not recommended, the lift is small and claustrophobic. When you see pictures of Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia is usually on them and is probably the number one tourist attraction.

MONJUIC

There are lots of museums in this area and far to many to write about. The one attraction that does stand out is: -

The Olympic Stadium. (Estadi Olimpic de Monjuic)
The original façade has been preserved from the 1936 Olympics. The seating area increased to 70,000 for those of 1992.


Getting around all the attractions is exhausting. In late September the temperature was between 30 and 33 degrees and didn't drop much in the evening. By day three we were flagging and decided to spend some time on the beach, which was walking distance from our hotel. Be careful where you pick your spot, as a wide stretch is a nudist area. If you want to go stark naked, then you need to know that a pedestrian areas run alongside the beach and there is no shortage of spectators. The beach was clean and the water very welcoming.


GETTING AROUND BARCELONA

Buses are fairly cheap and taxis for two or more people can be as cheap especially when going short distances. The most popular form of transport however is the Barcelona Metro. There are five hundred underground lines and many saver option tickets to be bought. The downside to the metro, is the number of reported pickpockets. We met several people who had been victims. There is also the Bus Turista, the open top sight seeing bus and my favourite form of travel. We bought a two day pass for around £8, having got discount by buying from our hotel.

RESTAURANTS

Eateries are in abundance, from tapas bars to fine dining, there are hundreds. Eat out by the beach at Agua, a very fashionable place or experience authentic Catalan dishes at the many restaurants and cafes in La Rambla.

ACCOMMODATION

Again to suit all budgets, from campsites, hostels, pensions, budget and medium priced hotels to luxury apartment and hotels, Barcelona has them all. We stayed in the Husa Barcelona Mar, which was set back from the beach and therefore quiet. This enabled us to get a good night's sleep, which we certainly needed. Husa is a chain and I found the details of this hotel in a Superbreaks brochure. I visited the hotel's website and managed to get a cheaper deal. We paid £80 per night for a large, air conditioned room with buffet breakfast. For a city price, I thought this reasonable.

FLIGHTS

Flights to Barcelona are now very cheap. I have seen flights from Manchester as low as £15. We had enough points on our credit cards to cover return flights with Iberia.

OVERALL

We had a wonderful time. I would definitely recommend a visit to Barcelona. It is a city full of culture, good food and has an excellent climate. Experience La Rambla and chill out people watching and finally spend some time on the beach. What more could you want? We didn't cover all we wanted to see on our visit - the question is, will we go back?

Hasta La Vista? Si!

Summary: A Spanish city