The travels of Tim and Megan: Barcelona, Spain

Saturday

It was a very early start on Saturday morning, after a late night at the Black Eyed Peas concert. We reluctantly crawled out of bed at about 4.30am and we got picked up by the mini cab at 4.50am, bound for London City Airport. It was a really quick trip to London City – about 20 minutes – so we actually got there a touch early. Our flight departed at 7.00am and we arrived in a much warmer, sunnier Barcelona at 10.15am Spanish time.

Barcelona is the capital and most populous city of the “Autonomous Community of Catalonia” and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of over 4.2 million in its wider urban area. The city also hosted the 1992 Olympic Games and, today, Barcelona is the 12th-most-visited city in the world and fourth most visited in Europe (after London, Paris and Rome). Catalonia is one of the 17 Autonomous Communities of the Kingdom of Spain. It comprises an area of more than 32,000km squared in the north-east corner of Spain, bordering France and Andorra to the north, Aragon to the west, the Valencian Community to the south and the Mediterranean Sea to the east. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish and Aranese.

Catalonia, along with the Basque Country and Galicia, was set apart from the rest of Spain as a “historical nationality” and given the automatic right to autonomy, which resulted in the 1979 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. The rest of Spain, in a process spearheaded by Andalusia and completed by 1985, carved itself into 14 additional Autonomous Communities that drafted their own Statutes of Autonomy. Since 2003, there has been a round of amendments to the various Statutes of Autonomy (including Catalonia's). Both the 1979 Statute of Autonomy and the current one, approved in 2006, state that “Catalonia, as a nationality, exercises its self-government constituted as an autonomous community in accordance with the Constitution and with the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which is its basic institutional law”. The people of Catalonia, in particular, have always seen themselves as being Catalonian rather than Spanish and have fought for their right of independence from the rest of Spain.

As it turned out, the hotel we had chosen was in the most perfect location imaginable. Not only was it in Barcelona's largest and most central square, the Placa Catalunya, right at the top of the famous Las Ramblas boulevard, but it also happened to be where the airport bus arrives to, and departs from, the city. So our 30 minute bus ride from the airport to the city centre landed us on the doorstep of our hotel. The hotel was called Hotel Medium Monegal and was very basic, but clean, tidy and cheap relative to central city prices!

We stopped in at a cafe at the top of Las Ramblas for a juice, while they got our hotel room ready. Then we checked in and had a shower before setting off to explore the city! Las Ramblas is Barcelona’s best known street, a 1.2km long tree-lined pedestrian street. We wandered down the busy street, stopping to look at the stalls and shops along the way. Las Ramblas is popular with buskers and street performers. There were a lot “freak show” kind of performers dressed as goblins, monsters, aliens, transformers, the invisible man…you name it, they were on Las Ramblas! Our personal favourite was the guy dressed as a transformer (photo below).

About half-way down we found the amazing “La Boqueria Market”. A ‘quick look’ took a lot longer than expected, as the market is enormous. All of the food looked incredibly fresh and top quality. They had amazing fruit and veges, meat, cheeses, fish, flowers, eggs, chocolates and lollies, all sorts. They even had a few tapas bars sprinkled throughout the market, which appeared to be very popular! We managed to resist shopping up a storm and just bought a fresh pineapple and kiwifruit drink, which was delicious!

We continued our walk down Las Ramblas and then ducked off into some side streets and cut through some pretty squares before stumbling upon a tapas bar. We weren’t massively hungry, but we enjoyed a few tapas and a cold drink before continuing on towards the port and the beach.

We wandered through the impressive Port Vell marina area, one of a few waterfront harbour areas developed prior to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. We admired the dozens of expensive yachts as we made our way to the Barceloneta Beach. One of the massive bonuses of Barcelona over other European cities must be its stunning beach, right on the edge of the city. We relaxed on the golden sandy beach for a couple of hours, along with several hundred others!

In the evening, we visited the Picasso Museum, which houses one of the most extensive collections of artworks by the 20th century Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso. This is one of the most popular and most visited museums in Barcelona. The museum is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces in Barcelona's La Ribera district (photo below). The original idea for the museum came from Picasso’s lifelong friend, Jaume Sabartes. Picasso had given Sabartes many paintings, drawings and prints during the course of their friendship. The museum first opened in 1963 and the original collection was made up of Sabartes donation (574 works), the items that Picasso had previously given to the city of Barcelona, those that had previously been in the possession of the city’s museum of modern art plus other gifts from Picasso’s friends and collectors.

After Sabartes death in 1968, Picasso himself donated a large number of items to the museum, including approximately 1,000 items of his early work which his family had been keeping for him ever since the time he first settled in France. This included school books, academic pieces and paintings from Picasso’s Blue Period. There are now more than 3,500 works making up the permanent collection of the museum. Picasso arrived in the city in 1894, when his father, an art teacher, had found work teaching in the city art school. Highlights of the collection include two of his first major works, “The First Communion” (1896), and “Science and Charity” (1897). In particular, the Picasso Museum reveals Picasso's relationship with the city of Barcelona, a relationship that was shaped in his youth and adolescence, and continued until his death.

We really enjoyed the museum – it was very well set out and there was plenty of information. We thought there was perhaps too much of his earlier work and not enough of his later, abstract work, which we really like. But it was still excellent and we would recommend it!

After a long day, we grabbed a bottle of Spanish red wine and rested in the hotel room for a couple of hours. We were tricked a little by the long daylight hours and the noise coming up off Las Ramblas. Before we knew it, it was 9pm – and still daylight! There were masses of people all over Las Ramblas in the evening – some of whom were constantly blowing whistles for no apparent reason. It seems that the more noise you can make the better in Barcelona! There was also a brass band that played right beneath our hotel window for an hour or more. It really was a brilliant atmosphere. Once we realised the time, we got going and headed out for some dinner.

Megan had found a brilliant tapas bar where we tried to go for dinner, but the place was packed, so we had to turn to a Plan B, which was wandering the streets of the Old Town until we found another tapas bar. It didn’t take long. We had a really nice dinner and then walked across the courtyard to another tapas bar, called Taller de Tapas, for dessert and a drink.

Sunday

We had a sleep in on Sunday and left the hotel a bit after 10am in search of some breakfast. We discovered a solid little cafe on Las Ramblas, where we got a ham baguette, pains aux chocolats, orange juice and coffee for under 10 euros. Very nice.

We decided we would see a bit more of the city, so we headed to the Placa de Sant Jaume to join the “Fat Tire Bike Tours” city tour, which departed at 11am. It proved to be a very popular tour, as 40 people turned up to do it! We were split into two groups and our group had an Aussie guy called Buddha as our leader. Aside from being very funny and enthusiastic, he had an in-depth knowledge of anything and everything there is to know about Barcelona’s history and attractions. The tour lasted for four hours and the cycling component was very easy – it was pretty much all flat and the pace was leisurely. We also stopped loads of times to view attractions and listen to Buddha’s yarns. The tour began in the Placa de Sant Jaume, which is flanked by the Casa de la Ciutat (Barcelona's town hall) on one side and the Palau de la Generalitat (Catalonia's seat of government) on the other side.

Next stop was the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat (City History Museum), in the Placa del Rei (King’s Square), where the former Royal Palace was located during the Middle Ages. In fact, the steps leading up to the entrance to the beautiful old building are the very steps that Christopher Colombus stood on when he begged Queen Isabella for money to fund his search for the “New World” in 1492. The museum features the most extensive subterranean Roman ruins in the world, dating from the 1st century BC to the 8th century AD. Visitors can view the streets and squares of Roman Barcelona, when the city was known as 'Barcino'.

A hop, skip and a jump away is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St Eulalia, more simply known as the Barcelona Cathedral. It was constructed between the 13th and 15th centuries, although the amount of scaffolding plastered all over the cathedral suggested it was still under construction. The cathedral is dedicated to Eulalia, a young girl who, according to Catholic tradition, suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Christians during Roman times in this city. There appear to be various stories of her martyrdom, but according to Buddha, the girl was put into a barrel full of knives, broken glass and other nasty things and rolled around the streets. Amazingly, she survived that ordeal but was then nailed to an X-shaped cross and burned alive. The cathedral has a secluded Gothic cloister where 13 white geese are kept, one for each year of Eulalia’s age when she was killed.

Little did we know that Barcelona has its very own Arc de Triomf, a smaller red-brick version of the famous Paris landmark. The Barcelona Arc de Triomf was built for the 1888 Universal Exhibition in the city, as its main access gate. It leads into a wide promenade connecting with the Parc de la Ciutadella (the city park). The park was established in the mid-19th century and was, for a time, the only park in central Barcelona. Its 70 acres contains the city's substantial zoo, the Parliament of Catalonia, a lake, several museums and a rather impressive fountain partly designed by Antoni Gaudi (1852 - 1926). Gaudi is surely Barcelona's most famous son and is responsible for so many unique and extravagant building and landscape designs. In truth, Gaudi was still a student of architecture when he assisted in the design of the fountain, which is why it appears very mainstream compared with some of his more famous creations! Nonetheless, it is a beautiful fountain.

We stopped in the park for a rest and to take some photos, but our break was cut short when a rather officious steward started ranting at Buddha, complaining that our bikes were blocking the path and that we had to move on. Our bikes were not even blocking the way, but we agreed to leave anyway. Not content with that, as we were leaving, he was still ranting at us and waving his arms around. Surprisingly, he did not have a whistle, although it’s possible he swallowed it in all the kerfuffle.

Next we cycled north, towards the famous Sagrada Familia. On the way, we stopped outside Barcelona’s bull ring. Bull fighting is not particularly popular in Catalonia – it is more of a southern Spain thing and the Catalonians have never been hugely in to it. However, when the Catalonian Parliament banned bull fighting a few years ago, the Catalonians turned up in their droves to watch the next scheduled bull fight…just to make it abundantly clear that laws in Catalonia mean next to nothing!

The Sagrada Familia (“Church of the Holy Family”) is an enormous, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction since 1882 and is not expected to be completed until at least 2026, although many believe that it will never be completed. The Sagrada Familia was designed by Gaudi, who worked on the project from 1883 and devoted the last 15 years of his life entirely to the endeavour, selling all of his worldly possessions and resorting to living inside the construction site of the church.

The most striking aspect of the Sagrada Familia is its spindle-shaped towers. A total of 18 tall towers are planned (although only about half of them have been constructed so far), representing (in ascending order of height) the 12 Apostles, the four Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ. The existing towers are around 85m tall and it is believed that the tallest tower, that of Jesus Christ, will be double that height if and when it is completed.

Leading the list of reasons why this stunning church will probably never be completed are that the foundations that were laid in the area before the idea to build the church came about were not substantial enough to carry the weight of the church (and then some smart people went and put a metro station directly beneath the site, after construction had begun) and also that there is no government or Vatican funding for the construction to help with the astronomical costs.

Our tour continued south to the 'Port Olimpic', an area transformed for the 1992 Olympics from an old industrial waterfront to a stunning area of apartments, a marina full of more impressive looking yachts and 4km of picturesque promenade and sandy beaches (Barceloneta Beach and Sant Sebastia Beach). We also had a lovely view along the beaches to Montjuic hill, home to a number of attractions, including the Spanish Village and Olympic stadiums from 1992. The final stop on our tour was a nice little beach bar at Sant Sebastia Beach, where we stopped for a late lunch. We had nachos, a seafood salad and a jug of delicious sangria. The beach was absolutely packed!

The bike tour ended at 3pm and we discovered that our tour leader, Buddha, had recently opened a pub, not far from the bike tour shop. So we, along with three Australians from the tour, went to check it out. We sat there for a couple of hours and drank some delicious sangria and beer. Buddha joined us for a beer for a while before he had to take off to do his second 4-hour bike tour of the day!

In the evening, the two of us set off to see some of Gaudi's creations. The Casa Mila is an eight-floor apartment building that was designed by Gaudi and built between 1905 and 1910 for a wealthy couple, Rosario Segimon and Pere Mila. Gaudi designed the building with curved walls to give the impression of it being under water. In fact, the only straight lines in the building are the floors and ceilings! We just saw the outside of Casa Mila, but then we walked down the street a block or two to Casa Batllo, where we decided to tour the inside of the building.

Casa Batllo is a block of flats that, unlike Gaudi's other works, involved the conversion of an existing building. Commissioned by Josep Batllo, the building was remodelled and restored by Gaudi between 1904 and 1906. It was originally designed for a middle-class family, situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona. Today, it has been separated into several different apartments, some of which are still lived in.

The spectacular facade (pictured below), complete with curved walls and windows, has been said to represent waves on a stormy day, while some people have nicknamed the building "the house of bones" due to its skeletal appearance. The inside of the building is unreal. The ground floor, in particular, is astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work. As with the Casa Mila, it seems that the goal of Gaudi was to avoid straight lines completely. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the sword of St George (patron saint of Catalonia), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon.

We are so glad that we did the tour, it was excellent. The audio guide that was very informative. We both decided that we are massive Gaudi fans and that we would love to live in a house like Casa Batllo! After freshening up back at the hotel, we went out and grabbed some dinner at a foccaceria called Buenas Migas. The food was delicious and it was really good value.