One of my favorite cities in Europe, Barcelona is a must-be if in the region. For all pleasures & work; sport, arts, culture, business, conferences and naturally both relaxing and having fun are well represented here.
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The Romans were around in the 3rd century and the Moors before and after that. In 1150 Barcelona became part of the Aragon Kingdom (marriage?) and 1492 became catholic. Anyway, it has always been a trading place of goods and knowledge between the arab and european worlds. Barcelona and Catalaya should have developed into its own country; the languague offten banned, the people even went to war with Spain once. Till today some tensions with Madrid still exist politically. Nevertherless, an important modern spanish city. Revamped for the olympics in 1992, now modernised to the full; metro, stadiums and good infrastructure. I would create a branch here if I had a corporation!
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| Favourite spots: |
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Barceloneta Beach Waterfront
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- the beaches, a lot of them, all clean and spacey.
- Park Guell and the parks inland.
- the marinas; Port Vell and Port Olympia
- the Rambla's (main streets) meeting at Placa de Catalunya and Ramblas the street leading down to the port where on weekends and evenings artists entertain pedestrians with music or humour.
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| What's really great: |
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Street-art near Placa de Catalanya
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- Learning Spanish again - I love it and latin music specially!
- renting a bicycle and getting really mobile. There is too much too see! Like Sabina, take your inline-skates with you. The parks and specially the waterfront are well designed for cycles and skating.
- the beaches are very active: volleyball, games, competitions...
- great mentality - work and play, enjoy life!
- the cable way across the marina
- drinking coffee or sangria on the street-side cafes and watching people go bye
- using the metro is easy and useful for suburb destinations and the airport
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| Sights: |
"La Sagrada Familia" is breathtaking & unique, a construction site started in 1882 and will apparently take till another 80 years to complete in accordance to plans of the architect Antoni Gaudi (died 1926) whose work, for me, are a good expectation of what design in the 22nd century will be like - the world is not flat, why are our buildings! That construction site amazes me and I certainly wish to go back to it in a few years.
They have started work on the main tower (Christ) which will be even higher than the four that represent the evangelists.
Model images is at:
www.gaudidesigner.com
> sagrada-familia
and a brilliant aerial picture which REALY shows the size of the project at:
www.cris86.canalblog.com
> 14 Mai 2007
Other Highlights in Barcelona are:
- Christopher Columbus Column (60m)
- Port Olympico (3km down the beach from centre)
- FC Barcelona Museum (gigantic, not only for footballers)
- Casa Batllo (also
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| Accommodations: |
We stayed at Hotel Maritima, more like a hostel, but basic and suitable since we were out all day and most the night, needed only a place to wash and sleep! There are hundreds of such small private hotels to choose from. Unless there's a major event in town, finding a hotel is simple, even in summer and near the beach!
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| Hangouts: |
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Young and lively bar at the Marina
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The central marina Port Vello at Colum and Olympico Marina offer a lot of pubs including live music.
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| Restaurants: |
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Choose those where the locals eat like in the side alleys for great offers. The many restaurants on the two piers on Barceloneta Beach are great for lunches.
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| Other recommendations: |
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Colu´m - Column of Christopher Columbus
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- hydrplain express ferries leave for Mallorca and other islands
Usefull Info and pictures:
www.catalunya.co.uk
www.donquijote.org
www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com (great!)
www.barcelona-on-line.es (hotels)
www.spanish-fiestas.com (generally Spain)
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Published on Wednesday September 15th, 2004
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Publish on Facebook
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Fri, Oct 26 2007 - 04:37 AM
 by barcelona
| Thanks you very much for writng about my dear city. |
Thu, Oct 11 2007 - 06:27 PM
 by adampl
| Rudi, maybe this report is not packed with lines of text but provides lots of useful info in a concise way. I hope to make Barcelona a stopover en route for Morocco next year and certainly this report is of help for me. Thanks for posting. |
Thu, Oct 11 2007 - 12:32 PM
by zrusseff
Spain is calling my name - I just read Downundergirl's report on Ronda, a report on Mallorca (who owns those islands? if not Spain, close enough), and not your Barcelona's report. Good job. Love the photograph of Sangrada Familia. Did the Moors control Barcelona before 3th Century? Thanks for sharing!
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Tue, Oct 09 2007 - 01:46 PM
by mistybleu
| Also an interesting report |
Wed, Sep 15 2004 - 09:14 PM
by ardelia
| Hi Rudi, I think this is one good writing and I haven't been to Spain although i have been to most part of Europe. Thanks for sharing.-Ardelia- |
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