Barcelona Spanish city

Today, Barcelona, in some ways the most European of Spanish cities, is big (pop. 1,755,000), rich, and commercial. Catalans are famous throughout Spain for their business acumen (and in some quarters parodied for their supposed stinginess), and young people seeking commercial advancement are drawn here from all parts of the Iberian Peninsula. In addition to being the country's major port and second-largest city, Barcelona is the publishing and literary capital of Spain. It's also a political centre, as the large and active autonomous government of Catalonia, the Generalitat, is based here.

Exaggerated catalanisme on the part of a militant minority, though, could threaten to increasingly squeeze out the use of Spanish in educational, political, and cultural life, and mire Catalonia in cultural and linguistic parochialism (a few Catalans will even refuse to speak to foreign vIsItors in Spanish).

El Bulli Restaurant Barcelona

But in spite of such flaws, Barcelona has a vitality and resilience that bodes well for the future. It has become a favoured destination for Europeans who lIke theIr bIg cItIes to have more than just a cathedral and an art museum. Scores of excellent restaurants attest to the Barcelonan love of good food and the vanety of the regIonal dishes. If you are a lover of great food and you plan to hire a car from Barcelona Airport, drive two hours north to Roses where you will find the fantastic restaurant, El Bulli. With three Michelin stars, El Bulli was voted ´best restaurant in the world´ in 2008 by Restaurant magazine. Chic designer fashion boutiques attract.

Visitors, as do some of the finest Art Deco-style buildings in Europe, including the Palau de la Musica Catalana, the embodiment of modernisme. This building reflects the city's love of music; many residents belong to choral socIetIes and choIrs, and the young usually join societies to learn regional dances such as the sardana.

Barcelona spent hundreds of millions of dollars as host of the 1992 Olympic Games to let the world know it was ready for the 21st century. In addition to hosting a feast of sport, the games triggered a massive clean-up and improvement of the city. Working class areas like Vall d'Hebron now have sports facIlItles and the Villa Olimpica (Olympic Village) remains as a living community. The CIty spent over €100 million on the construction of 20 new hotels and built a €150-million terminal at Aeroport del Prat which is second in passenger numbers only to Madrid Airport.

But while impressive, all the Olympic-inspired construction fails to capture the essence of the city. To find this, you must see the sardana, or walk through the Barri Gotic some evening at dusk, when voices are sometimes heard softly singing medieval madrigals as though the spirits of the past were alIve. Such moments embody the true spirit of Barcelona.

Things to see and do in Barcelona

There are excellent panoramic views of Barcelona, its harbor, the foothills of the Pyrenees, and the Mediterranean (on a clear day you can see the Island. of MaJorca, some 125 miles away) from the top of Tibidabo, a 1,745­foot hIll on the northwest side of the city. Tibidabo is crowned with an amusement park; a quasi-Gothic church (built early in this century), which is lit up at night; and the needle-like Torre de Collserola, an 800-foot telecommunications tower designed by noted British architect Norman Foster to symbolize Barcelona's perception of itself as "the city of the future." To get to Tlbldabo, take the FFCC train to Avinguda del Tibidabo, change to the blue tram, and take It one stop to Peu del Funicular, where you can take the funicular to the Parc d'Atraccions del Tibidabo (Tibidabo Amusement Park).

Check the park's opening hours wIth the tourist offIce before setting out, however, because It´s not open every day and it closes fairly early. At other times, do as the locals do and get off after the tram ride and walk across the square at the foot of Tibidabo to La Venta (an old cafe expanded into a large restaurant with an attractive terrace, where the contemporarily accented Catalan and Basque dishes are decent but pricey). Or stop for drinks at one of the bars across the square.

Places to visit in Barcelona

The city's oldest buildings of historic and artistic interest are located in the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter), the old medieval heart of Barcelona. Just southwest of the Barri Gotic is the city's most colourful and animated promenade, La Rambla (also known, in the plural, as Les Rambles-in Spanish, Las Ramblas), alternately sordid and sophisticated as it stretches from the Plaça de Catalunya down to Barcelona harbour. In 1858, after the walls of the old city had been razed, Barcelona expanded north and west into the Eixample (Ensanche in Castilian-literally "enlargement" or "expansion"), a grid pattern of wide streets, grand boulevards, and chambered blocks designed by visionary city planner Ildefons Cerda.

The Avinguda Diagonal and the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, two of modern Barcelona's major streets, cut across this chessboard, which is the city's special pride because of the unparalleled late 19th- and early 20th-century architecture found here, including a number of Gaudi's most interesting works. To the south of the Barri Gotic and the Eixample, beginning to rise almost at the foot of La Rambla, is Mt. Montjulc, a 700-foot hill that provides a seaside counterpoint to Mt. Tibidabo at the other end of the city (the name, according to one theory, means "Jewish Mountain" because at one time it was the site of a Jewish cemetery). Here you'll find the Parc de Montjuic, the city's playground, with several museums, illuminated fountains, a sport and recreation area, and the site of the 1992 Olympic complex. Buildings put up to house exhibitions for the 1929 World's Fair still scale its slopes, and at the summit, the huge Palau Nacional (National Palace) overlooks the sea.

Keep in mind that, as in other Spanish cities, it is common for churches, museums, historic sites, and other places of touristic interest in Barcelona to close for one to three hours at some point between noon and 5 PM each day; hours are usually shorter on weekends than on weekdays, and schedules may vary with the season. Closing days tend to be Sundays or Mondays. When possible, it's best to call ahead for exact hours, or have a hotel or tourism office staff member do it for you. Names of historic and other sites in this chapter are usually given in Catalan, with their Castilian Spanish form, if any, in parentheses.