A glimpse of the vast empire of culture and architecture
When we are planning a trip, the first thing we do is to choose what we’d like to visit, and if you are reading this your destination is one of the most important cities in Spain, but, how much do you know about the city of Barcelona? It is essential to know the place we are going to, to know which places we should visit, But do not worry about it, the point of this article is to help you out with this matter.
Where is the City of Barcelona?
Spain is divided into 17 Communities, Catalonia or Catalunya in Catalan is one of these communities. It is divided into 4 provinces: Girona, Lleida, Tarragona, and last but not least Barcelona, which is the Capital of this Community.
What to see in the city of Barcelona?
Barcelona is known as the capital of modernism because of the great quantity and quality of works that it treasures. The set of monuments and outdoor sculptures is an excellent example of public art that gives the Catalan capital, in conjunction with other elements such as its architecture a seal of distinction. Representing this architectural movement the major pieces are: the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia and its enormous symbology, Casa Milà, also known as La Pedrera of Gaudí, Casa Batlló, The “Recinto Modernista of Sant Pau”, Casa Vicens and a few ones you’ll discover in our posts.
There is also an important fact we cannot miss about the culture and history in Barcelona and it is its network of museums such as the Picasso Museum which is very famous for the big collection of Picasso´s work they have, the MNAC by its Catalan acronym is the National Museum of Catalonian Art, The Maritim Museum whit huge boats, The Wax Museum, amongst others.
On the other hand, Barcelona is a city with many “green” areas such as parks and gardens, divided between Montjuic, Parc de la Ciutadella, and the Park Güell area. These are perfect places for different activities such as going on picnics, practicing outdoor sports, and having a monumental area or museums you can visit.
Barcelona City Center and Fashion
The Historic Center is the most commercial area of the city: Portaferrisa, Pelayo, Rambla, and Portal del Angel streets combined with Plaza Catalunya are places where small stores coexist with department stores and franchises of large clothing chains.
Las Ramblas
One of Barcelona’s most attractive and crowded places is Las Ramblas, a wide promenade where newsstands, flower stands, street performers, cafes, restaurants, and stores converge. Las Ramblas starts in Plaça Catalunya and meets the Christopher Columbus Statue at the end; in between, it stumbles with La Boqueria Market where you can find the most exotic food stands ever.
Near the port, there are usually street markets and painters and artists of all kinds who express their art on the walls, highlighting the area for its artistic and cosmopolitan nature.
Barcelona Bars and nightclubs
It has become a reference center of nightlife in Spain. Currently, there are a few areas of alternative and more autochthonous public of bars and nightclubs in Barcelona. These locations are divided between the neighborhood of Gracia, in the upper part of Passeig de Gràcia, the neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo or Poble Nou in Catalan, in the old industrial area of Barcelona, north of the Olympic area, with a fairly young audience and some of the largest clubs in the city located in renovated industrial buildings and last but not least the Gothic Quarter with quite a diverse amount of bars with live music, modern cocktails, and a more bohemian ambiance that I just simply love.
How to move to the city of Barcelona?
The city has different means of transportation to make your stay more pleasant, such as buses, and subways. These are the public ones, you can find also other more eco-friendly such as Bikes, electric motorcycles, and scooters. Barcelona is a city equipped with bike lanes for this matter and mobility restrictions for electric motorcycles.
Or you can always grab a cab or rent a car, but this last option is less convenient because there are not many parking spots on the street and maybe in crowded moments there is a lot of traffic and the parking lots can be full.
Barcelona and the Football/Soccer, the FCB
Barcelona is a city with an offer of first-class sporting events, especially soccer, as it has two teams that play in the first division of the LFP: Futbol Club Barcelona (FCB) commonly known as Barça and RCD Español, in whose facilities you can see soccer, basketball, handball, indoor soccer, and roller field hockey matches. FCB is the most successful Spanish club, with seventy-four national championships, including twenty-six Spanish Leagues, thirty-one King’s Cups, two League Cups, thirteen Spanish Super Cups, and three Eva Duarte Cups. At the international level, it boasts twenty-two trophies, ranked second in Europe in three Club World Cups, five Champions League, four UEFA Cup Winners’ Cups, five UEFA Super Cups, two Latin Cups, and three Fairs Cups.
This magnificent Club has a huge complex destined for the Football Stadium (Camp Nou) and other sports spaces. We’ll leave the location so you can find it easily.
I hope you have enjoyed this little piece of Barcelona, the rest is up to you to discover and I hope we can meet here soon.
See you in my next post!
Bye-Bye
Ah! And don’t forget that traveling is much more than just seeing things; it’s a deep and permanent change of ideas, of life.
Photo by Kaspars Upmanis on Unsplash
