Barcelona
Capital of Catalunya
Doorway at Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
Barcelona is one of the most fascinating cities in Europe. The Catalan
capital is also Spain's second city and a major Mediterranean port.
Barcelona offers an amazing variety of sightseeing attractions, museums,
cathedrals, and even beaches and hill walking. The neighbouring towns of Girona and Tarragona also offer
attractive options for day tours from the city.
The city has an excellent public transportation system with an
extensive network of metro lines, buses and trams linked to regional and international train
and air services. A wide selection of ticket types offers good value access to the city's TMB
bus, metro, tram and funicular routes. These are readily available from metro stations.
Two tour companies also offer open-top guided bus tours around Barcelona. You can get on and off
as often as you like with one- or two-day tickets - useful for intitial orientation or a short
weekend trip.
Barcelona has some major sporting attractions including mighty FC Barcelona's
gigantic football stadium and the 1992 Olympic Stadium.
is Barcelona's ultimate pedestrian paradise - a broad tree-lined
boulevard where traffic is confined to a narrow lane on each side. It is the place to see, and be seen,
in Barcelona.
At night the city comes alive with restaurants, bars, live music and nightclubs
as well as cinemas, opera and a stroll down las Ramblas. The inhabitants eat late and many
restaurants and bars do not open until 9.00 pm.
Barcelona Bus
Barcelona is associated with many artists, including Picasso - there is a
museum dedicated to him. But Gaudi has probably had the most significant impact on the city,
particularly for his design of the church which has been under construction
since 1882.
In the central area of Barcelona (the Eixample) Gaudi's work is also to be
seen at the Park Guell, Palau Guell and Casa Mila La Pedrera.
The Old Town spreads north-west from the harbor and, at its heart, is
the Gothic Quarter or Barrio Gotico. El Arco de Triunfo can be found there, plus the
impressive Cathedral of Ciudad Condal.
Adjacent to the Gothic Quarter is the Barrio de la Ribera, also of
medieval origin, where several historic buildings have been turned into museums, such as
the Palau Aguilar which is, nowadays, the Picasso Museum.
To the south-west lies the fortress-topped hill of Montjuic, where
the Barcelona Olympic Stadium and some fine museums are located.
At the southern end of the Ramblas lies Barcelona Harbor and Port Vell.
This area now combines high-class restaurants with trendy clubs and bars.
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