Spellbound In Barcelona

Founded over 2,200 years ago by Carthaginian General, Hamilcar Barca - the father of Hannibal who famously marched elephants over the Alps to fight the Romans during the Punic Wars, Barcelona is one of those city's which has it all. 

Today, the city and its 1.5 million inhabitants are engaged in a struggle with Madrid and other cities outside of Spain’s borders for supremacy in the crowded Euro citybreak market and it’s a battle that Barca looks like winning as tourists to the city continued to increase.  The landscape and the people make Barcelona so easy to get along with.

The influences of The Modernistas on architecture in Barcelona is a must-see, and nowhere more prevalent than Parc Guell, designed and built by the greatest of the modernistas architects, Antoni Gaudí.  In fact, Gaudí himself resided in a magical little house in the centre of the park which is now a museum, and well worth a visit. 

To the north of the city, on a steep mini-mountain, Parc Guell is a fantasy world of meandering paths, stone bridges with gothic twists, colourful mosaic structures and statues, all with majestic views of Barcelona, and the backdrop of the Mediterranean behind. A school next to the main entrance of the park, also designed by Gaudí, had children cheering and playing as I walked into the park, a wonderfully refreshing sound-scape that I am sure the architect envisaged when he built it. 

Gaudí also designed Barcelona’s most famous creation, the Sagrida Famíllia, a huge cathedral that still has not been finished after more than 120 years. Perhaps the most exciting thing about the cathedral is imagining the finished masterpiece.

As well as the existing gigantic towers on the two facades - one for the nativity and one for the passion – that is, for the birth and death of Christ - there will be a central tower a third higher than these.  Already one of the highest points of the city with a roof that will makes the cathedral feel like the inside of a hollowed mountain, it is possible to grab a lift to the top of these towers and experience a panorama of the city. I caught the view at sunset, which, as the lifts closed, was certainly well worth the hundreds of steps I had to shuffle back down again.

Of course, food is a major attraction of Barcelona, and eating out is a must. I lunched at the oldest restaurant in the city, Can Cuillíettes, which is Catalonian Spanish for little spoons.

The menu had a wide selection of traditional Catalan dishes, most of which are meats with a distinctly warm Mediterranean taste, and seafood and salads, at reasonable prices.

My friend also treated me to a particularly delicious Catalan sausage from his home village in the Pyrenees. Made with lamb meat and rice, it was delicious with an asparagus salad. Of course the wine was also superb, coming from vineyards to the southwest of Barcelona.

The language of Barcelona is Catalan, which is a mixture of Spanish and French. Most people who come from the region speak both Catalan and Castilian Spanish though, and it is possible to get by easily on a little rudimentary Spanish. Barcelonans are usually happy to converse in English, if they know it, especially if you first have a go at Spanish.

The heart of Barcelona is the Placa de Catalunya, and the perfect place to start shopping. The west of the placa and the surrounding streets house shops which are youth and fashion orientated, whilst to the north and the south-east the shops become a little more refined and sophisticated. On the eastern side the massive El Corte Inglés department store which sells all you can imagine and with the Barcelonians so stunningly chic and fashionable, it is not hard to fight the inclination to top up the wardrobe.

The rest of the main shops are scattered around the Barri Gothíc and Las Ramblas – the most famous of Barcelona’s streets running from the Placa de Catalunya down to Port Vell. Las Ramblas is perhaps a little more touristy with its street performers and stalls, but it’s a great place to find something to eat easily if you are not that confident in the smaller restaurants..

The Barri Gothíc however is a wonderful maze of gothic buildings, gigantic wooden gates, thin alleys and brightly coloured facades.  It is easy to get lost amongst the small friendly shops and find your own little undisturbed piece of Barcelona, the old Barcelona world. The Cathedral at the centre was built in the gothic era on the old Roman wall of the city, and buildings inside the old roman wall - including the main government buildings of Catalonia and the home of the Catalan Catholic Archbishop - are still built on the foundations of the Roman city. 

If you have more time excursions around Barcelona are a must, but Barcelona itself is a gorgeously magical and fantastical place.  Few other cities are as an exceptional place to lose yourself and absorb it's unique atmosphere.

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