Barcelona

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Sights and museums

To most visitors, it comes as first a surprise and then something of a relief, that, unlike most phenomenally popular cities, Barcelona does not boast a list of ‘must-see’ sights to be queued in front of, paid for, ticked off and photographed. The real joy of this sunny and easygoing Mediterranean city lies in its very fabric, thanks to the Catalan love of design, colour and the slightly bizarre.

While no major tourist venues have opened in recent years, there has been a blitz of extraordinary architecture, including Jean Nouvel’s Torre Agbar, Herzog & de Meuron’s Edificio Fòrum and Enric Miralles’ Mercat Santa Caterina, which will soon be followed by a glittering new museum building by Frank Gehry in La Sagrera.

 

Barcelona, then, is the perfect city in which to walk. Most visitors will head first to the Old City, a maze of meandering streets, alleys and squares, where Gothic churches nestle next to lofty palaces, and ancient fountains trickle in quiet plaças. Beyond lie the architectural glories of Gaudí and the Modernistas, the long stretch of beach, the hills of Montjuïc and Tibidabo, and parts of the city with a wholly different feel, untouched by the hand of tourism.

Barrio by barrio
Cutting straight through the Old City are La Rambla and Via Laietana. La Rambla, once a seasonal riverbed that formed the western limit of the 13th-century city, is now a tree-lined boulevard dividing the medieval buildings and cathedral of the Barri Gòtic from the Raval, home to the MACBA and the CCCB. The nocturnal hugger-mugger of drunks, cutpurses and prostitutes, although not completely without attraction, is redolent of the city’s unkempt years as a hard-edged port. Via Laietana, driven through in the 19th century to bring light and air to the slums, is the boundary between the Barri Gòtic, and Sant Pere and the achingly trendy Born, where you’ll find the stunning Palau de la Música Catalana, the Museu Picasso and the Parc de la Ciutadella. Between these two thoroughfares is the Plaça Sant Jaume, the heart of the city ever since it was the centre of the Roman fort from which Barcelona grew. Now it is home to two bastions of government, the Ajuntament (City Hall) and the Generalitat (the regional government).

 

With the demolition of the medieval walls in 1854, the open fields beyond the choleric city were a blank canvas for urban planners, architects and sculptors. The Eixample (literally, the ‘expansion’), with its gridiron layout, is a showcase for the greatest works of Modernisme, including the Sagrada Família, La Pedrera and the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. When the only traffic was the clip-clopping of the horse and cart, these whimsical flights of architectural fancy must have been still more impressive; nowadays the Eixample can be noisy and polluted, as almost every road carries four lanes of traffic. Beyond lies the Park Güell, with Gaudí’s emblematic dragon, and barrios such as Gràcia, Sants and Sarrià, once independent towns but long since swallowed up and incorporated into the expanding city.

 

Getting around
The Old City is wonderfully compact and can be crossed on foot in about 20 minutes. The city council runs walking tours on various themes (Modernisme, Picasso, Gourmet and Gothic) at weekends and on other occasional days. For more information, see www.barcelonaturisme.com. Run by the city council, these popular walking tours have just increased to add a ‘gourmet tour’, including 13 stops in the city’s emblematic cafés, food shops and markets. Tours start in the underground tourist office in Plaça Catalunya. The Gothic tour concentrates on the history and buildings of the Old City, while the Picasso visits the artist’s haunts and ends with a visit to the Picasso Museum (entry is included in the price).

 

The Modernisme tour is a circut of the ‘Golden Square’ in the Eixample, taking in Gaudí’s Casa Batlló and La Pedrera. Tours take around 90mins to 2hrs, excluding the museum trip. A fun and eco-friendly way to get around it (and to head to the beach) is to hire a bright yellow Trixi rickshaw. Running noon to 8pm, April to September, and costing €1.50 per person/kilometre, they can be hailed on the street, or booked on 93 310 13 79 or www.trixi.com. The public transport system, including a recently inaugurated tram network, serves every part of the city and is cheap and efficient.

 

There are two tourist buses seen all over town: the orange Barcelona Tours and the white Bus Turistic. The former is less frequent but less popular, meaning you won’t have to queue, while the latter gives a book of discounts for various attractions. Both visit many of the same sights and cost much the same.

 

Tickets
As well as those given with the Bus Turístic passes, a range of discount passes exists. The Articket (www.articketbcn.com, €20) gives free entry to seven museums and art galleries over three months: Fundació Miró, MACBA, the MNAC, Espai Gaudí-La Pedrera, the Fundació Tàpies, the CCCB and (a new addition in 2006) the Museu Picasso. The ticket is available from participating venues and tourist offices.

 

The Barcelona Card (€17) gives one to five days of unlimited transport on the metro and buses, as well as discounts on the airport bus and cable cars, reduced entry to a wide variety of museums and attractions, and discounts at several restaurants, bars and shops. The card is sold at the airport, tourist offices and various participating venues.

 

A word of warning
Violent crime is almost unknown in Barcelona, but bag-snatching and pickpocketing are rife – the former especially occurs in the Old City and on the beach, the latter on public transport and along La Rambla. Leave whatever you can in your hotel, and be wary of anyone trying to clean something off your shoulder or sell you a posy or a newspaper. Those wanting to swap a coin for one from your country are also wont to empty your wallet.

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