This little (big!) travelogue tells places to visit in Barcelona which also includes free things!
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Allow me to state here how much I love Barcelona, an admirable city, a city full of life, intense, a port open to the past and future. – Le Corbusier
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I was reading and gathering information on Barcelona as much as I can before reaching there. They say, when you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for the disappointment. In spite having great expectations from the city, it really didn't disappoint. Undoubtedly Spanish city of Barcelona is a vibrant beauty.
We started off the journey with Mirador da Columbus. Sea facing heighten statue of Columbus mesmerized us as we remembered कोलंबसाचे गर्वगीत by कवी कुसुमाग्रज
चला उभारा शुभ्र शिडे ती गर्वाने वरती
कथा या खुळया सागराला
''अनंत आमुची ध्येयासक्ती अनंत अन आशा
किनारा तुला पामराला'
Pointing finger towards the sea, Columbus statue truly tells the indomitable spirit of human aspirations. It was great joy to tell my daughter about the father figure of globalism.
Next, walking on the sea getaway Rambla De Mar was great joy. The wooden- steel bridge split opened when we reached the other side. The sailing ship cruised outside the gate into the sea. Watching the bridge being split and beautifully built sailing ship was a remarkable moment.
Inside into the sea there was floating structure of Miraestels - Stargazer by artist Robert Limmos. It is inspired by the poem The Tumbler / El Saltamartí written by Spanish writer Joan Brossa.
Tumbler
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A doll
that has a
weight in its base and that,
tipped from its vertical
position, rights itself
again.
The people.
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The Mirastrels surely looks up to the sky! And conveys the message if you happen to get bogged down by any kind of suffering (tipped from vertical position) you have all the ability to again stand on your feet.(rights itself again). Just look up to the sky! The perception out of sea facing Columbus and sky facing Mirastrels is just one. From time unknown, both enormous sea and endless sky have been the source of forming unending spirit.
Poblo Espnyol was our next destination. After entering we thought that we have done a mistake by purchasing the tickets. Surprisingly we could locate very few tourists. There were different facades of homes in Spain from different era. Even the flooring in front of those facades were different.
There was large format Audio Visual called Fiesta dedicated to popular festivals from different places around Spain. Remembering the movie Jindagi Na Milegi Dobara, we could relate to few festivals like Tomatina and Running of the bulls. The Audio Visual is so amazing that we were filled with emotions fascinated by soul of Spain. Nevertheless, our own Indian festivals have the similar vigor and vitality. In fact, at various festivals they form Castells i.e. Human towers just like our Dahi Handi...! They also play Dandia with sticks...We felt Awe!
There was large format Audio Visual called Fiesta dedicated to popular festivals from different places around Spain. Remembering the movie Jindagi Na Milegi Dobara, we could relate to few festivals like Tomatina and Running of the bulls. The Audio Visual is so amazing that we were filled with emotions fascinated by soul of Spain. Nevertheless, our own Indian festivals have the similar vigor and vitality. In fact, at various festivals they form Castells i.e. Human towers just like our Dahi Handi...! They also play Dandia with sticks...We felt Awe!
Entire art world bow to Spanish painters - Picasso, Dali and Miro. Pablo Espanyol has the collection of paintings of these three and other great artists from Spain as well. We really don't understand anything in paintings as we haven't studied ABCs of art. All the paintings started to look same. Unless and until the meaning behind the painting comes in front and strong color contrast catches the eye, it is difficult to feel connection. After going through almost all paintings we just decided not to visit Picasso museum and Miro Museum in Barcelona.
By the time we left Poblo Espnyol, it was late evening. Our day had started at 4 am in the morning due to travel to Barcelona, but my daughter had all the enthusiasm to watch the magic fountain show at 9:30 pm at night. We could get small place to sit down as the area was getting densely crowded. The lighting effects, background music and cheering crowd made the atmosphere lively. We watched the show for 15 min and escaped from there as we realized it would be difficult to commute back to hotel quickly. Recently I read the article about Overtourism through FB. It mentioned that, Barcelona has been at the center of the concerns related to over tourism . (Ironically, we were also one of the visitors.) We also read local remarks at 3-4 places - 'Tourists- Go Back Home!'
Next day was the Antoni Gaudi day for us. He was the Spanish architect who built many remarkable buildings in Barcelona. Sightseeing Barcelona is incomplete without Sagrada Familia. We visited Sagrada Familia in the morning - the most unique cathedral in the entire world! The Man behind building this cathedral is Gaudi. It would need separate chapter to write about Sagrada Familia and Antoni Gaudi. I can just tell I felt sincere respect for Gaudi and felt humbled to know him through his work. Sagrada Familia didn't fail to make a long-lasting impact on us. The work of Sagrada Familia is still going on. If God does not have separate plans for us, we would definitely like to visit Sagrada Familia after 2026 - the year of completion of the cathedral.
(Note: You may read more about Sagrada Familia and Gaudi House Museum on below link:
Sagrada Familia tour and Gaudi House museum)
Next, we saw Casa Batalio and Casa Mila from outside. These two are unique buildings designed and built by Gaudi. Purchasing the expensive tickets to enter was out of question. By the way, we had purchased Barcelona travel card. And thanks to our own Google maps we could move around the city hopping from one metro to another. Still the sheer amount of walking in the scorching sun was exhausting. Hence, we took resort in Labyrinth Park somewhat outside the city. Running through the maze of small trees was great fun especially for my daughter. We also enjoyed the maze with her...
La Rambla - words fell short to describe the liveliness of this road. Open Tapas restaurants, souvenir shops, ice cream shops in the middle of the broad foot path adds to the vibrancy of the road. We commuted on this road several times during our stay in Barcelona as our hotel was very near to this road. Tapas are nothing but various Spanish snacks. It was hard to find vegetarian option. But we tried tortilla de patatas and tortilla de spinach (potato and spinach omelets) . I couldn't really devour it because of an egg element. We as Indians have the habit of eating somewhat spicy things. So, finishing that plain tortilla felt like huge burden on me. I could feel sympathy for my daughter as we often force her to finish the things on her plate against her wish. Anyway, we just decided to fill the stomach for remaining days with cheaper Subway option or Indian restaurant.
After having dinner, we visited La bouqueria market. Various colors of fruits, smoothies, juices, nuts, cheese were eye catching. Fruits and Vegetable markets are always closer to my heart. Whether we are in Pune or Mechelen, generally we don't fail to go to local markets/ stalls for buying fruits and vegetables every weekend. Local markets/stalls are always better than buying in big supermarkets. Anyway, at La bouquria, we purchased small dragon fruit for our daughter and this was the end of fabulous second day at Barcelona.
Third day started with visit to Park Guell. We couldn't get the tickets as we didn't bother to purchase the tickets online. Nevertheless, the uphill walk to park guell was amazing. Half of the distance had escalators to climb. And some distance we had to climb on our own. There were houses on both sides of the road. When we reached the top, we could see entire Barcelona. Just amazing view...!
Some portion of Park Guell was accessible by free entry. We roamed around there. We also visited Gaudi House Museum where Gaudi used to live. The respect for Gaudi just got deeper!
Some portion of Park Guell was accessible by free entry. We roamed around there. We also visited Gaudi House Museum where Gaudi used to live. The respect for Gaudi just got deeper!
After coming back, we had lunch in Indian restaurant Bombay Spicy at La Rambla. We were wondering where to go in scorching sun, but we decided to go Pl Espanio, where we entered a mall to beat the heat. Surprisingly there was small exhibition of art work. The colour contrast and themes were eye catching...It was soothing experience.
Next, we wanted to visit Barcelona Olympics stadium, but our phone batteries got discharged. My husband looked over the paper map of Barcelona to locate the place. We traveled for an hour by train to reach there. And then we realized we were at the wrong place. Decided not to go anywhere now, we headed towards our hotel by metro. But our fate had different plans for us. To cater to our daughter's nature call, we stopped at a station near La Rambla to enter McDonalds. We had nice coffee in nearby shop. Suddenly there was noise of fire crackers. We looked outside... A carnival with giants were marching on the streets of La Rambla. We were ignorant about the annual festival of La Merce taking place in Barcelona during 21st to 24th September 2018. Half an hour passed looking at the wonderful carnival. Giants, traditional music instruments, cheering crowd everything was wonderful. I just remembered our republic day parade at Delhi...
On the last day, we visited Science Museum. Seven storied building depicting the journey of scientific evolution from microorganism to Robotics. It has good collection of several scientific facts, wonders. Daughter enjoyed it very much as we explained many phenomena to her. Watching primitive man model, dinosaurs' models, robot models and a small rain forest was great experience. The most amazing thing was the live demo of an Octopus opening the bottle lid to eat the fish inside.! It was wonderful example of adaptive intelligence in animals.
We traveled back to La Rambla to have lunch at Subway. Our back-home flight was in the evening. But I was not done with sightseeing Barcelona yet. We haven't checked all the places to visit in Barcelona. I dragged my husband and daughter to Barcelona cathedral. The inner roads (Barcelona ki Galiya) were lovely. There was small bread and snacks market in Placa Del Pi. In another corner, artists were painting and few paintings were kept for sale. I could feel the connection looking at some of the paintings! When we reached cathedral there was long queue. Saying hello from outside, we headed to catch the bus for the airport.
Barcelona doesn't fail to amaze with liveliness and surprises. It has arranged farewell for us as we looked at dances organized on the occasion La Merce festival.
Barcelona doesn't fail to amaze with liveliness and surprises. It has arranged farewell for us as we looked at dances organized on the occasion La Merce festival.
As we headed towards airport, what filled our hearts were wonderful memories of Barcelona...the city touched by Gaudi, full of beautiful people and full of energy!!!
At the time of take-off, when our daughter said ‘Bye Bye Barcelona...See you again Soon...’ We couldn’t hold our smile... :-)
I have covered most places to visit in Barcelona and most of them are free!!
I hope you enjoy the city with this sightseeing Barcelona Guide...!
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If you like this post, you may also like to check other places to visit in Europe:
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