"Barcelona, my City" Barcelona by LasseW

I came to Barcelona for the first time 1991 and I have had it as a base since then. I have travelled to many places during the years and worked in other countries, but Barcelona has for some reason always been the place that I after 20 years, just are beginning to call home... It is for sure a city of contradictions, it has a fantastic (and violent) history that mirrors a lot of Europes history. Many are the people that has come and passed through Barcelona, the Greeks, the Romans, the Carthagians... And of course in modern times, tourists from all over the world.
Barcelona actually got its name (and was founded) by Hannibal and his general Barcina. They staged their assult on Rome from Barcelona and it is said that it actually were where the Cathedral today stands that his staging post was.
The Cathedral is famous in many ways, at the end of the 1400's the Spanish Queen and her court resided here since Madrid was under threat from the Arabs. She financed Columbus trip to find the new route to India, where he instead discovered America (actually the island Hispanola). When he returned he went back to Barcelona too greet the queen and tell her he found the new route to India, you can today see the building, stairs and everything at the back of the Cathedral as it was when he walked them, 500 years ago.
The city has so much history that actually it would take too long time to even tell more then a little bit of it.
A fun piece is that the Vikings (my ancestors :) ) where here! The story goes that a group had been on a failed trading mission in the midditerianian and had no food or coins left. To get money to go home they entered Barcelona and took the prince of Barcelona at ransome, they received the money and/or supplies they needed and could continue home! Oden (the Viking God) must had been in a good mood to help them that time....

The Beach at Diagonal Mar, view to the south

One of the nice things with Barcelona is the easy access to very nice beaches. They are easy to get to from any place you stay in the city, you can just take the metro or bus directly down to the beach.
The beaches are very well cared for and cleaned frequently. They have also now introduced a new "beach police", Miami style...
In Barcelona you have to be dressed when leaving the beach, you can not go on the street without a T-shirt or similar, the police can fine you if you dont comply. That is also valid for joggers etc.
The beach on the photo is just below the high rising buildings on next photo. Its a residential and office area with very fancy buildings.

Close to the beach you can find luxury residential houses, hotels and offices. The apartements are of very high standards and close to hotels like Hilton and similar. Companies like Microsoft and SAP etc has offices right off the beach on the other side of the road. The general crisis in Spain has made these apartement buildings monuments of a failed economy. Now they are maybe worth half of the inflated value they where put on the market for and still impossible to sell. To rent an apartement will cost you between 1700 - 2800 Euro a month for long term contracts.