Placa de Catalunya and other Barcelona, Spain Things to Do Tips

This big square is probably the most visited in BCN, as is in the middle of the most visited areas and you will pass by several times.
Here arrives / leaves the airport bus, here stop the sightseeing buses, here is El Corte Ingles...

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Address: Plaça Catalunya
Directions: Northwestern End Las Ramblas. Metro: Drassanes, Liceu, Catalunya

If Placa de Catalunya is the communications hub, Las Ramblas is the emotional hub of BCN. This 1 kilometre boulevard between the harbour and Placa de Catalunya is a real must here.
You will find here terraces, stalls, "living statues", birds shops... and mostly people walking up and down, people in bars, people in markets...
Some highlights:
- Colon statue
- Liceu theatre
- Guell Palace
- Boqueria Market
- Virreina palace

BTW, beware of pickpockets, as in many crowded places...

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This was one of my favourite spots in BCN. This square with arcades ans palm trees is a lively meeting point and is all day and night busy with pedestrians and nice terraces where you can have a drink at noon or enjoy the amazing nightlife.
The are 2 street lamps in the middle designed by Gaudi in his early years. Here you acn find friendly youth hostels (Kabul), trendy bars (Glaciar), delicious restaurants (Els Quinze Nits) or hidden night clubs (Pipa Club).
It used to be a dangerous place at night, but now you can find a police car all the time there, though you still have to be careful, as in any crowded place…

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Address: Plaça Reial
Directions: Barri Gotic east of La Rambla. Metro: Liceu

When U think of an Hospital you imagine a huge impersonnal white building with many litthe windows... this one will change your ideas about Hospitals! More like a fairy tale town, this many buildings located near the Sagrada Familia church look like an architecture museum.
Everywhere you look at there are wonderful modernist buildings, pavillions, roofs, tiles...
And is FREE, as it is a working hospital, you don't have to pay (or be ill LOL) to enter. There are guided tours too.

Don't miss the underground tunels connecting all the pavilllions. They were used as shelter during the Civil War.

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Phone: 932 919 000
Address: St. Antoni Maria Claret, 167
Directions: At the end of Av Gaudi (the one that starts in Sagrada Familia). Metro Sant Pau.
Website: http://www.santpau.es

This tiny square in the Gothic Quarter is one of the most charming of BCN. It is in a pedestrian area, so is quiet and the trees add some sense of peace and tranquility (if there are no groups of 50 tourists when U visit it).
In a corner you will find an interesting and weird museum: Museu del Calcat, shoes museum!!
100 metres from the Cathedral, at the right side.

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Address: Near the Cathedral.

This quarter of narrow windeing streets is one of the nicest areas of Barcelona. Its cobbled streets take you to distant times, here you will find a mixture of styles, from roman to medieval Romanesque and Gothic.
Get lost, wander around, sit and enjoy the peace, the people, look up to the buildings...
There are guided tours from the Tourist Office (Pl. Catalunya). 3 euros.

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Address: Around the Cathedral.
Website: www.barcelonatourisme.com

This popular food market is located in the middle of the Ramblas street.
It is rather interesting both for its main entrance (see pic) with beautiful all steel and coloured glass structure, and for the everyday life you find there.
It is the cleanest market I have seen in Spain so far!! Items are ordered in a very artistic way, like in an exhibition, and there are many pic opportunities of seafood, fruit...
In fact, you will see many tourists making photos amongst the locals that go for theit daily shopping.

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Address: Las Ramblas, 95
Directions: Metro: Liceu, Mercat exit

This Gaudi’s masterpiece is still a “work in progress”. He received the commission in 1866 from a pious right-wing organization that wanted to build an “Expiatory Temple” in BCN in reaction to the liberal ideas that run through Europe at that times. Being a private project, the winds of change in the turbulent XXth century finally stopped the building construction.
Gaudi died in 1926, having finished only the Nativity Facade. During Spanish Civil War most of the models, plans and drawings were destroyed for political reasons.
So nowadays the project still goes on following what present architects think was Gaudi’s ideas, but of course with their own criteria.

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Phone: 93 207 30 31
Address: Carrer de Mallorca 401
Directions: Metro: Line 2 or 5 Station: Sagrada Familia
Website: http://www.sagradafamilia.org

The original project included 12 towers (the 12 apostles) of which only 4 (the smallest) are built.
The church is yet empty inside, is like a huge shell that has to be ?filled?.
Of the 4 facades only 2 are finished (Nativity and Passion).
The main entrance was supposed to include a huge bridge as a pathway to the Gate, but some houses have been built in the space reserved for that and it would be a problem to demolish all that buildings to finish the bridge.
The projected deadline is 2022, though is difficult to say when will it really be finished, as the works go on slowly.

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Phone: 93 207 30 31
Address: Carrer de Mallorca 401
Directions: Metro: Line 2 or 5 Station: SagradaFamilia
Website: http://www.sagradafamilia.org

There is much to see in this church.
From the outside (without entering, free) you can admire the 2 finished facades:
- Nativity, the first, finished by Gaudi in a more classical style. It is near the metro, at the east, in front of the Gaudi Sq.
- Passion, finished by architect Subirachs in 1998, is much more modern, and faces the Sagrada Familia Sq, to the west.
If you decide to enter, there are several price, from 3 to 8 euros, depending on what you want to see. You can climb to the towers and admire the snail shape stairs, there is an elevator to the top.
You can visit the crypt and see Gaudi?s tomb.
In Parc Guell you can visit Museu Gaudi and admire pictures, sketches and plater models of the original project.

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Phone: 93 207 30 31
Address: Carrer de Mallorca 401
Directions: Metro: Line 2 or 5 Station: SagradaFamilia
Website: http://www.sagradafamilia.org