La Pedrera - casa Mila and other Barcelona, Spain Things to Do Tips

under construction!!

Some Gaudi - Info

One of the most famous Spanish architects, Antoni Gaud? is the most internationally prestigious figure in Catalan architecture.
Antoni Gaudi i Cornet was born on June 25, 1852, He graduated in Barcelona in 1878 and this city became the center of his activities at a most favorable moment for the development of his personality. A cultural and political renaissance, the Renaixen?a, was in full swing. It was a time of economic prosperity and urban expansion with the patronage of a middle class which wanted to be in tune with the new European styles. Gaud?'s education and development was influenced by the theories of Viollet-le-Duc and Ruskin as well as the thought of the modernista generation, the Catalan movement corresponding to Art Nouveau which formed around the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. Soon, however, the architect would go beyond the dominant historical styles within the 19th century eclecticism to formulate his own aesthetic, one which would make his style quite unmistakable, and at the same time, one difficult to classify.

more on the next tip

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Phone: 93 484 5900
Address: Passeig de Gracia 92, Carrer Provenca 261
Directions: Eixample district Metro 'FGC Diagonal/Provenca'

La casa Battlo was one of his last (1904 - 1906) buildings in Barcelona (la casa Mila was the last public building he did). We only passed by that beautiful street front. It?s a museum as well, entrance fee 15 Euro. As I haven?t been inside I can?t really judge if it is worth... comapring the price with the "casa Mila" ("only" 8 Euro), the casa Battlo must be absolutely fantastic. But I was told as well that it?s more worth to visit the casa Mila instead of the casa Battlo. Anyway, you have to see the front of the house at passeig de Gracia. It is really beautiful. The balconies made me remember the "phantom of the opera", as they look like masks in my eyes. Other say that it looks like sceletons.

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Phone: 93 488 06 66
Address: Passeig de Gr?cia 43
Directions: Take the metro to Passeig de Gr?cia, or bus 7, 16, 17, 22, 24, 28, 43 or 44.
Website: http://www.casabatllo.es/

for me the greatest event of the olympics was the Basketball DREAM TEAM of the USA with Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Air Jordan!!!
general info about the Olympic games 1992 (copied somewhere ;-| ):
The year IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch brought the Olympics to his native Spain marked the first renewal of the Summer Games since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany in 1990.

A record 10,563 athletes from 172 nations gathered without a single country boycotting the Games. Both Cuba and North Korea returned after 12 years and South Africa was welcomed back after 32, following the national government's denunciation of apartheid racial policies.

While Germany competed under one flag for the first time since 1964, 12 nations from the former Soviet Union joined forces one last time as the Unified Team.
This was also the year the IOC threw open the gates to professional athletes after 96 years of high-minded opposition.
Carl Lewis earned his seventh and eighth career gold medals with a third consecutive Olympic win in the long jump, and an anchor-leg performance on the American 4x100-meter relay team that helped establish a world record. Gail Devers of the U.S., whose feet had nearly been amputated by doctors in 1990 as a result of radiation treatment for Graves' disease, won the women's 100 meters.

Other track and field athletes stumbled, however. After Olympic favorite and world champion Dan O'Brien failed to even make the U.S. team, Dave Johnson, the new favorite, settled for the bronze. Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, who had dominated the sport for the past decade, was the heavy favorite, but he failed to clear any height.

China's Fu Mingxia, 13, won the women's platform diving gold, becoming the second-youngest person to win an individual gold medal. In gymnastics, Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus, competing for the Unified Team, won six golds. Cuba made its Olympic return rewarding, capturing seven boxing golds as well as the gold in baseball.

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This is in my eyes another great thing of Barcelona. So close to the city center begin the beaches already. From plaza catalunya you walk only less than half an hour to get to the beach of "La Barceloneta". Several other beaches are north and south of the city. These are sand beaches, although this sand is not really the nicest one, it?s good enough to have a nice rest and enjoy the sun. The first day I have been there it was a bit too windy (good for the surfers) to stay too long, but 3 days later (begin of april) it was really hot and few windy.
Enjoying the sun suddenly some chinese women and girls where seen on the beach offering back massages...so, after a while of observing it I couldnt resist to try this out as well. For 5 Euro I got quite a fine back massage, for 5 Euro more she wwould have gone on with head and arms. Back was enough for me, as it wasn?t either that comfortable lying on the sand while the girl almost walked on my back ...;-))) ... after that I had to be a bit more careful with the sun, as she used pure oil for the massage.... some sunlovers would save their sunoil that way, for me it was good enough to turn around to lie back on my back :-D

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U/C

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well, not really under construction, but the whole main front of the cathedral is scaffolded. This main church of Barcelona is often crowded of tourists, so I have the impression that most of locals prefer to go to other churches, as e.g. the Santa Maria Del Mar, another imposant church, even much older than the cathedral.
The cathedral is worth the visit with its beautiful painted windows and an enormous organ. But I spend only a short moment inside, more strolling around in the patio (cloister) of the cathedral with a little palm garden where traditionally live some gants. In the middle ages these gants stood sentinel over the art treasure of the cathedral, because their gaggle and twitter chases away every intruder.

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Phone: 933151554
Address: Plaza de la Seu
Directions: Barri Gotic. Metro: Lines 1 and 3 (Catalunya Station) and Lines 2 and 4 (Urquinaona Station.)
Website: http://www.catedralbcn.org

the construction of this church started in the year 1882!!! (eighteen-hundred-eithgty-two) and from now on the construction time to end the building is estimated between 30 and 80 years more, depending on the source ;-). This church was Gaudis life work until his death in 1926. SInce then a lot of new ideas are entering the planning, a lot of interpretation is possible, as there was never any complete construction plan designed or those plans were frecuentely changed. As well there are now in use other materials that Gaudi maybe wouldn´t have used. You can observe different colors of the main fronts of the church.
The really best is to climb up one of the towers. You get a much better idea of the constructions, you find impressive details of the church high up in the tower, you have a fantastic view over the city and the towers itselves are fascinating. I didn´t count, but it shall be exactly 365 stair steps up.

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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

I only knew I should visit this place without having any further information about it. I not even knew that this hospital is still working.
I was really impressed....I think it´s a fabolous place to get better again, just too beautiful the buildings, although I haven´t been inside and don´t know how the patient rooms are.

This hospital complex has been constructed between 1902 and 1911 from the catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montanerand was paid by the funds of Barcelona banker Paul Gil through his last will and testament.
Since 1997 it is part of the world cultural heritage of the UNESCO.

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Phone: 93.488.20.78
Address: St. Antoni Maria Claret, 167
Directions: At the end of Av Gaudi.
Website: http://www.hspau.com/angles/esc1.htm

The Joan Miro foundation is located on the Montjuiic hill near to the Olympic places and the area of the fair (and exposition from 1929). It has been build during life time of Miro. The foundation tapestry has been created by Miro exactly for this wall of the museum. Entrance fee of the museum was 8 Euro, what seems to be kind of standard prize for most of the important museums in Barcelona.
But for those who like Miro it is really worth it. There are a lot of beautiful paintings of him plus some other sculpture works of him and some temporary exibitions of other artists as well.

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Phone: (34) 934.439.470
Address: Plaza de Nept?
Directions: Parc de Montju?c s/n Bus 50 (stops in the Pla?a Universitat). Also Funicular de Montju?cs/n
Website: http://www.bcn.fjmiro.es

L´aquarium of Barcelona is definitely worth the visit if you like to watch some mute animals....well, seriously, this underwater show is impressive, and not only the big sharks they have mainly in a very big basin which you pass through a glass (or transparent plastic) tunnel. The aquarium shall be the biggest in the world of mediterranean sealife and at all one of the biggest in Europe. Entrance fee is 15 Euro ...that is really expensive, in my opinion, but those are the prices in Barna.

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Phone: +34 93 221 74 74
Address: Moll d'Espanya del Port Vell
Directions: Port Vell
Website: http://www.aquariumbcn.com/ing/index.htm