Barcelona Warning or Danger Tips by dlytle

When we visited Barcelona at the end of June we discovered that there was a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Rally being held that weekend.

It was estimated that over 15,000 bikers were in town and I think I either saw or heard about half of them. They were a well behaved group, from all around the world, but they made a lot of noise and they really clustered themselves around the La Rambla making it very congested.

Cruise ships often stop in this port as well and with one end of the La Rambla near the port it attracts a lot of attention.

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Barcelona is a safe European city in terms of serious crime. However, muggings of tourists involving little or no physical contact are a problem. Las Ramblas is among the most robbed travel area in the world unfortunately. Tourists are usually sitting ducks. They carry plenty of cash & seldom stay around long enough to testify against their attackers. Some police officers claim that about 80 per cent of the attackers are North African immigrants. In the Ravel area alone, west of La Ramblas where some good restaurants are indicated in various tourist guides, the police process about 30 muggings per day.

Here are a few safety tips.

Never let go of your shoulder bag. When walking, it goes across your body, resting in front of you, or under your armpit, but not over your shoulder. When sitting, take it off by all means, but put your arm or leg through the strap. The same goes for your camera.

When sleeping in a bus, train or vulnerable room, lock your bags up, and then lock them to something immovable. Bag snatchers are not uncommon in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Greece, in addition to more obvious places like Turkey, Peru, Brazil, Jamaica.

It is safer to avoid any unnecessary contact with strangers in the Barcelona tourist zones if you wish to avoid the risk of losing your money and possessions.

Leave all except essential spending money in your hotel room or cruise ship safe.

Carry a photocopy of your passport, not the real thing. The hotel will stamp the back of the photocopy.

Do not use pavement cash dispensers. It is usually too easy to determine your personal ID number and snatch your card before you can get it put away.

Do not buy flowers from wandering street sellers; be particularly wary if they try to insert a flower into your lapel. Walk away immediately.

If people come up to you pointing to a stain on your clothing, ignore them and walk away.

Do not participate in the card and dice games which you will see on the streets.

Do not walk down deserted or badly lit streets after dark.

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It is not difficult to visit the lower portions of Parc Guell and enjoy the unique buildings at the entrance, the grand staircase, the lizard fountain, the hall of 100 columns or even the vast terrace with its broken tile decorated benches.

But if one starts wandering about this large park to see many of the other unique and strange creations of Gaudi you should be forewarned—there are a LOT of steps you might have to negotiate. And many of the steps are made of native stone that is rough and uneven.

There is also a lot of up hill journeying necessary to see the whole park.

If you have respiratory or heart or leg problems, I don't think it would be wise to go adventuring past the main atttractions at the entrance to Guell Parc.

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