How to use a Barcelona pay phone
by dlandt
In case, like me, you have to call someone to make arrangements for you room, you might need to use a pay phone, as most shops and restaurants won't let you use one. This is a simple process. You buy a phone card at any local shop. I tried to get two machines to take coins and, although they accepted, they did not allow me to make the call. The card goes into the slot on a payphone face up, with the arrow facing in. Don't dial +34, just dial the numbers following. Do NOT remove the card fromt he slot until you are done, otherwise it will terminate the call.
Magic fountain
by tompt
The Magic Fountain was designed by the engineer Carles Buïgas. In summer the fountain stages spectacular displays of music, light and water.
The magic fountain is located in front of the Palau Nacional. Take the subway to Pl. d´ Espanya
Thu-Sun and day before public holidays: Musical performances every 30 minutes from 21.30 to 23.30h.
TAPAS
by Umea6
... is something like snacks. It helps you get through waiting time until lunch or dinner is served.
I read that tapas was actually "invented" or born when some spanish king needed to eat small pieces of food and sips of wine when he was ill. After he recovered he declared that all restaurants cant serve wine without food to its customers.
There are so many different ways to prepare tapas, different regions in spain offer different tapas. Usually they include some sort of cured meat, olives, ....
Visiting a Benedictine Abbey
by Christina1881
I went to Montserrat knowing only very little of the place, a mountain outside of Barcelona with an abbey... So naive as I sometime am I expected something like "the Sound of Music" with nuns/monks all over the place, but truth is that what I saw most of was tourists ;)
Besides this little stupid misunderstanding of my own, I must say that I really enjoyed the visit to Montserrat - I went together with my bf and his two children (7&9years old) - and apart from me always being "yet another tourist" with my camara taking pics of everything and nothing, I enjoyed walking around the place sensing how life must have been there years ago, when there were less tourists and when you at this place actually dedicated your life to Christ (with this said I should probably mention that at the moment the abbey still runs and there are about 80 monks living there).
The Basilica is very beautiful, and is somewhere between the Gothic and Renaissance traditions, and contains a little room where you can bring a picture or some other thing, to offer to the virgin so that she will protect you / your family or whom every you may pray for. It is said that she can cure people - especially with prosthesis' of any kind - so my boyfriend told us, that earlier you could easily find a prosthesis in this room from people whom had visited the virgin and e.g. could leave without need of their prosthesis. Personally I didn't see any, but I did see a lot of wedding-dresses as well as pictures of people who had obviously asked the virgin to protect them or help them through a rough period in their lives.
There is a lot of history and culture to learn while there, and some increidible views to check out. On the webpage below several hiking trips are suggested to visitors, and all though I didn't do any of them - YET - I very much hope to be able to go back and enjoy a hike there, because the place is so beautiful.
While we were there, there was an exposition of veteran cars.
Another Catalan Village Near Pyrennes Mountains
by atufft
There are hundreds of medieval stone villages perched on rock ridgetops and nestled into valleys. They can be discoverd by narrow but well paved roads into the foothills of the Pyrennes Mountains. At one village, we asked a woman if we could look inside the church, so she fetched the keys and opened the door. Inside was a beautiful altar.
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La sagrada familia, Barcelona
La Caixa De Fang
watching the beach on a windy day
Looking up the Nativity Façade (June 08)
