General tips for unexperienced travellers
by Cathy24
I loved Barcelona. There was so much to do and see and if I went again I'd make even more out of it.
Airport - the bus service is excellent and runs every 6 minutes to Placa Catalunya which is in the city centre. Costs €4. To get back to the airport you just get the bus back again - there are always buses sitting at Placa Catalunya. Trip takes about 30 minutes. There is a locker facility at the airport to store luggage which costs €4 per day which we made use of on the last day as we had been on a cruise and didn't want to carry out stuff about on our last day of holiday.
The metro is excellent. You can get everywhere so cheaply. Just works like London.
There are very few public toilets - none in the metro. Best place to go is McDonalds at the Placa Catalunya - otherwise you have to go into a bar or cafe and buy a bottle of water in order to use the toilet - I drink a LOT of water so it was a bit of a nightmare trying to find toilets but most of the main tourist places like Nou Camp and Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell have toilets.
The heat is stifling so make sure and drink enough or you'l get dehydrated and cystitis like I did. Thankfully there were literally pharmacys every hundred yards and I got tablets and was ok.
We went to Nou Camp, Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, Parc della Cituadella (in which is the zoo) and the Ramblas. Be carefull of pickpockets (have a short handled shoulder bag) and also of overpriced food though we ate the first night on a streetside cafe on the Ramblas (just pizza and coke) for €20 and the atmosphere was nice. Lovely ice cream and waffles on the Ramblas. Renting boat in the lake on Parc della Cituadella.
La Ramblas
F.C.B ( Barcalona...
by MellMell
La Ramblas
F.C.B ( Barcalona football grounds.) When i was there in 2000 i went to La Ramblas again and put money in the Devil statue's pot. When i'd bent down to drop coins in... He shouted GRACIAS!
Ive never scremed so loud in my life! I was not expected that and he stabbed my bum with his devils fork too! Great fun though!!!!
Les Quatre Barres.
by Jerelis
The four bars on the 'senyera', the Catalan flag, are said to represent the four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. The Senyera is a vexillological symbol that consists of four red stripes on a golden background. It historically represented the king of Crown of Aragon; today is the flag of the Spanish Autonomous Community of Catalonia.
The design derives from a legend of Guilfré el Pelós, first Count of Barcelona. It relates how he received a call for help from Charles the Bald, who was King of the West Franks and grandson of Charlemagne. Guilfré went to his aid and turned the tide of battle, but was mortally wounded. As he lay dying, Charles dipped his fingers in Guilfré's blood and dragged them accross his plain gold shield, giving him a grant of arms.
We saw the Catalan flag at numerous of places. The Catalonian people are extremely proud of their own (beautiful) province.
FC Barcelona, much more than a club
by SirRichard
This sentence seems to be the unofficial slogan of the soccer club Football Club Barcelona.
This team has always been a identity sign of Catalunya, and recently it is more than a club in the sense that is a commercial emporium too, with shops all over selling any item you can imagine.
This pic was taken at the shop in El Prat Airport.
Monestir de Montserrat - ‘Serrated Mountain’.
by Jerelis
What to do on a day that you don’t want to go to the beach, don’t want to stroll the lanes in the Old Town of Barcelona, and whenever you have been to for example beautiful Tarragona the day before? What to do? We took our travel guide out of the bag and started reading it. At the page of Montserrat we read ”For many visitors a trip to Montserrat is the highlight of their visit. Montserrat is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat about one hour North West from Barcelona by train. Not only is Monestir de Montserrat of significant religious importance, but the natural beauty surrounding the monestary is simply breathtaking.” . The pictures enclosed to this article did the rest for us. We knew that we wanted to do, we took the car and went to Montserrat.
Driving to it was a great experience by itself. We could see the “Serrated Mountain” (Mont Serrat) from kilometres away. Its highest peak rising to 1,236 metres. We were quite early and driving the mountain road was relaxing as we did not have too many busses or coaches in front of us. We also experienced magnificent views of some of the most unusual rock formations in the whole of Catalonia. Because of our early time scedule it wasn’t crowded at all and therefore we were able to park the car on a nice spot not too far away. It was an one hour and 15 minutes drive, and there we were!
Address:
08100 Montserrat, Catalonia, Spain.
Directions:
56 kilometers north western of Barcelona.
Sign in with Facebook
Mount Tibidabo from Parc Güell
Top of Collonade
Gaudi's church crypt at Colonia Guell
the footbridge
