Parks / Plazas, Barcelona

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Barcelona is a very green city with parks all around it. if you decide to walk a lot, you have many places to take rest ocassionally. Apart from the more known Park Guell and Parc de la Ciutadella, I also spent a lot of time at the industrial park, a completely different type of a park but still very green. The current park presented in these pictures are those from the park opposite to the Temple de la Sagrada Familia which is also very green. There is no grass to sit and relax but there are many trees and benches on their shades and that makes the park very beautiful and popular with tourists.

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This park is located behind the Barcelona Sants train station. It is an industrial park that is quite different from other parks, but nevertheless it is very popular amongst the city children, youth and elderly alike. To my surprise, I came across some young boys playing Kabaddi (a very indian game) at the park.

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We made a wrong turn coming out of the hotel, and ended up in this square instead of Plaça de Catalunya which was our goal. Jet lagged as we were, we sat here for a little bit and watched the city going about its business or going about their play (skateboarding) while we were keeping an eye out for a two decker bus.

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Walking up Las Ramblas from the sea front, Plaça Reial can be found through an alleyway on your right hand side, about one third of the way up Barcelona's most famous street. This is a quite place to take a pause from the chaos of Las Rambla, I enjoyed the small fountain, the nice Gaudi's streetlamps and the exotic athmosphere that palms gave.

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The plaza is named after the patron saint of Barcelona. La Madonna de la Mercè, the Madonna of Largesse, appeared in a dream to local saint Pere Nolasc, bidding him to establish a religious order to succour Christians captured by Barbary pirates. In 1637 the Madonna saved Barcelona from a plague of locusts, and her status as patron saint of the city was assured for ever more.

If you are curious about Barcelona weddings, then this is the best place to discover how the celebrations unfold. On one side of the square is the courthouse where civil marriages are performed. On the other side is the Mercé Basilica, where couples who prefer a traditional, Catholic wedding are joined in marriage.

Barcelona during the summer can be overwhelmingly busy and it seems like there is nowhere to go to escape the crowds without leaving the city. A hidden gem is the garden of the Universitat de Barcelona. During the weekend you must enter them from the back of the Universitat, but during the week entry from the main building is possible. The gardens have a greenhouse and beautifully maintained flower beds, ponds and fountains. A perfect, quiet spot to read a book on a Sunday afternoon.

Slightly outside of the touristy center of the city that orbits Las Ramblas and Placa Catalunya is a neighborhood called Gracia. Take the Green Line north to Fontana and get off to experience some real Catalan culture and avoid the toursits you are bound to see and English you are bound to speak in some of the better known parts of the city. Gracia has a small-town feel, and you will struggle to find one street performer or tourist gift shop. Stroll down c/ Verdi and grab some food and a movie, or head over to Placa del Sol for some real Barcelona nightlife. Dotted with cafes and bars, the Placa is devoid of tourism, and maybe even a little intimidating for an obvious American like myself, but well worth the effort once you're there. Once night, some friends and I met a flamenco singer in the back of a bar, exchanged some broken Castellano, and ended up outside after the bar closed, our new friend singing along and flamenco dancing on an old wooden box while my italian friend played the guitar on a nearby rooftop. It was surreal, and far from our typical nights at L'Ovella Negra and Port Olympico. So to get what you've always imagined bohemian, European travel to be, get off the beaten path and trek into Gracia. You never know what you might find.

I'm sure that anyone who's visited Barcelona has been there, and those that are planning to go have thought of it already; the Sagrada Familia, the church of the Sacred Family, generally considered one of Barcelona's greatest artworks and still in progress after more than a century of work. However, for those looking for the perfect camera angle to capture the magical facade and soaring pinnacles of the towers, forget simply standing in front of it; all you'll get is a hideous detail staring upwards that won't appeal to anyone, even your memories! Instead, walk back into the small park in front of the main facade, with a pond in the centre, surrounded by trees. I won't pretend that this is a serene and particularly quiet park, because it certainly isn't being surrounded by tourist buses and tour groups. But it is only visited itself really by Catalans themselves, or perhaps a few families looking for a restful place to relax after the crowds. Walk to the back of the pond, and there, looking through the vegetation in front of you, there is a perfect view of the cathedral framed by trees, grasses and a little pond alive with hungry ducks (bring something to feed them- they'll eat anything!).