Our Many Moons of Honey: The Many Faces of Barcelona

A drinking foutain

The Good ... and was there ever a lot of good. What a beautiful city and well maintained, for the most part. Before we dive into the architecture (and seriously, how could we not!!), let us start with a few little things we noticed. The first thing that was very obvious to us was how well organized their train stations are – in the sense of how clean and orderly and well labelled they were. This can also be said for the other two stations that we visited while in Spain. It is impossible not to know where to go and when your train is coming. Good for them and anyone visiting the city. We also noticed how much construction was going on in and around the city: from roads, to railways to buildings. And they say Spain is going through an economic downturn ... maybe someone should tell them J. The last few things we noticed were the water fountains, the garbage cans and the street cleaners all over the city. Now, we don’t mean the pretty fountains that we saw all over France but actual little fountains that you can use to wash your hands or as we did, refill your water bottle. Brilliant!

As for the garbage cans, again, we don’t mean just a can for you to toss you garbage in – they had three large rounded metal containers one for garbage, one for paper/plastic and one for glass bottles. And there was basically every block. Again, just brilliant. The street cleaners – who work in threes along with a cleaning truck - appear to be working around the clock. This excludes of course, the Barrio Gotico which seems to only get cleaned when it rains or someone pours water down from their balcony.

Ok, we know you’ve been waiting for it ... we’re going to talk about Gaudi. I mean, you can’t talk about Barcelona without talking about Gaudi as he left his mark all over the city. From Park Guell, which housed his residence for 20 years and is now a free public park (thanks to his donation) to La Sagrada Familia, which 128 years after construction began is still 15 years from completion. There are also a dozen buildings/houses scattered throughout the city which bare his trademark unique architectural style which one has to see to believe and understand. It is highly detailed and like a dream.

We have to take a second here to talk about his masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia. This structure is like nothing else in the world. Standing in front of it you are awe-struck by the detail and by the pure randomness of its design. There are fruit clumps atop of spires and alien like creatures (star trooper looking things) adorning one of the entrances. Everywhere you look there is an awe-inspiring detail. And that is just the outside of the cathedral. Once you enter you are in for another marvellous experience. It’s like you are standing in a concrete forest with the tree tops (which resemble large jewels more so than leaves) miles above you. There’s also a crucifixion of Jesus (like none you have ever seen) floating above the floor. With all of this detail and the cathedral is still 15 years from completion. We could go on forever talking about this, but we’ll let the pictures linked below do the talking, so enjoy.

Barcelona also has a waterfront and a beach that we did not investigate too closely and very good and cheap table wine at restaurants J. So, when in Barcelona, be sure to order table wine, as there is no need to spend four times as much for the other wines on the list (thank you Kume!).

The Bad ... the urine smell in El Barrio Gotico and La Ramblas. Although the gothic quarter could be quite stunning it is somewhat ruined by all of the sketchy people standing about and the predominant smell of urine. La Ramblas is probably the biggest tourist trap in Barcelona and is just pure sketch with the weirdest buskers in the world. I mean cat woman and a man in a diaper putting baby powder on his behind!?!?!? Funny but who wants to pay to see that. La Rambla del Raval, which is parallel to the main one is a much nicer walk with families and kids and would be perfect if it wasn’t for the neighbourhood it’s in which is known for its drug peddlers and prostitutes. Which brings us to ....

The Ugly ... sketchy sketchy sketchy sketchy men, standing on the side of the street, eating pepas (sunflower seeds) and peddling drugs. And we’re sorry, we have to say this, but what is with the grungy hippy hick (due to the terrible haircuts) style that the hipsters in Barcelona have chosen to embrace! ? This is just plain old ugly. It’s one thing to be hip but do you have to look so dirty grungy in the process?

Before we conclude this long post, we want to recommend a well priced (mid-range) and perfectly located hotel: Best Western Hotel Medicis. Each room had a balcony, large bathroom, flat screen and a very comfortable room. The hotel is walking distance to Park Guell (25 minutes) and Sagrada Familia (7 minutes) and a little further down the road you hit Gaudi’s famous houses and La Ramblas (45 minutes). Very friendly staff and free Wi-Fi. Can’t go wrong.

To close it off, whoever gets a chance should definitely visit Barcelona and enjoy all the beauty (and great food) it has to offer. Also, if you are only there for a few days, we highly recommend paying for the hop on and off city tour bus for one of those days as you will get a chance to see all of the sites around this massive city.

Here is a link to some of our pictures (password: messi): http://photobucket.com/barcelona_OCT2010