CavaTravel.com: Travel Info: Barcelona, Spain

Destinations > Spain > BARCELONA

View from Parc Güell

Blessed with luxuriant geography, Barcelona is situated between two rivers, along the Mediterranean coast, and framed by the Collserrola massif. The landscape is naturally verdant and lush, and the present day city includes many barrios which used to be farming villages. Visitors can look out over the entire valley from Mount Tibidabo (a reference to the Biblical temptation of Jesus by the Devil, saying "this I give to you"). [Full Profile]

Featured Sights
Barcelona's parks, architectural sights, museums, and various and diverse barrios provide a rich fabric of activities for visitors.

Museums / Culture
Visit the Museu Picasso, the MNAC, Fundaçió Joan Miró, Fundaçió Tapies, the Espai Gaudí or changing exhibitions at la Pedrera, and many more cultural enclaves...

On Foot
Walk the elegant Passeig de Gràcia, the thicket of Las Ramblas, the cool caverns of the Barri Gòtic, or stroll the winding pathways Gaudí's masterful Parc Güell, overlooking the city and the sea.

Architecture
Barcelona is rich in fabulous modernist architecture. The old quarter (Ciutat Vella) also contains a wealth of architectural variation dating back to gothic times.

Restaurants
Rich in sidewalk cafes, four-star dining, and fine cuisine accessible to all price ranges and palates.

Featured Favorite: Els Quatre Gats

A Barcelona landmark, this unique café/eatery at the edge of the Barri Gòtic was once a favorite haunt of Pablo Picasso, Pere Romeu, and Santiago Rusinyol. It's a must see, situated on the first floor of a neo-gothic structure designed by the great Catalán architect Puig i Cadafalch.

Visit them on the web at 4gats.com

Hotels
Hotels range from world-class five-star resorts to elegant two-star hostels, which can compete with many inexpensive hotels for amenities.

Nightlife
Barcelona boasts nightclubs of world renown, and offers traditional flamenco music, modern jazz, opera, and the awe-inspiring modernist Palau de la Musica Catalana.

Travelers' Resource: Barcelona Connect

An online guide and community in Barcelona with hundreds of classifieds, chat, travel and living tips covering bars, restaurants, accommodation, legal info, work permits, language schools etc.

Visit them on the web at barcelonaconnect.com, or read their free online Magazine...

Daytrips, Region
The Costa Brava, north of Barcelona, is one of the most intimate and picturesque stretches of the Mediterranean riviera, an elegant, natural and soothing environ for any weary or curious vagabond.

Language
The primary language spoken in Barcelona is Catalán, a unique and independent romance language, which developed prior to or parallel to Castilian Spanish. Not all barceloneses speak Catalán, but all catalanes speak Spanish, so you can get around with either.

Transportation
Getting around Barcelona is surprisingly simple when using the Metro underground rail system. Regional trains also take travelers to many city's throughout Catalunya.

History / News
Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya, and so the new tripartite Generalitat resides at the Plaça Sant Jaume, across from the city government, the Ajuntament.

Xampanyería: A Memoir of Spain

Nothing easier than getting lost in the ruins of another time.

The cobbles, the asphalt, the air were rich with sea salt. The mountains on the northwestern edge of Barcelona invited morning fogs to hang over the whole city, sinking only reluctantly back to the shoreline. These fogs lifted the sediment of history, daily, into the air, a ritual cleaning. A salty timeless savor would, daily, override the sooty-city residue of industry. For those intimate, empty hours, life itself opened up, became vulnerable, reliant upon our will. We tended to attempt to dwell among the salts.

No matter what my intended destination (many days I would have an insurmountable urge to pass by the Museo Picasso; other days, it was more important to find myself at the port’s edge, watching the world in flux), all streets, every exiting of an art gallery, every callejón or escondrijo, every late café luncheon, would lead me back to the xampanyería. We would sometimes joke that all of the Barri Gótic was a series of compartments of the spirit, all fascinating but exhausting, all begging the loud, unclean serenity of the crowded cava bar.

At four p.m., possibly, definitely within the hour, one could locate Michael or Saint Jerome or Renault, Farola or the Dutchman. Nevertheless, it was always the outside, the persistence of the old places, that would drive us there. It was always an integral part of a more organismal experience, never solely, or statically, ‘a separate peace’. [Full Text]

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Oxígeno y ciprés: junio en España

ENTRANDO...

Camino por el pasillo abierto que lleva hasta la puerta. Me recuerdo. Recuerdo sin fallos el lugar y el sentido del lugar. Ver el mismo cactus, el encanto de las plantas que llueven sobre los muros, ver la casa, el umbral, la cara y bondad insondable de Gloria, que siempre me cuidaba tan bien, significa una colaboración improbable con el fluír temporal.

Cenamos y hablamos de literatura, de leyenda y de la verdad. Hablamos de ese espacio infinito que corre por entre los nudos y planicies de la biografía a medias.

Me encuentro entre planes, entre mundos, entre variados trayectos de un progreso incierto que se llama vida. El aire tenue y privado está repleto de fantasmas e ideales, preferencias, gustos, y todo lo demás que pueda trascender los cambios cotidianos de la vida... [Texto completo]

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CITY OF BARCELONA

BARCELONA SETS GAZE ON PEACE
15 February 2004

Barcelona was host to a rally honoring the peace-first principle. The organizers are calling for an end to the Occupation in Iraq, citing Spain's 92% opposition to involvement in the war. One year ago, 1.3 million people demonstrated for peace, in what was seen as a new birth of civic involvment. [For more: BCN.es]

In Madrid and Valencia, still more turned out, reading manifestos against the war policy, and calling for the return of Spanish troops deployed in Iraq. [For more: ElPeriodico]

GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA

TRIPARTITE PACT YIELDS NEW CATALÁN PRESIDENT
15 December 2003

The new government, formed by Pasqual Maragall (Catalán Socialist Party), Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira (Republican Left of Catalunya) and Joan Saura (Catalán Green, United Left), brings a progressive face to Catalán politics, and ends the reign of Jordi Pujol as President of the Generalitat. Maragall, the new president, has said he wants to have a new relationship with Spain's central government and that Catalunya is once more "sincere, having recognized its diversity as wealth". [For more: AVUI]

EUROPEAN UNION

EU CAMPAIGNS TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY
17 January 2004

The European Union requires a ban on the death penalty for all members. While the EU has been a staunch proponent of human rights, and is home to the World Criminal Court, EU officials have announced they will intensify their global campaign against capital punishment. Representatives of the EU are touring Asian countries, hoping to lobby their governments for the cessation of the practice. [For more: IHT]

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