Cool Things to do in Barcelona

The 14th and 15th centuries were for Barcelona one of its periods of greatest importance, coinciding with the cityscontrol of the trade routes to the Orient, a fact which stimulated the expansion of the local economy.  In only two centuries Barcelona built the last two walls around her original Roman nucleus: the first running as far as the Rambla, at that time a water course, and the second encircling the Raval district, in which a number of religious houses had been established. The Cathedral is inevitably the organizing element in any Gothic city, and we therefore propose to start a visit here. Built in the main during the 14th century, it has  naves, all of more or less the same height, which gives the whole a sense of being a single space, quite different from the effect produced by Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe.

 

  

  The Placa Sant Jaume was laid out in 1824 on top of the central point of the old Roman fort, when a law made it necessary to move all cemeteries outside the walled city. This circumstance provided the opportunity to construct the neoclassical facadeof the Ajuntament, or City Hall.However the main entrance to the cothic building is still to be seen on the side façade, and the Salo De Cent has also been conserved , the seat first Catalan parliament with its flat beamed roof over slender arched windows. Opposite the Ajuntament is the Palau de la Generalitat guarding in its interior its courtyard of orange trees. Both of these buildings are magnificent examples of the influence of Moorish architecture on catalan gothic, a consequence of the conquest of the kingdoms of Mallorca and Valencia by King Jaume 1. A few steps from the Palau we come to the Placa de Rei, in which we find the Palau Reial Major, of which the Salo del Tinell, and the Santa Agueda chapel are important parts.
Continuing our itinerary along Calle Ferran, a street opened in the same way as Haussman was doing in Paris, to impose some order to the heterogeneity of the historic centre, we come to the Placa Reial, a porticoed square in the style of main plazas, on the site of a former convent. Another square, the placa Sant Josep, now occupied by the  Boqueria Food Market has a similar origin. Before making a our way down the Rambla, we might pass by the palace built by Antoni Gaudi for the Guell family at no. 3 Nou de la Rambla, which now houses the Museu del Theatre.

 

  

  As we approach the statue of Columbus, one of the citys most emblematic monuments, we find on our right the old convent of Santa Monica recently converted to become a centre for temporary exhibitions with the aim of revitalizing the lower part of the Rambla. The Drassanes complex rise up behind it, the shipyards in which the vessels of the royal fleet were built in the 13th and 14th centuries, whose impressive series of workshops is a clear predecessor of the factory architecture of the 19th century. The itinerary continues along the Moll de la Fusta the remodelled old port which now constitutes the first strip of maritime façade to be recovered by the city. Here, walking across the boards of the Rambla de Mar pedestrian bridge, we come to the great MareMagnum shopping centre, the Aquarium designed by the Terradas brothers, and the Imax cinema by Enric Garces and Jordi Soria. Along here runs the coastal ring road built to link Olimpic Village with the sports installations of the Olimpic Ring on Montjuic. The visitor might also wish to see the Placa de Merce in front of the baroque church of the same name. The square was created in 1981 with the demolition of the block of houses which previously occupied the site, as part of the city councils policy of promoting the opening up of a large number of new urban spaces, which made it possible to create a whole series of parks and plazas during the course of the eighties. Hostel movie
On the other side of the harbour is the Barceloneta , a residential district constructed in the 18 centrury when the newly installed Bourbon monarchy, after destroying the Ribera area, found it necessary to rehouse the people that had been left homeless. Since the recent demolition of the dock side warehouses on the Passeig Nacional the view of the skyline of the historic city can be seen as never before. The building by Coderch at no. 48 of the same Passeig restored in the early 90es, is worth a visit. The Bourbons also constructed a military citadel, which was viewed from the start as a symbol of oppression from the centre; when this was dismantled as a result of a petition by the citizens it made way to the parkland which was later to accommodate the Universal Exposition of 1888. The park includes several buildings of importance, such as the Exposition Restaurant by Domenech I Montaner, and now home to the citys zoology museum, the Umbracle the Hivernacle and the Museu d’Art Modern.

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If you live in Barcelona you can enjoy both the wonderful beaches starting in the city with the Barceloneta beach, going all the way out to the forum area.
In the winter time when it is too cold to swim or sunbathe at the barceloneta beaches, they are used frequently by surfers… and if you do not know how to surf, there are schools to teach you surfing. At the Barceloneta beach there is a surf school where you can learn surfing, wind surfing and kitesurfing. The school is positioned right on the beach, where you cannot miss it!
But not only can you swim and surf in Barcelona… If you like skiing or snowboarding, the solution is only 2 hours away… Andorra is the best place to ski and snowboard in Spain. With the nearby skiing area “Gran Valira” you can get a skiing weekend for as little as 110 - 120 Euros. This though means that you’ll live in a crappy little hotel room, and must be able to live with yelling and screaming at 4 o’clock in the morning. If you buy the ski trip through an agency, it is the cheapest solution, but as mentioned also the worst. There is always an included breakfast and dinner in those offers, but I would strongly recommend that you go out and eat at a restaurant in Andorra Vella, as the food is quite frankly horrible at the hotels…
Personnally when I go to Andorra, I get a room in Andorra la Vella, because there is a chance to go out and get a drink and have some fun. But if you only want to go skiing hardcore, it will not cost you more to get a room on the piste… as they also have crappy but inexpensive rooms in tarters, soldeu and so on!

The Skiing in Andorra is pretty good, and on a sunny day I would say very close to the larger areas in France. The pistes are very well groomed and beginner minded. There are few black pistes, and the ones there are, are very short and propably would have been red in France. There are not that many skiers, so you wont see huge lines at the lifts as you will in France or Austria either.

If you choose to stay outside the main city Andorra la Vella, there will not be much entertainment at night, I know that caus e I spent some rather long nights reading spanish tourist brochures at a hotel outside the city, because we insisted to get out and ski early in the morning… personnally I will not recommend it, but you are very fresh to go skiing in the morning. But if you are in Andorra la Vella, there are quite a few bars and discotheques in the city. Most of those I wont waste your time with here, because there is actually only one place you want to go… Its called Buda Bar, and though it has nothing to do with its famous name- (or almost name-)brother in Paris and Barcelona Buddha Bar, it is a really cool disco, with lots of beautiful people and great music. So if you go to Andorra be sure to go to Buda Bar, it is situated a little bit outside the city center, but it is no problem getting a cap neither to or fro.

Another cool place if you are in Andorra, is the water center called Calders, It will set you back 30 euros but I have never met a person who didn’t say it was definately worth it. They have turkish baths, huge inside pool, outside pool and lots of health and thermic baths. The thing I think is the coolest is that you can swim from the inside pool to the outside one, with out getting out of the 35 degrees hot water… and that there is snow outside in the winter time!

If you buy a package skitrip you can probably get the whole thing ex. ski rental for about as little as 110 euros including the room, insurance, breakfast and dinner, and lift card to the biggest area (Gran Valira). The ski rental is not included, and will put you down from 25 Euros for a pair of ok beginner skis (and boots), for 2 days, up to 75 Euros for a great pair of hardcore skis (without boots).

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