Un Cap de Setmana a Barcelona (A Weekend in Barcelona)

The weekend of October 19-20 was an ideal time to travel to Barcelona. The weather in Paris was getting cooler and drafty, while Barcelona in autumn was still a pleasant 25 degrees. I could enjoy summer for another two days and see a lively, historic city. Like Munich, a weekend was not enough to see everything, so the trip involved seeing fewer sites and seeing less of those sites which I did visit.

I had two worries going into this trip:

• First, going to an FC Barcelona football game was at the top of my list, but there were rumours that their star players Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. would not play due to having already played international matches during the middle of last week while also having important matches to play in the following week.
• Second, a few travel websites describe theft and pickpocketing as being a major problem in Barcelona, at a level much worse than Rome or Paris. Advice on this matter ranged from "it happens there just like anywhere; just stay alert" to "go somewhere else; it's not worth the risk".

On those two issues, I think I got lucky, but the trip still had its interesting detours...

When I arrived in Barcelona on Friday evening, I took the subway along two different metro lines and then walked a few blocks to my hotel after dark. The city certainly appeared safe and felt nothing like the pickpocketing-crazed crime-fest that some travel bloggers had described.

Day 1:

My hotel was located in the quiet suburb of Llobreget and my room was on the second floor facing the front entrance. I woke up in the morning to hear commotion on the front driveway. An Italian tourist in his 60's was yelling at his wife and then at a tour bus driver and then at anyone else within shouting distance, intermittently pointing at a vacant spot on the sidewalk where obviously his luggage was supposed to be. After searching the two tour buses parked in front of the hotel (including the cargo holds) and a taxi, the man calmed down a bit and was resigned to filing a report with the hotel front desk. While the previous night made me feel that the travel websites had exaggerated the risks in Barcelona, this first morning was a reminder to at least be a bit more careful than usual.

I decided to use a hop-on hop-off city tour bus to get around the city instead of a two-day subway pass. This backfired on the first morning as the stop that I expected to use was closed due to the Carrera de la Mujer (a run to raise funds for breast cancer research) being held that weekend. I ended up walking to the city centre before finding another tour bus stop.

A photo of Plaça d'Espanya taken from the top of Arenas de Barcelona. Beyond the Venetian towers are the thousands of runners in pink shirts participating in the Carrera de la Mujer during the weekend.

The Magic Fountain of Montjuic, situated below the Palau Nacional. Unfortunately, I did not get to see the fountain's light and water show as I had other commitments for the evening.

The Mirador de Colom (Columbus Monument), located at the end of Las Ramblas.

Near the city center, Las Ramblas contained many interesting artists, buskers and merchants. The street did not have any of the con artists described on other travel sites. The only nuisance was a group of younger men selling whistles that made a high pitched quacking sound. None of the tourists were buying them.

The El Born Cultural Center contains excavated remains of earlier settlements of Barcelona going back as far as the 10th century.

A main street in the Gothic Quarter.

Coincidentally, after leaving Barcelona I came across a news article noting that rent controls in Barcelona are ending in 2014 and so it is anticipated that many of the family-run shops in the Gothic Quarter will shut down and will be replaced by larger franchise/chain retailers that can pay higher rents. If you want to see the Gothic Quarter with its traditional shops, don't wait too long to visit Barcelona.

The Picasso Museum exhibited paintings from the earlier half of Pablo Picasso's career, much of which he spent in Barcelona and the surrounding area. Photos in the museum were not allowed but I managed to sneak one photo of Las Meninas (conjunt).

I bought a replica Barcelona jersey from a souvenir shop and went to Camp Nou to see FC Barcelona play Eibar.

Fortunately, both Lionel Messi and Neymar were in the starting lineup for Saturday's La Liga game against Eibar. Several players from Barcelona's glory years were also starting, including Gerard Pique, Xavi Hernandez, Dani Alves, and Javier Mascherano. While Andres Iniesta did not start, he did come into the game later as a substitute.

The modest attendance at Camp Nou did not surprise me (75,546 in a stadium that can fit 99,354), especially since Eibar is a smaller name team and still new to first division Spanish football. However, I was surprised by how quiet the crowd was. There was only a small group of ultras (fans constantly singing and chanting) for Barcelona and the large proportion of tourists in the upper sections meant that the rest of the crowd was not as loud as I would expect from 75K people.



I arrived at Camp Nou at sunset, about 25 minutes before kickoff, so I was able to take a photo of the stadium before it was filled with fans.

The game ended in a 3-0 win for Barcelona, with goals by Xavi (assisted by Messi), Neymar, and Messi (assisted by Neymar). Messi had several chances to score, so it was an exciting match; and I think even the Eibar fans enjoyed the match as their team was competitive for most of the night.


Day 2:

My plan for Day 2 was to head to the southeastern part of Barcelona to relax on the beach. On my way through the city center, I noticed a large group of locals dressed in yellow walking towards Plaça de Catalunya. I decided to follow them to see what they were up to and after a few blocks, I was enveloped by a massive crowd of yellow shirts and Catalan flags. It turns out more than 100,000 locals had turned out for a Catalan pro-independence rally that day!  I was able to eventually work my way through the crowds and out of the town square.



At Plaça de Catalunya during the Catalan independence rally.

Like yesterday, events in Barcelona had led to the closure of the tour bus stop I needed (this time to get to the beach), so I took a different tour bus route to the northern part of the city towards Parc Guell.

Palm trees and a stone wall at Parc Guell.

Parc Guell is a beautiful park filled with interesting stone sculptures and a diverse range of trees and flowers native to the region. It also has a great view of Barcelona if you climb up to the higher levels. The only downside was that it was crowded (at least for what I would want for a quiet walk in a park).

Underneath one of the stone bridges at Parc Guell.

I ended the day by seeing the Sagrada Familia on the way back to the city center. Barcelona takes a lot of pride in Antoni Gaudi and it is clear that the architect either designed or had a strong influence over many buildings and parks around the city. The Sagrada Familia was his greatest work, and the design was so complex that construction still isn't complete yet. Apparently, seeing cranes and scaffolding around the building is the norm.

The front entrance of Sagrada Familia.

That was Barcelona in a weekend. The trip did not go as planned, but I think the Carrera de la Mujer and the Catalan independence rally made for a more interesting experience than I expected. I will get to a Mediterranean beach on other trips, so my only big miss was that I did not get to see the Montjuic Magic Fountain show in person, but watching the football stars of FC Barcelona took priority. If you are curious, here is someone else's recording of the Magic Fountain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DFHyxlJdn0.