Barcelona

Barcalona is located in the northeastern corner of Spain in the provense/state of Catalonia. Both Catalan and Spanish are official languages here, and many of the residents see themself more as Catalan than as Spanish. The city of Barcelona has between 1,6 and 1,7 million inhabitants within the city borders, while the Greater Barcelona is somewhere between 3 and 4 million depending on the source.

This was my 3rd visit to Barcelona, but the last time was in the beginning of the 1990s when I was just a little kid so a lot has changed since. Actually Barcelona has transformed more than most other European cities during this perioed, going from a dirty industrial harbour city to a great modern metropolis raking among the top European tourist destinations. It more or less started when Barcelona was awarded the 1992 Olympics, and since then the development has never stopped. Today Barcelona is a sprawling city with both classic and bold new architecture, amazing costal location and all kinds of interesting cultural institutions.

I spend one week here this time, and there was surely enough to look at and do. Some places was almost too crowded with tourists, but I guess that's what you can expect when travelling in July. After a few days I actually decided to leave the camera more in my room and just enjoy my time there relaxing and enjoying the city, but I still ended up with a bunch of photos I think is worth showing here. There's a bunch of other nice Barcelona threads here, so for most people this is probably nothing revolutionary - Still hope you'll enjoy it. Let's get started with the photos...

1: This sums up Barcelona pretty well - Great beaches and new architecture in the background:


2: New architecture and a big trainstations close to the center of Barca:


3: The Torre Mapfre by the beach:


4: A huge metal fish facing the beach:


5: Back in the old harbour, here you can (among lots of other things) take a cable car to the Montjuic mountain where many of the Olympic facilities are located. View from the "Colum", a big Columbus coloum close to the harbour:


6: View in the other direction, the old cathedral and the "new", the Sagrada Familia by architect Gaudi:


7: And towards north, one of the towers from a previous photo:


8: Evening view down the old harbour itself:


9: And the "Colum" itself. It's very "tight" up there, not room for too many people:


10: Bunch of she-devils loose and ready to make make Barcelona unsafe in the night:


11: Just behind the Colum the famous "Rambla" starts (or ends), and around that you find the old narrow Gothic Quarter which is filled with this kind of "streets":


12: Made it through the night safe and next day I went to the hilly northwestern side of city. Here you find the "Park Güell" which was also designed by Gaudi. From there you have some great views of Barcelona, here some apartments buildings in the hills:


13: And here looking toward the city and the coast. The building in front if by Gaudi:


14: More Gaudi from the park:


15: And again:


16: From the highest points of the park you get a great view of Barcelona:


17: Great views you also get if you go the Tibidabo futher back than the Park Güell. This is much higher and you need to take a cable car to get to the top (or kill youself trying to walk). Here you really get a good view of how large this city is:


18: On the top there's an amusement park, some of the rides offers amazign cty views:


19: Here a closer look at the city with Torre Agbar and Sagrada Familia:


20: And the mountain you also find the Torre de Collserola observation/communication tower, visible from most of Barcelona:


21: One of the rides:


22: Back down from the mountain again, here at the top of the catheral:


23: View from up there:


24: The cathedral is close to the famous Rambla. Here you find all kind of crazy people among the tons of tourists:


25: The Rambla itself:


26: And here a big market in the middle of the Rambla, the St. Joseph Market:


27: The new Barcelona icon, the 144 m tall Torre Agbar by Jean Nouvel. Some claim it it's a ripoff from Sir Norman Foster's 30 St. Mary Axe in London, and it surely has it's similarities. Personally I think it's great, and it fits Barcelona very well with this bold facade and shape:


28: Closer look at the facade at the foot of the tower:


29: Another tower, here the older "Torre Catalunya" hotel in front of the Sants Estació train station:


30: Right next to it we find the "Parc de l'Espanya Industrial", which was currently under reconstruction. Somehow it looked more like some Berlin Wall border crossing than a park to me:


31: Art and office building between Sants Estació and Placa Espanya:


32: Taxis in front of Sants Estació:


33: On the edge of the Montjuic Mountain you find the "Palau National" which now hosts an art museum. Also being renovated at the moment:


34: From the front of it there's a great view towards the areas around Sants Estació, Placa Espanya and all the to the Tibidabo in the background:


35: Completely other place and time, this is a office facade near Torre Agbar:


36: Again a view from Montjuic:


37: And another:


38: Now on the Montjuic itself, here inside the Olympic stadium. They were preparing for a Madonna concert a few days later:


39: And here the Olympic park outside the stadium with the Torre Telefonica, which is designed by Santiago Calatrava:


40: A swimming arena also on Montjuic. Not the worst views either:


41: A quiet street somewhere in Barcelona. Can't remember where, so you'll have to guess:


42: Oh yes, Barcelona also has a little football team, in case you didn't know. They play on this little stadium:


43: Corner section of the mighty Camp Nou. Current capacity is 98.772 which I belive makes it the biggest football stadium in Europe and among to largest in the world:


44: Closer look at the middle section:


45: And a panorama showing all of it. There was no grass at the moment, maybe it was destroyed during a recent U2 concert, or maybe the just lay new grass before the season starts, who knows:


46: The stadiums own little chapel:


47: There's currently plans for renovating and expanding Camp Nou, here's a model in the museum (Stadium thread HERE):


48: Not a bad last season for FC Barcelona with Spanish League, Spanish Cup and Champions League titles. :


49: Something completely different again. This is a new business (mostly) area in southern Barcelona along the "Grand Via", maybe even in one of the suburbs. Specially the red tower in the background caught my eyes when driving the train from the airport:


50: From the other side:


51: Many interesting new buildings here:


52: Base and entrance of one of the tower, yet to be opened:


53: All of it again, here from a little futher away:


54: And a closer look at the red building - funny shape:


55: Like on many other trips I also visited the local zoo. The penguins were extatic to see my and they had prepared a little welcome dance:


56: Finally! Some turtles that are having a good time - This is the most active I've ever seen turtles in a zoo, normally they just lay on their concrete floor and looks sleepy. Thanks for the experience turtle friends:


57: Eh....


58: Not easy to catch these fast dudes through a thick dirty glass window...:


59: A fellow architecture interested dude:


60: Ain't mother the best...


61: Now that's a stylish animal:


62: This one also has style:


63: This...not so much:


64: Yellow...


65: And finally a ~150-180 degree panorama from Tibidabo showimg most of this huge city and it's suburbs. The suburbs also extend to the back of the mountain, which of course is impossible to see here, but it really is huge. The pano aint perfect but it give a good impression of the city:


That's it for now, hope you enjoyed Barcelona.