Steves - Rick Steves Barcelona

BARCELONA

Rick Steves

BARCELONA

If youre in the mood to surrender to a citys charms, let it be in Barcelona. The capital of Catalunya and Spains second city, Barcelona bubbles with life in its narrow Barri Gtic alleys, along the pedestrian boulevard called the Ramblas, in the funky bohemian quarter of El Born, along the bustling beach promenade, and throughout the chic, grid-planned new part of town called the Eixample.

Barcelonas Old City is made for seeing on foot, full of winding lanes that emerge into secluded squares dotted with palm trees and ringed with cafs and boutiques. The waterfront bristles with life, overlooked by the park-like setting of Montjuc. Everywhere you go, youll find the citys architecture to be colorful, playful, and unique. Rows of symmetrical ironwork balconies are punctuated with fanciful details: bay windows, turrets, painted tiles, hanging lanterns, flower boxes, and carved reliefs.

As the capital of the Catalan people, Barcelona is full of history. Youll see Roman ruins, a medieval cathedral, twisty Gothic lanes, and traces of Columbus and the sea trade. But by the late 19th century, the city had boomed into an industrial powerhouse and became the cradle of a new artistic styleModernisme. Pablo Picasso lived in Barcelona as a teenager, just as he was on the verge of reinventing painting; his legacy is todays Picasso Museum. Catalan architects, including Antoni Gaud, Llus Domnech i Montaner, and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, forged the Modernista style and remade the citys skyline with curvy, playful fantasy buildingsculminating in Gauds over-the-top Sagrada Famlia, a church still under construction. Salvador Dal and Joan Mir join the long list of world-changing 20th-century artists with ties to this city.

Use this legend to help you navigate the maps in this book.

Todays Barcelona is as vibrant as ever. Locals still join hands and dance the everyones-welcome sardana in front of the cathedral every weekend. Neighborhood festivals jam the events calendar. The cafs are filled by day, and people crowd the streets at night, pausing to fortify themselves with a perfectly composed bite of seafood and a drink at a tapas bar. Barcelonas lively culture is on an unstoppable roll in Spains most cosmopolitan and European corner.

Rick Steves Barcelona is a tour guide in your pocket.

In this book, youll find the following chapters:

Orientation to Barcelona has specifics on public transportation, helpful hints, local tour options, easy-to-read maps, and tourist information. The Planning Your Time section suggests a schedule for how to best use your limited time.

Sights in Barcelona describes the top attractions and includes their cost and hours.

Four Self-Guided Walks cover Barcelonas most enjoyable neighborhoods: the Ramblas promenade, historic Barri Gtic, trendy El Born, and a Modernista paradise, the Eixample.

The Self-Guided Tours lead you through Barcelonas most fascinating museums and sights: the Cathedral of Barcelona, the Picasso Museum, and two architectural gems, Gauds Sagrada Famlia and Park Gell.

Sleeping in Barcelona describes my favorite hotels, from good-value deals to cushy splurges.

Key to This Book

Updates

This book is updated regularlybut things change. For the latest, visit www.ricksteves.com/update.

Abbreviations and Times

I use the following symbols and abbreviations in this book:

Sights are rated:

Tourist information offices are abbreviated as TI, and bathrooms are WCs. Accommodations are categorized with a Sleep Code (described on ). To indicate discounts for my readers, I include RS% in the listings.

Like Europe, this book uses the -hour clock. Its the same as ours through 12:00 noon, then keeps going: 13:00, 14:00, and so on. For anything over 12, subtract 12 and add p.m. (14:00 is 2 p.m.).

When giving opening times, I include both peak-season and off-season hours if they differ. So, if a museum is listed as May-Oct daily 9:00-16:00, it should be open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. from the first day of May until the last day of October (but expect exceptions).

A symbol in a sight listing means that sight is described in greater detail elsewhereeither with its own self-guided tour, or as part of a self-guided walk. A symbol indicates that a free, downloadable self-guided audio tour is available.

For transit or tour departures, I first list the frequency, then the duration. So, a train connection listed as 2/hour, 1.5 hours departs twice each hour and the journey lasts an hour and a half.