Visitors to Barcelona discover a city with charming streetscapes, sidewalk cafés and squares bustling with people. It is full of life. This amazing city also features the world’s largest collection of modernist architecture among its many buildings and churches. Drive past the Columbus Monument and see the bottom of the famous promenades of La Rambla and Via Laietana.
Continue along Passeig de Gracia — the best-known boulevard in town — en route to La Sagrada Familia Church. Your guide will provide you with all the relevant details about the modernist cathedral — Gaudí’s most unusual construction — as you pass it by coach.
Enjoy a view of the coast and Barcelona from the Olympic Harbor. Schedule permitting, you will have some free time at the Olympic Harbor. Before returning to the ship, head to Montjuïc Hill and pass through the Olympic Ring with a brief stop at the del Alcalde viewpoint for a panoramic vista.
I have a lot to say about Barcelona but first I want to talk about the weather. Mary and I visited New York City on the first week of November in 2015. One morning, we got up very early so we could be outside the Rockefeller Center while the Today Show was being broadcast. Mary made it onto national television by holding up a sign which read “WE BROUGHT THIS FANTASTIC SAN DIEGO WEATHER!”
Mary could have carried a sign around Barcelona with the same proclamation. Certainly, the weather on the day one visits a place has an impact on the overall impression. During our two days in Barcelona, we had the best weather San Diego has to offer. Mary did not hesitate to tell this to anyone who would listen and appeared to understand English. Our friends, Gordon and Mary Thompson, told us that were really blessed. Not only rain, but also wind, can make Barcelona less pleasant.
The weather was the best and Barcelona was the best. The crowds were as big as I have seen in Times Square but a couple of factors made things more pleasant than other ports where there have been large crowds. The city of Barcelona is designed with broad pleasant streets and squares. The waterfront is tourist friendly.
Barcelona has been the site of World Fairs and the Olympics. The preparations which were made to host millions make Barcelona much more accommodating to visitors than the average city. Spain is a predominately Catholic country and Easter Week is popular time of the year to visit Barcelona because of its churches. Apparently, schools were out on vacation and there were children of all ages included in the droves of tourists that were everywhere.
Mary and I started the first morning of our visit with the excursion described at the top of this message. Normally the tour would end at the ship and we would go on board and perhaps eat lunch and then plan what else we wanted to do. Barcelona was different. At the conclusion of our tour, we opted to get off at the point where the ship’s shuttle would have dropped us off had we come straight from the ship. We wanted to tour Barcelona’s Cathedral before 1:00pm.
We were faced with a challenge. The Barcelona Hop/on Hop/off bus could not get us near the Cathedral on time. We had been told that before 1:00pm admission is free but after that time there is a charge.
We could walk to the Cathedral but we were given varying estimates of the time involved. We were off on our first Barcelona adventure! As it turned out, we needed to walk along “La Rambla” which is a remarkable main thoroughfare of people and some vehicles. We walked past many sidewalk cafes and booths selling tourist-type items. It reminded me of the Adams Avenue Street Fair.
There were a number of people who dressed in costumes and painted their skin and posed as statues for donations. We have similar “human statues” generally around Seaport Village. If you need more friends, you can become a friend of La Rambla by going to www.amicsdelarambla.cat.
Eventually, with the help of a young front desk clerk in a hotel who spoke English, we got off the La Rambla on to a quaint narrow street. We immediately found an old church but in a few minutes figured out it was not the Cathedral. We went on just a little further and discovered a spacious courtyard in front of the Cathedral. We had started our trek at noon and it was now 12:40pm. There was a line of about 100 people waiting to buy tickets for the 1:00pm paid opening. I never was able to find out what time was the cut-off for the morning but was told we could wait until 6:00pm when admission would once again be free. I paid the 7 Euros.
The Cathedral was so amazing that I am struggling to describe it. If you were to combine St. Joseph’s Cathedral with the Immaculata, Mission San Diego de Alcala and St. Patrick’s (in New York) you would have a hint of it. It was an incredible overload of things to see. They were not just the inside of the Cathedral but a courtyard called the Cloister that had a garden, coy pond, geese and graves. Part of the time we were in the Cathedral someone was playing an unseen organ. Well, I know it was there somewhere, I just didn’t see where. If it was harp music, I might think I was having some extraordinary spiritual breakthrough. I could go on pretty long time writing about “Catedral de Barcelona” but instead I will provide the address to the website. www.catedralben.org. The colorful brochure that the cathedral made available included a paragraph under the heading “Greetings” which I feel is worth considering. Here is the paragraph;
“If you wish, after admiring the gothic art of this temple, you can rest and pray in the side-chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Pray especially for world peace. Pray for the construction of the civilization of love. Pray for the unity of Christians. Pray for your needs, without forgetting to pray for those who are in material and spiritual need. Please do not leave without praying, however humble your prayer may be.”
I want to clarify that there is another highly unusual church in Barcelona called “Sagrada Familia” or Holy Family. (the one designed by Gaudi.) This church has been designated by the Pope as a “Basilica.” People buy tickets way in advance for an opportunity to see the inside of the basilica. It works like the “fast pass” at Disneyland where you get assigned a time to get in. I think I heard that three million visitors tour this basilica each year. By being designated as a ‘basilica’ it does not have regularly scheduled Masses. The money collected though ticket sales is helping continue the work which may be completed by its 100th anniversary.
There are many churches, museums and statues to see in Barcelona. I just want to mention three interesting statues right now. There is a statue of Christopher Columbus in a high pillar located in a round-about at one end of La Rambla. On a hillside overlooking Barcelona there is a white statue of four couples holding hands in a circle. They represent a regional ethnic dance. I have never seen a statue like that. Often there are statues of children holding hands but I have never seen one of adult couples. I really liked the feeling I got from this statue. The third ‘statue’ I saw was probably the most unusual I will ever see. It was a giant clear plastic box with furniture all askew inside it. There was water pouring over it. When I asked several people about it later, apparently I was the only one who saw it. I tried to point it out to Mary when we were on the upper deck of the Hop/on Hop/off bus but she did not see it.
There is a lush green park overlooking Barcelona. On the morning of our second day, Mary and I ventured forth to ride a cable car to the top of the hill where there is a palace. It was similar to the ride at the San Diego Zoo but more automated. The ride was amazingly efficient. On our trip down the mountain there were no helpers guiding us onto the gondolas. Believe it or not, the doors opened automatically, if you did not clamor aboard, the doors closed and an empty gondola went on its way.
There are three different things I wish to share about being at the top of the hill that had the castle. There was an additional charge for admission to the castle. This was understandable. The gondolas were not the only way to reach the top. What I found puzzling was the fact that there was a line of about 50 people waiting to purchase tickets. Clearly, the one man in the ticket booth was too slow and needed help. I believe that in the U.S. this would have been managed more efficiently.
The second thing I wish to mention is the view from the top of the hill. We could not only look down and see the Amsterdam but she was right next to her sister ship, the Rotterdam! There was another cruise ship also berthed which carried 4000 passengers. No wonder Barcelona was bustling with tourists!
The third item was the comment another visitor made about graffiti on a large cannon. The man said it was stupid and I chimed in and said “I agree.” I would have to admit, I have found the graffiti in the last five ports disappointing. One of my goals, when I return to San Diego, is to stop people from defacing walls and doors with graffiti. Do you think I have been at sea so long that I have gotten delusional?
I mentioned that Barcelona has been the site of the Olympics. They really went all out for the one which took place in 1992. There is an Olympic park at the water’s edge and there is a stadium on the hill overlooking the city. Mary and I stopped at the stadium and enjoyed lunch there. I do not have a reputation as an international connoisseur. Other world-cruisers look forward to certain dishes that are served in different parts of the world. My preoccupation with germs and fear of spices makes me content to eat all my meals on board the Amsterdam. The Olympic Stadium in Barcelona is the exception. If you want to get some good chicken nuggets and tasty onion rings at a reasonable price, you will score at the Barcelona Olympic Stadium. You can actually go into the stadium and pretend to be in the opening ceremony carry our country’s flag. I like how tourist-friendly Barcelona has been.
