Going to Barcelona (if the new passport arrives)

[Tues am: No passport with under 48 hours till travel time. The Passport Office say it has been with the printing company for 12 days - and as it has already been "issued", I can't go get one face-to-face. The people at the Passport Office are very friendly and helpful, but their process seems a bit disfunctional. More recommendations below.]

Going to Barcelona from Thursday to Monday next week. Any ideas of good things to do? Like: art, architecture, food, looking at things. Tell all. Should have bought Losowky's Barcelona guide already.

That is: going to Barcelona if the new passport arrives in time. Whilst we wait, fingers-crossed, some lovely people have offered suggestions, so many thanks to Andrew Losowsky, Chris Heathcote, Manjit Bedi, Dan Hill, Hamish Nevile, Bryan Boyer and Alex Laurie...

.

Andrew, who as they say wrote the book on Barcelona, suggested:
I'd say pop by: Iguapop Gallery, Montana shop (c/Commerç) and Mercado del Borne (Plaza Comercial at the end of c/Commerç) for designy things/illustrations. There's a bar at the end of c/Montcada in the Born which has a bloke standing outside by a rope and looks like a private thing but isn't, which is quite pricey but is a funky odd bar that plays opera and contains a weird mix of antiques (and some excellent brandies) [sounds brilliant]. The best ice cream shop in the city is Cremeria Toscana, c/Mutaner 161 (quite high up in the Eixample) - buy then go upstairs and hope that the sofa is free. The Caseta de Migdia is worth hunting out up on Montjuic if you like a walk and a view (up by the castle on Montjuic, follow signs to Mirador de Migdia).
Pla (c/Bellafila 5) is a great restaurant but book ahead - and go for a mojito before/after in El Ascensor next door just for the fun of walking through the lift doors to get in. La Paradeta (c/Comercial 7 behind the old Borne market) does amazing fresh, live seafood that they then cook to order and is ridiculously cheap (though it does get hot in there and the queues are big so arrive early, before it opens if possible). El Nus (c/Mirallers 5) is one of my favourite chilled bars in the centre.
La Bascula (Flassaders 30 bis in the Borne) does amazing huge sandwiches and great milkshakes - walk behind the cash till and there's a great cafe bit to sit in that you can't see from the street. La Seu is a Spanish cheese shop run by a sarcastic Scot called Katherine (Dagueria 16, by Jaume I) that sells great mini cheese platters to try while you shoot the breeze with her. Ginger, just further up there on the corner, is a good cocktail place with comfy chairs on the top level.
Errr.. nothing else springs to mind, and most of these are in the book in one place or other. Some things might be closed due to it being August, but persevere and find air conditioning where you can. It's worth it.
Oh and there's the Spiritual Cafe - great summer chill out evening location, in the gardens of the Maritime Museum near the bottom of the Ramblas. And check out what's happening in the city that week by going to lecool - updated every thursday afternoon. [See also Cool for Catalans.]

Chris offered:
Foodballs (Camper's food and shoe experience) [look how happy Foodballs made Dan Hill last year!].
Museum of Contemporary Art. And Gaudi Gaudi Gaudi!

Manjit recommended:
You want to pick up the b-guided> magazine when you are there - it's good for it's info on the art scene as well as going out. You should be able to pick it up at any FNAC. [Hmmm, not mad about the way their site tries to own my browser.]
And there is also a free magazine called the Barcelona [inside] miniguide. Have a look my web-site under travel for my last trip to Barcelona. And I am going to shamlessly plug the restaurant where my friend is one of the chefs - the Bestiari. His name is Carlitos. You would like him; before getting into cooking, he was an industrial designer. Also check out the Centre d'art santa monica off the Ramblas. And the Caixa Forum near Palau National de Montjuïc.

.

Dan recommended:
A few posts related to Barcelona in my time: Punching holes in Ciutat Vella; adaptive urban form in Barcelona; Barcelona & Fotografia exhibition, Barcelona; Santa Caterina and real marketecture; Two possible Google Earth extensions: time and sound. First post there probably captures best why I like it ...

And this photoset would be useful if I'd GPSed it! There may be enough description in the titles for you. Anyway, some things you have to see: Nouvel's extraordinary new Torre Agbar gas company HQ. Miralles' Mercat Santa Caterina. See insane montage I did here, inspired by it. Miralles' Skytower [requires a Domus login] is pretty stunning too.

Rebecca Horn's sculptures at Barceloneta, which is worth a visit anyway. Lovely little block of roads and apartment buildings, angled away slightly from the sea for maximum light whilst protection from wind. Pretty amazing feeling around here. Ancient bit of town, this. Also a giant Gehry sculpture there. Also a new biomedical research building which was just amazing. Looks like its wood but don't think it is. Again, opened up to sea and light.

Gaudi stuff is OK. You have to see it, really. Best stuff is in the Eixample. I prefer Domenech y Muntaner's work, esp. the Palau de la Musica - just out of the Gotic near the Mercat Santa Caterina. (Great cafe in the latter, btw)

You have to visit Montjuic - lots of history there; the old fort on the top is worth a visit, not least for the fabulous view of the container port beneath. Also a great maritime/military museum inside, if you like pikes, halbeards and schmeissers. Which I'm sure you do. Though it was also used as a base for torture during Franco's time, and actually turned the guns away from the sea and onto the city at one point. Nasty.

Anyway, also up there is the wonderful gallery Fundacion Miro - which I think is the best of Barcelona's art galleries, again not least because of the space and view. The Olympic stuff is up there - well worth wandering around. Some excellent stadia. The botanic gardens are pretty nice, with interesting landscaping ... From there, you can walk down past the enormous royal palace and gallery, down to the Mies Van Der Rohe Barcelona pavilion - a replica of the 1922 version, and one of the most perfect bits of building anywhere. Nice little bookshop attached.

Richard Meier's MACBA, yes, as Chris notes, but the CCCB (kinda like the ICA but better) up the road is worth a visit too. Nice courtyard cafe and great bookshop full of things you'll want.

The area just north of here is developing rapidly too. That's where the amazing Camper hotel is, where I enjoyed the Foodball concept in particular, as you noted :) They're great, but also have a drink of the water! It's free, in a jug, but they have a big block of pure graphite - or something - in it, and it just tastes great.

Great wine bar opposite the Santa Maria Del Mar - in fact, that whole area - variously called El Born. You can walk towards it along Calle Argenteria - where the silversmiths used to be! - and duck into any of the old sidestreets off there. Lots of great shops and bars, and a good place to get lost. There's a great sandwich bar - Sandwich & Friends!, with very Wallpaper styling - where they do good rolled up creations.

El Born is great then, as is El Raval. Hang out there, either side of the main tourist drag of Barri Gotic. Born has great little specialist shops such as Xocoa, for chocolate.

Several distinct areas - the sea and Barri Gotic, then the 19thC Eixample, as per Hausmann's Paris, then the late-20thC architecture - esp around the 1992 Olympic developments up on Montjuic - dotted around. It's a great walking city, so just wander through this lot.

But the most amazing thing of all aren't necessarily the individual attractions listed above, but the streets which support them - and particularly the signs and type that you see still thriving there, above and around shops ... An entire fantastic book on this - Barcelona Grafica, which is perhaps the best book ever.

and you'll just love that ... Hope this helps.

.

Alex added:
My folks said the Picasso 4 Gats Café and Museum was one of their favourite things they did when they went to Barca.

.

Hamish recommended:
Not much more I can add to Dan's list cos as Kirst says it "brings the rock" (rockstar supernova has just started in NZ) - in fact now I am all excited about all the links he has given and am looking forward to reading them at length! Have done a lot of what Dan has recommended and it was all cool, and looking at the rest it all looks well worth doing.

Only other thing I can think of is to go high and view the city from altitude! (Sagrada Familia one of the best spots but if Nouvel's knob has a public observation deck maybe try that) because love or hate Gaudi he was a wicked masterplanner and Barcelona is laid out on a kickarse Cartesian grid which is super cool from above.

.

Bryan recommended:
Total mixup:
Pizza @ La Veronica w/ spicy oil.
MAMA Cafe on Doctor Dou (down the street from the Actar bookstop/RAS gallery).
Langostines and cappuccino at the Pinotxo bar in the Mercat de la Boqueria.
Rosemary chocolate bar (and their packaging) at Xocoa.
HdM's Forum is so hideous it's almost interesting.
Ferrater's botanical gardens are nice if you have the time, and the Sert museum is near by.
Enjoy!

.

Comments

[Manjit Bedi]

Hi Rod. I was in Barcelona a few months ago.

You want to pick up the b-guided> magzine when you are there.

http://www.b-guided.com/

This magazine is good for it's info on the art scene as well as going out.

You should be able to pick it up at any FNAC.

And there is also a free magzaine called the Barcelona [inside] miniguide.

http://www.barcelona-inside.com

Have a look my web-site under travel for my last trip to Barcelona.

http://www.manjitbedi.com/travel/spain_and_portugal,_april_2/barcelona/

And I am going to shamlessly plug the restaurant where my friend is one of the chef's the Bestiari. His name is Carlitos. You would like him; before getting into cooking, he was an industrial designer.

http://www.bestiari.info

Also check out the Centre d'art santa monica off the Ramblas. And the Caixa Forum near Palau National de Montjuïc.

[rodcorp]

IT ARRIVED! Shiny and all biometricked-out with rfid circuitry. So I get to go, which is nice.