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The Best of Barcelona
Hit the highlights in just three daysby Angela Wibking
First of all, make the most of your time and book a non-stop
flight aboard Iberia Air Lines from New York City to Barcelona. Flying on
Spain’s national airline puts you in a Spanish frame of mind right from the
start of your journey; Iberia’s business class seats offer enough extra leg
room to almost fully recline and that makes the 6 ½ hour flight especially
comfortable. For information on Iberia’s flights, call 800-772-4642.
This is a city that loves its art and artists and it shows
in the number of art museums and galleries found here. For a one-stop taste of
art on your first day in Barcelona, ascend Montjuic, a vast slope in the middle
of the city given over to gardens, parks, museums and, in 1992, the Olympic
Games. The sports complex constructed for those games, including the stadium
and pools, is still in use today but you’ll also find two of the city’s major
art museums here as well. For an overview
of the art of the region (Barcelona is capitol of an autonomous region of Spain
knows as Catalunya), visit the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, a massive
museum with works ranging from 10th-12th century
Romanesque murals, sculptures and frescoes and 12th-15th
century Gothic works to Renaissance and Baroque art from the 16th-19th
centuries. Next head for the Joan Miro Foundation, another fine museum located
in Montjuic. The contemporary all-white building houses a large number of works
by the great 20th-century abstractionist Joan Miro. Be sure to visit
the sculpture display on the roof and have a delicious lunch at the museum
café. If you want even more art, Barcelona is also home to the Picasso Museum,
which occupies three Gothic mansions in La Ribera, the city’s oldest section,
and the Museum of Contemporary Art, whose architectural design by American
Richard Meier is itself a work of art.
Faith has always been central to life in Barcelona and
beautiful churches, chapels and cathedrals seem to be everywhere. But you’ll
only have time for one during your short visit and the one to see is the Church
of the Sagrada Familia. Start your second full day in Barcelona with an early
morning visit (the better to beat the tour buses) here. Begun by architect and
designer Antoni Gaudi in 1883, the cathedral is still under construction today,
almost 75 years after its creator’s death in 1926. The monumental structure
literally towers over the city with spires soaring 550 feet into the Barcelona
air. But it is the eccentric façade, which captures the look of dripping wax in
solid stone, and its myriad sculptural details drawn from the life of Christ,
that make the church so mesmerizing.
Locals know Casa Leopoldo is one of city’s best restaurants
for seafood and if you dine here on your second evening in Barcelona you’ll be
surrounded by natives and great food alike. The preparations are simple and the
servings abundant. Platters of boiled shrimp and crispy fried calamari,
accompanied by plates of fava beans and asparagus cooked with eggs will satisfy
the heartiest of appetites. Run by the same family for 75 years, the restaurant
has a homey décor, highlighted by lovely tile work and bullfighting
paintings.
For lunch today, try Semproniana, a casual fun restaurant
with an eclectic décor and menu. Dishes to try include the pear-stuffed pasta
with pesto and the rich flourless chocolate cake drenched in bittersweet
chocolate sauce. Don’t worry about calories, though, because you’ll walk some
off with an afternoon of shopping. Wander along La Rambla, the city’s main
promenade, where you’ll find fresh flower vendors, crafts booths and the Mercat
de la Boqueria, a vast fresh fruit, meat, seafood and vegetable market. Take
one of the side streets from La Rambla and explore the Gothic Quarter, where
small shops of all kinds abound. For the quintessential Spanish souvenir,
search out Juan Soler, mainly a fine fabric and trim shop but also the place to
buy hand-made silk shawls in every color of the rainbow. Made in Seville and
lavishly fringed and embroidered, the shawls are a deal at about $80 each. On your final evening in Barcelona, throw your new shawl
over your best evening attire and reserve a seat at Gularis, a restaurant that
serves up live opera with its four-course menu. The restaurant is housed in an
elegant mansion with lofty ceilings and rooms adorned with ornate mirrors and
antiques. Between courses, four singers – a baritone, a tenor, a mezzo-soprano
and soprano – regale diners with selections from La Boheme, Aida, Don Giovanni and
Carmen. The setting is romantic, the food is
wonderful and the singing superb. What better way to end a whirlwind tour of
Barcelona? For more information on visiting Barcelona, go to www.barcelonaturisme.com, or call 888-OK-SPAIN. Photos by Angela Wibking -Updated 10-23-00- |
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The delights of Barcelona, Spain’s
second largest city and only metropolis on the Mediterranean, are many and one
could easily spend weeks experiencing them all. If you’re like most travelers
today, however, time is of the essence when visiting Europe. You’ll probably
plan on spending just a few days in any given destination and then hop on to
the next great country or city. Still, it’s possible to enjoy the best of
Barcelona in a short period of time with the right itinerary. Here’s a
three-day plan that highlights the great art museums, superb restaurants and
sensational shops of this fascinating city.
Next, treat yourself to a room at one
of Barcelona’s best hotels, the Hotel Arts, built for the 1992 Olympics. In
preparation for hosting the Olympics, Barcelona created an entirely new
neighborhood along its waterfront and the 183-acre area now includes modern
apartments (once used to house Olympic athletes), offices, malls, an aquarium,
a marina and the five-star Hotel Arts. The 42-story, 450-room hotel is part of
the Ritz-Carlton chain, with all the style, services and amenities associated
with that name. The rooms are decorated in soothing whites and neutrals, with
contemporary furniture and lavish marble baths. A panel of buttons beside the
bed puts the adjusting of all room lights and even the window coverings at
one’s fingertips. Rooms offer striking views of the Mediterranean or the city.
Contemporary art adorns the walls and every few days the exquisite modern
floral arrangements throughout the hotel’s public spaces are changed. The hotel
offers a full breakfast buffet with American and international dishes every
morning so you can fuel up for your three days of sightseeing in Barcelona.
Plan to dine like a star tonight at
Hofmann’s. Everyone from Mel Gibson and John Travolta to Cindy Crawford and
Kevin Costner has eaten here, as photos surrounding the bar attest. You’ll
understand why it’s Barcelona’s “star attraction” when you taste the food. Chef
Mey Hofmann takes the freshest local ingredients and traditional Spanish dishes
and then adds a creative contemporary twist. Dishes to try include the
fork-tender ox sirloin tail in ragout with carrots and macaroni and the dessert
plate with a miniature chocolate mousse, bite-sized cheesecake and a tiny
melt-in-your-mouth puff pastry. For more on the restaurant, go to 
For another side of Gaudi head to Park
Guell (pronounced “way”). If the Church of the Sagrada Familia is Gaudi’s most
reverent creation, then Park Guell is his most playful. Gaudi originally
intended the park, located in the northern part of Barcelona, as a planned
residential community but those plans never quite materialized. Of the 61
homes, roads, markets and schools Gaudi envisioned, only two houses and a few
public areas were ever completed. Today
the area is a public park, with wonderful winding paths through stands of trees
and lush landscaped areas. You can tour Gaudi’s whimsical houses and wander
through his archways and columns and down his curving stairways. The park is
also home to Gaudi’s signature sculpture – his famous mosaic lizard.
For your last full day in Barcelona, mix art
with shopping and cap it all off with great food and a little opera. Start with
a tour of Le Pedrera, perhaps the only apartment building in the world so
architecturally notable that it is now a full-fledged museum. Antoni Gaudi’s
last civil project for Barcelona, built 1906-1912, Le Pedrera features an
undulating façade and a rooftop dominated by an unusual array of chimneys.
After extensive renovation, the building was open to the public as a museum in
1996 and today visitors can tour one of the apartments within and also learn
all about Gaudi and his designs in a permanent exhibition in the building’s
former attic. The highlight of touring La Pedrera, however, is a stroll around
the rooftop where an army of amazing chimney sculptures seems to stand watch
over the city.