Barcelona

Barcelona is the most obvious place for changing trains, but the station isn’t exactly in the most inspiring of settings. So what’s there to do if you have some time free? Note:If you want a really short leg stretch, you could wander around the Parc de l’Espanya Industrial which sits behind the station, but I didn’t find it very inspiring…

Interactive Map

Leg stretch with views (2K blue)

Exit the station and turn right down Carrer del Rector Triadó. The are a couple of bars down here you might want to try if station grub isn’t doing it for you, such as Zarautz.

Take the third left on to Carrer de Sant Nicolau and follow that to the main road. Diagonally opposite is Parc de Joan Miró. Cross over and head to the park.

This used to be an abattoir but it’s a bit more green now. There’s cafe/bar, places to play games and there’s a big statue by Joan Miró - Dona i Ocell (Woman and space.

Go past the statue and you’ll see another building that has been put to a different purpose.

The Arenas de Barcelona. Bullfighting used to take place here and has been a dividing and defining issue of Spanish vs Catalan identity.

Catalans wanted something something going on here that represented them better, so they got a shopping mall.

While wandering around a mall might not be everyone’s, cup of tea, it could be a very practical and the roof top restaurants and the walkway running around them offer great views.

One of those places you can see is the imposing Montjuïc, which you can view up closer if you take the extension. Otherwise, head on back through the park and back to the station.

(For a slightly different view, from the Carrer de Sant Nicolau you could turn right down Carrer de Béjar, left along Carrer de L’Elisi and then right at Carrer del Rector Triadó.)

Montjuïc extension (2K+ red)

Leaving the Arenas de Barcelona, cross over the road aiming for the multi-columned and twin-towered entrance (Torres Venecianes) and head down Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina.

Take one of the walkways over the Av. de Rius i Taulet which is all that is between you and Montjuïc Park

Eixample - Gaudí and Cerdà pilgrimage (10K green)

This is a biggie, that is unless you walk the five kilometres there and get public transport back (L5 Metro).

However, by walking all the way across Barcelona’s Eixample, we can see the scale of it for ourselves and learn a bit about Barcelona and the mark made by two inhabitants: Antoni Gaudí and Ildefons Cerdà. We’ll also learn two words of Catalan: seny and rauxa

You’ll be walking most of the way down one street, Carrer d’Aragó.

To get there, do what you did for the Leg stretch walk until you get to Joan Miró park. There’s a fire station on the corner which you walk beside along the Carrer de Aragó.

You can actually duck into the park through a gate by the firestation and it’s worth a look at the park. Not so much for what’s in it, but to get a feel for what fours blocks of the Eixample are like when turned to greenery. Got that memorised? Good.

This is what we are going to be heading through.

The plan was conceived by Ildefons Cerdà.

Barcelona’s industrialisation was quick and brutal. The city became even more overcrowded than Paris or London. It was also prone to revolt. Something needed to be done.

Ildefons Cerdà was part of a talented group of idealists. He saw the issues and became the first urban planner. People needed light, ventilation, clean water, sewage disposal, traffic management, access to greenery and public facilities. But building a better society meant that rich and poor needed to live side-by-side.

All of this could be achieved by being systematic, practical and pragmatic which could be summed up in a Catalan word, seny.

He came up with a grid where different parts of the grid could be put to different uses.

He created a plan for a new expansion, an eixample (another Catalan word!)

In his new expansion, there would be room for clean water, sewage, clean air and light. There could be grand apartments for the well to do and more modest places for the poor, but all living in the same area.

Detailed implementation was out of his hands. and this is where it went a bit wrong.

When it came to making decisions about how each block should be used, it made more sense to build an apartment block for Barcelona’s deep-pocketed new middle-class rather than all the other non-revenue generating things like gardens and parks. All good seny.

And so we see block after block of very comfortable apartments. But one core part of his original idea did remain.

…space for the free flow of traffic.

Because traffic can (quite) freely move around the grid, each street is dominated by the sound and sight of cars.

Then there was another problem. When there is such a large supply of buildings, how do you make something that will stand out?

For that, we need to learn another work of Catalan - rauxa. A sudden burst of impulsive creativity.

At the corner with Pg. de Gràcia look to your right and you’ll see this.

Designed by Antoni Gaudí, someone prone to bursts of creativity - in a place sparse on greenery, could you say it’s almost organic?

If you turn left left and walk four blocks down Passeig De Gràcia, you can see another of his designs - Casa Milà.

But he wasn’t the only one coming up with new ideas.

Continue past Casa Mila and take the first right onto Carrer del Rosselló which feeds into Avinguda Diagonal - guess how this avenue it got it’s name…

Just along here is a very different idea of what sort of thing could be built here, the Casa de les Punxes

Continue past Csa de les Punxes and one more block, then come off the diagonal avenue by taking a slight left down Carrer de Provença and back onto the grid.

Continue along this road until you arrive at Gaudi’s masterpice - the ultimate product of rauxa.

To get back to Barcelona Sants station, you could walk back the way you came or take any of the parallel roads.

Alternatively, you could take L5 Metro.