It was the 1992 Barcelona Olympics which catapulted Barcelona from a local city to a global city. The Olympics left behind a legacy which has become a benchmark for other nations to follow. Their infrastructure improved dramatically and now all the facilities created have been put to good use. London, for 2012 Olympics and G;asgow, for the next commonwealth games is trying to emulate Barelona in building the infrastructure. We, unfortunately never do try to follow the successful models as was seen with our commonwealth games.
It is difficult to believe that before 1992, Barcelona was not a prominent tourist destination as now it is amongst the top 4 most visited cities in Europe , the others being London, Rome and Paris. It was quite a shock to hear that there were no beaches in Barcelona before 1992. The makeover of the area - now known as the Port Olimpic - was complete as city planners created a marina for the sailing event and turned an industrial tip into a three-mile stretch of sandy beach and for this a great number of industrial buildings were demolished in what was a rundown area.
It is impossible to imagine Barcelona without these beaches and those beautiful topless beauties (of all shapes and sizes) which adorn these beaches.
On a fine June afternoon, which also happened to be our first day in Barcelona, as we crossed the marina and reached ‘Barcelonta beach’ and walked towards other beaches, it became amply clear that Barcelona was the place to be in. As it became warmer, the women shed more of their clothes and did not want to lose those precious tanning hours lying next to the sea.
This may have been our first visit to Barcelona but the exotic views on the very first day ensured that we were already planning our next trip here.
Beaches and All that
The agenda for the next 3-4 days was set and it had to be the beaches. The entire planning of visiting plazas; churches; museums; amusement parks; and shopping malls were put on a back-burner. At first we attacked the beaches of Mar Bella, Nova Icaria and Bogatell. All these were in the same belt of Barcelonta beach in Barcelona. Then we got adventurous and took a train to North to the city of Badalona.
Badalona did not create much of an impression so on the last day we took another train and traveled 50 miles south to the beach town called Sitges. We took the wrong train and went around the Spanish countryside before we reached Sitges in 2 hours instead of normal 40 minutes. During the train journey it was wonderful to see so many small towns right on the beaches. Many of the train stations were just a stone throw distance from the beach.Sitges turned out to be a wonderful touristy town. We would like to spend a couple of days there during our next visit. Sitges was a small town with as many as 17 beaches ; it had cobbled streets ; there were narrow but attractive lanes for pedestrians and some nice shops for shopping. As far as eyes would go, fair skin of lovely women gleamed as they tanned under the perfect sun . Sitges relaxed us . Kunal and I would have relaxed more but were told of 2 nudist beaches. One in west (20 mins walk) and another called Balmins towards the East (10 mins walk). We decided to go to Balmins. Sooner the better. We crossed the San Sebastian Church (around this church the city of Sitges is built) and went up the hill in anticipation of the Balmins beach. Soon the beach appeared. What we saw from the height was unbelievable. Around two to three hundred of hairy and non hairy male species - totally nude- with their tools hanging, were either relaxing; or swimming; or being massaged (by another male);or just frolicking around in the sand and the sea. The Mediterranean sea suddenly didn't look too great. Balmins happened to be the largest gay beach of the area.
Las Ramblas
It is not that we ignored other aspects of Barcelona. The days are long so there is enough to do till 9 PM. Best way to start seeing a city is by Hop on-Hop off bus. On the way, the hop on – hop off bus meanders across and takes you to Montjiuc mountain which has the 1992 Olympic stadium. The views from there are breathtaking. A cable car takes you further up to the fort which has even better views.
Las Ramblas is the main street of Barcelona and it is a centre of all activity. It is a delight to walk on Las Ramblas though you may have to be careful of your belongings. It is a broad pedestrian street (the broadest I have ever seen) with granite surface. Starting from Plaça de Catalunya and ending near the port where there is a Columbus column (Christopher Columbus was Spanish !), it is around 2 km in length. On both sides are shops, cafes and restaurants. There was a sex shop as well with a peep show for 2 Euros ! ( Peep show is show happening in a small room where a strip tease artist performs and those who want to see the show put 2 euros in a slot and the small peep window opens for around 30 seconds. Keep putting 2 Euros for longer shows !)
Agents of ‘Rajah restaurant’ were happy to see us hoping we would definitely be dining at their restaurant. We belied their expectations and had some Spanish food that night.
Paella was similar to our Pulao and I had it pretty often during our trip. The other Spanish dish that I tried was La escudella i carn d'olla, made of vegetables, rice, noodles and potatoes. At the beach, we had had some fish also made in Spanish way, but had got rooked in the bargain as the waiter manipulated the weight of the fish and charged us a very handsome amount for our meal.
The La Ramblas had jugglers, painters, acrobats and many show-men to keep you occupied. The place gets quite crowded and lively and this perhaps is the reason to spend time here.
At the peep show Kunaal met a sexy strip artist( she worked as a tourist guide during the day), who invited him to the strip club where she performed. Sure enough, he took me to this weird sounding strip bar called ‘Mr Dollar.’ After having spent a couple of hours in the strip club we came back lighter by 100 Euros each with nothing much to show for it.
At the top of Las Ramblas is Placa Catalunya from where you can go onto Passeig de Gracia if your shopping tastes are slightly more designer orientated, or if you want to see Gaudi´s buildings. Antoni Gaudi was one of the most important modernist style architects worldwide. Many of his most extraordinary works are to be found in Barcelona. It was interesting to see Gaudi’s architecture but I have no comment to make except that his architecture is quite noticeably different.
The Gothic Quarter is the heart of old Barcelona and is just a couple of blocks to the north-east from las Rambla. It s a maze of small dark streets with lots of cafes and bars. The Gothic Quarter is a warm and friendly district and we saw whatever we saw from the hop on hop off bus and did not get down to admire the ancient buildings.
Being Comfortable in Barcelona
In Barcelona we stayed in an apartment in the touristy eixample area (very near Plaza de Espana) instead of a hotel. The apartment turned out to be a good idea. It had 2 bedrooms; a living room and a kitchenette. 4 nights is the longest we have ever stayed in any European city at one go. Having an apartment made it a comfortable stay as it not only gave us space but flexibility in terms of some cooking and washing of clothes. It had a couple of super markets right next door and the metro station and Sants railway station were also very near. The apartment had this funny policy due to which the air conditioners would switch off after every 3 hours. They called it their ‘green policy.’ I think it was just a way to control their electricity bill as people must be leaving AC’s on when they went out for the day. I did reply to them and appreciated their ‘green initiative’ but also suggested that they put a few fans in the apartment so that we do not have to rely on AC’s all the time.I hope they take this suggestion seriously.
Europe is best traveled by train. It was a mistake coming by flight to Barcelona from Madrid. It wasted our entire day and deprived us of one evening at Barcelona. Train journey would have been better as train reaches Sants station of Barcelona in just 3 hours from downtown Madrid. No security; no check-ins and no reaching airport hours in advance. I was informed a few days ago that The Span Air flight was re-scheduled to 1845 instead of 1600. Then at the airport the flight was delayed by 2 hours. We finally reached our apartment at Barcelona at 11 PM at night. A precious evening wasted.
Our next stop was Vienna. It wasn’t feasible to take a train till Vienna so we flew to our next destination to spend a week in places like Vienna, Innsbruk and Salzburg.
Wonderful places in a lovely country. More about it later..........
( One of the many weird symbols of Barcelona)
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