Take off guides Barcelona

The guide contains :

Introduction

Barcelona History

Living Culture

City Beats: Modernism

City Beats: La Rambla

City Beats: The Markets

City Beats: Terraces and Squares

City Beats: Barcelona Festivals

City Beats: Parks and Gardens

Routes: From the Anilla Olímpica to Plaça Espanya

Routes: The Heart of the Eixample

Routes: A Tour through the Squares of Gràcia to Avinguda Diagonal

Routes: A Stroll down La Rambla

Routes: Barceloneta and Vila Olímpica

Routes: La Ribera, El Born and El Raval

Routes: The Gothic Quarter and the old Jewish District

Routes: Beyond the Eixample Dret

Routes: Off the Route (but not to be missed)

Routes: A Walk from Plaça Catalunya to Plaça La Mercè

Surrounding Areas: Sitges, Costa Brava and Montserrat

The Practical Guide Book

Map: Barcelona Centre

Map: Barcelona Underground (Metro)

Map: Barcelona Local (Cercanías) Railway Map (RENFE)

This guide is sorbed from Barcelona Take Off Guides !

Shopping centres

Barcelona has a great many shopping where you can find practically everything. They are ideal places to visit if you are pressed for time with your shopping. Besides shops, these centres offer leisure and eating venues where you can have a bite between shopping.

• El Corte Inglés

  This is the biggest chain of department stores throughout Spain, with a number of branches in Barcelona. It offers a wide variety of fashion, sport and electronic goods, as well as perfumes, things for the home, and more. You will always find what you are looking for.




• El Triangle

  Another shopping centre located in Plaça de Catalunya, this time on the corner with Carrer de Pelai. One of its main stores is FNAC, where you can buy books, music, films and all kinds of electronic and computer equipment, as well as tickets for concerts in the city. There are other FNAC stores in the Illa Diagonal and Diagonal Mar shopping centres. You'll find Sephora, a perfume shop, at the Triangle centre, as well as shops specialising in watches, candles and glasses and an delicious Italian ice cream parlour (Dino's). Habitat offers a wide range of goods and accessories for the home.




• Glòries

  
  This is a partially outdoor shopping centre with three main buildings offering a wide variety of goods, especially fashion, food, entertainment and children’s toys (with a wide range available at Imaginarium, Drim and Disney), as well as music, a hobby shop (Interkits) and jewellers, plus leisure areas, restaurants and food outlets. The Glòries centre also has a multi-screen cinema and lots to keep children amused, which makes going there lots of fun for them. It is by Plaça de les Glòries, very near the Poblenou neighbourhood and the 22@ district. It has a car park and you can also get there by tram, on the TramBesòs line, using the same ticket for the bus or the underground because it forms part of the integrated fare system that operates on the city's public transport.




• L'Illa Diagonal

  
  This is an elegant shopping centre on Avinguda Diagonal, near uptown Barcelona, in the city's prime business area. Here you will find top quality clothes shops, a Decathlon store selling clothes and all kinds of equipment for sport, delicatessens, a big Disney store, a supermarket selling top quality produce and restaurants of various kinds, among other retail establishments. The centre has a car park and you can also enjoy some very interesting temporary exhibitions and very original installations.




• Maremagnum

  
  At the bottom of the Rambla, leaving the Columbus monument on the right, you come to Rambla de Mar, an extension of Barcelona's famous Rambla, which will take you over the water to the very unusual Maremagnum shopping centre. Its curious location will make your imagination leap. Apart from being in an unbeatable setting, it accommodates a large number and variety of shops: fashion and accessories, toys, an official FC Barcelona store, phones and computers, decoration, records and so on, as well as a multi-screen cinema, 3D cinema (IMAX) and lots of options for eating to make your visit a very pleasurable one. Next to Maremagnum, in this marvellous maritime environment, you will find the Aquarium, a marine museum where young and old alike will have a really good time!




• Diagonal Mar

  
  This is the ideal centre if you like going shopping and also going to the cinema or the restaurant. Above all, it is perfect for taking children, as there is a special children’s area called “Mar de nens”. It is a shopping centre in the most modern neighbourhood in the city, very near the sea, brightened throughout the day by natural light, making for a luxurious day's shopping and a great experience. You can get there by tram, a modern form of transport on which you can use the same ticket as the bus or the underground because it forms part of the integrated fare system that operates on the city's public transport.




• La Maquinista

  
  An outdoor shopping centre, designed like a city in itself, with streets, avenues, arcades and squares where there are benches to have a rest. It gets its name from the Maquinista park, next to the centre, which in turn comes from an old factory that, for many years built the carriages for the Barcelona Metro. A shopping centre which is a long way from the city centre but highly recommended and you can get there by taking a pleasant stroll after leaving the Metro (Line 1) at Sant Andreu or Torras i Bages.

More information !!!

El Corte Inglés [esp]

Centre comercial El Triangle

Centre comercial Glòries

Centre comercial L’Illa Diagonal

Centre comercial Maremagnum

Centre comercial Diagonal Mar

Centre comercial La Maquinista [cat]

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Plaça de Catalunya

Plaça de Catalunya is considered the centre of Barcelona and is where the old centre meets the new. It is the starting point for Passeig de Gràcia, Rambla de Catalunya, La Rambla and Portal de l'Àngel, streets always crowded with residents and visitors. There are shops, cafés, bars and banks in the square, which is also a centre of urban transport.

Concerts are regularly held in the large central area of the square, as well as public celebrations and other events, such as temporary exhibitions and Catalan Book Week. The square is notable for its sculptures by major artists: La deessa (goddess), by Josep Clarà; the monument to Francesc Macià, by Josep Maria Subirachs, the shepherds, by Pau Gargallo, and others by Josep Llimona and Enrique Casanovas.

The origin of Plaça de Catalunya was the 1859 Pla Rovira, although the city council did not get permission to build it until the end of 1889, after Pere Falqués won the competition for its construction, at the Universal Exhibition of 1888. The foundations, considered of great urban value, extended to the shopping galleries on Avinguda de la Llum, today the basement of the El Triangle shopping centre. Until the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), its cafés and restaurants (Maison Dorée, Colón, Lluna, Suís) were centres of literary and political discussion. It was also an area of theatres such as the Bon Retir (1876-1885), Circ Eqüestre Alegria (1879-1895), Eldorado Concert (1887) and Teatre Barcelona (1923).

Columbus Monument

The Columbus monument is in Plaça del Portal de la Pau, where the southern end of the Rambla and Passeig de Colom meet, by the old port of Barcelona. The statue, which welcomes visitors who arrive in the city along the coastal ring-road, the Ronda del Litoral, is set on an iron column, and reaches a height of 60 metres. There is a lift inside the column to reach the half sphere which is just below the feet of the statue, and from here there is a panoramic view of the city.

The monument is to the explorer Christopher Columbus; an arm is extended and the index finger points to the sea, not to America, which is in the opposite direction. This position has always created controversy, and there are three currents of opinion to explain it. The first is that the statue should be taken as metaphorical, as, to point to America, it would have to face the Rambla and this would not be understood; another states that his finger is pointing to the route to the New Continent, that means the end of the port, to reach his destination by sea: and the third hypothesis is that Columbus' finger is pointing to Genoa, the city where the explorer was born.

The monument to Columbus, inaugurated on 1 June 1888, was built as the culmination of improvement works on the city coastline for the Barcelona Universal Exposition. Promoted by the city mayor at the time, Francesc Rius i Taulet, the monument was conceived by Gaietà Buïgas and the seven-metre statue was by the sculptor Rafael Atché. Financing the monument was difficult, as it was first based on public donations which resulted insufficient, so the city council had to take on the costs.

Barcelona Cycling

Barcelona is ideal if you want to regularly use a bike to get round. Much of it is flat, especially the lower part, the beaches and the more touristic areas. In fact, it is quite an experience to cycle round the city among the locals and the tourists. So discover Barcelona by bike. It is relaxing, enjoyable and environmentally-friendly!

In recent years, the bike has rapidly become part of everyday life in the city, as a green form of transport. Every day there are more cyclists and this is revolutionising the way people move round Barcelona, especially in districts like Eixample, Gràcia, Sant Martí, Sants and Sant Andreu, which do not have any steep gradients.

There is a constantly growing network of cycle lanes, providing more space for bikes across the city. There are a number of companies which rent out bikes and organise private guided tours for groups, especially in the more popular areas for visitors. You will find these companies in the area round Ciutadella Park.

In addition, since 2007, Barcelona has had a municipal bike hire service, called Bicing, which you will recognise by the bike stations in many parts of the city. For more information, consult the Bicing website or go to the Bicing offices in Plaça de Carles Pi i Sunyer, on Avinguda del Portal de l'Àngel.

Mountain biking

You will find bike routes on large parts of Montjuïc, which has an extensive park area and paths with average gradients, as well as on Tibidabo and in Collserola Park, like Passeig de les Aigües, which goes across the hills of Collserola on an intermediate slope, with some good views of the city. One place you can start is at the end of the Tramvia Blau (Blue Tram) line, setting off and returning on Carretera de les Aigües, although it is not a circular route. You can also climb to Vallvidrera up the old Barcelona-Vallvidrera road and, from there, via the fountain Font de la Budellera, go to Les Planes, then climb to Tibidabo, drop down to the Collserola communications tower and return to the city. If you are interested in any of the Collserola Park bike routes, you will find more detailed information on the park website.