Barcelona - the Mediterranean Metropolis of Spain

While for most of the people a visit of one of the big European world cities like Paris, Rome, Madrid, London or Berlin is a matter of course to do at least once in a lifetime, Barcelona is only at the second place in the scale of popularity of city trips - maybe because Barcelona is not an official capital of a country or because the city as a little smaller than the European metropolis with one and a half million inhabitants? Does Barcelona have less to offer in culture and history than for example the capital Madrid?

Far from this! Barcelona was once the capital of an own kingdom and is still today the capital of the independent region Catalonia. Barcelona has a more than 2.000 year old history that can be compared with the one of Rome or Berlin. Barcelona is a big city of a size between Hamburg and Munich. Barcelona offers cultural and arquitectorial sightseeings in an abundance that any other city barely can offer.

Barcelona is a city that surprises most of the visitors, as one gets much more than expected. What kind of city is Barcelona that is overflowed by tourists? Is Barcelona a harbour and bathing city located at the sea or rather a big city located at the mountains? Is Barcelona a city of football or an pearl of architecture that sets new designer trends? Does one go for shopping in Barcelona or for a promenade on the Ramblas or the quayside? Does one visit some museums in Barcelona or some gorgeous buildings?

It nearly sounds incredible, but Barcelona offers everything! The city is located right at the sea and has sand beaches of a length of kilometres. But the city is also surrounded by high mountains that in the north have a height of several thousand metres. Barcelona is of course the city of football; there is no football club in the world with more members than the 1. FC Barcelona. As a tourist one does not know where to start having a walk in Barcelona, either in the picturesque oldtown alleyways, the famous promenades (Ramblas) or in the quaysides. The umpteem museums of the city are at least as interesting as the countless buildings, parks and churches. And what about the beaches?

Every year, millions of people spend their holiday in the huge hotel complexes of the Costa Brava at the northeast of Barcelona. A day excursion to Barcelona is a must of such a holiday; but one single day is just sufficient to breathe some air in the city. Even those who have a three-day city trip Barcelona, are only roughly introduced to the city and will be annoyed by a full schedule up to late night. In order to know the city well and to understand it, one needs at least two weeks - but then, one is still far from having seen everything...

For the sightseeings that I describe on these pages, I took more than two weeks time. One can enjoy the city even more by also experiencing the pleasant things of the city - the long beaches - and take part into a little of the daily life of the city, thus not go 10 hours per day form monument to monument. Have good fun with my Barcelona pages!