Barcelona has become one of the most popular cities in Spain and even in Europe thanks to its fascinating street life, night life, Gaudi architecture and superb cuisine. It’s football team “Barca” is quite popular and well known all over the world. They have a dialect “catalan” which most of the residents use instead of Spanish language. Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid and it’s located on the Mediterranean coast. It’s cosmopolitan style will keep you busy and awake for long hours.
Halloween in Barcelona
When we travel nowadays, it is very common to find in every destination the possibility of enjoying an excursion at night, mostly in those places where you can breathe an air of legends, history, culture and customs. Barcelona, in Spain is one of them.
We couldn’t have had a better idea for Halloween than following a magical route at night, full of mystery in Barcelona.
It all starts In San Jaume Square, where some guides come and pick you up and divide all the people in two groups. They walk you around the old quarter of Barcelona, basically in the Jewish neighbourhood, for 2 hours.
They take you to different places with a lot of mystery essence in the air; hidden streets, emblematic buildings, sinister corners. The guide explains all the horrifying stories of each place and talks about the different religions ruling in town, thousands of years ago and how some of them were punished. They also talk about convents with spirits and streets with lost souls. It’s Barcelona seen from another lens, very typical Halloween.
“La sagrada familia” (the sacred family)
This is the most relevant and characteristic monument in Barcelona. It is a catholic temple of baroque style and it is unfinished. It has a very unusual structure that contrasts with the rest of the city. It is one of the most visited monuments in Spain.
This is the most known work from the Catalan architect, Antonio Gaudí, but he did not start it and he never finished it.
At the present 8 towers are built from 18 foreseen in the project. The 12 towers located on the bottom part, where the 8 towers are already built, belong to the façade and it’s dedicated to the 12 apostles. 4 towels from a higher level are dedicated to the gospels. Above the apse, with a larger diameter, is the one dedicated to the virgin Mary and finally the highest one, which crowns all the temple, is dedicated to Jesus Christ.
A lot of people ask themselves when “The Sacred family” will be finished. It is a very common question but very difficult to answer. No one knows exactly when it will be finished as there is always a problem which makes the work stop again. They say it will take 30 years to see this monument finished. Unfortunately some of us perhaps will never see it.
Gastronomy
In Barcelona you can eat very nice food. A very typical dessert is the “Crema catalana”, which is a sort of custard with a crunchy, caramelised layer on the surface. There’s also the “Arroz negro caldoso”, which is rice with seafood (prawns, clam, mussel, cuttlefish and squid) and squid ink which provides the rice a black colour. Another dish is the “Escudella i carn d’olla”; this is a dish for the winter, it consists of black sausage, white sausage, meatballs, ham bones, chickpeas and cabbage all mixed up with soup. Finally there is a very popular dish, which is the ” Pan Tomaca “, that is bread with scrubbed tomato, garlic, oil and salt. It is normally served with Parma ham, but you can also combine it with cheese, ham and cold meat.
Places to visit
“Paseo de la Gracia” (House of Batló and “La Pedrera), Gotic neighborhood, Church of “Sagrada Familia”, La Rambla (Very popular promenade), Montjuic mountain, Tibidabo (funfair), Villa olímpica (where the Olympic games took place), Parque Güell (A park with a palace inside with a baroque style, designed also by Antonio Gaudí), Avenida Diagonal and “La Barceloneta” (fisherman neighbourhood with beaches).
