Barcelona is one of Spain’s iconic cities, known for its architecture, beaches, Barri Gotic (Gothic quarter), and paella. Earlier this year, I bopped around Barcelona for a day with two friends—Tanner and Pilar—before heading home from a trip to the Pyrenees. We didn’t make it to the beach, but we did get a taste of the city’s other charms during what turned into an eight-mile urban hike. Our walkabout included La Sagrada Familia, a landmark basilica and an architectural marvel, and La Rambla, a grand pedestrian promenade oft cited among the most famous streets in the world. However, we mainly wandered without a plan, picking up the city’s vibe and checking out whatever crossed our path that seemed interesting.

 

Catalonia’s Capital

Barcelona is in the country of Spain, but it’s not Spanish per se. Since the Middle Ages, the city and the surrounding region of Catalonia have mostly come under Spanish rule, though it was part of France for one year during the 1700s and has had brief moments as a sovereign country. As recently as 2017, the Catalonian parliament unsuccessfully declared its independence from Spain. Its people identify first as Catalonians. It reminded me of the relationship between Quebec and Canada.

Located where the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and the heart of Catalonian culture. Locals speak Catalon, a hybrid of Spanish and French, though everyone also speaks Spanish. It’s a bustling place, with a population of 1.7 million within the city limits and a sprawl of another 5.7 million residents. It’s the second largest city in Spain.

 

La Sagrada Familia

We decided to start at La Sagrada Familia and then work our way toward the waterfront. La Sagrada Familia, which means “The Holy Family,” is among Barcelona’s most renowned landmarks. Under construction for the last 140 years, it’s one of architect Antoni Gaudi’s most lauded legacies. Gaudi is widely considered the father of Catalon Modernism. This immense basilica is as much a monument to his genius as it is a place of Catholic worship. Ironically, he didn’t start or finish the project.

Construction of the church began in 1882, under the Spanish architect Francisco de Paula del Villar, Gaudi’s mentor. A year after construction began, Villar resigned over a design dispute. He wanted to build a traditional neo-Gothic church, but his patrons yearned for something more original. They hired Gaudi to take over. What’s there today is largely his vision, though he died 100 years ago. Six other architects have since led the ongoing construction, which is scheduled for completion in 2034.

Though La Sagrada Familia is incomplete, it’s still impressive. Its Nativity Façade and crypt are designated UNESCO World Heritage sites, part of the larger “Works of Antoni Gaudi” due to their “unique, artistic, and innovative nature.” The basilica was definitely unique!

It resembled a classic neo-Gothic cathedral on steroids. It’s the tallest church in the world, dwarfing classic Gothic landmarks like Notre Dame in Paris and Milan Cathedral. The tallest of its 18 towers, completed just this year, stretches 566 feet into the sky. Part of Gaudi’s concept for the church was its extreme height, as if connecting earth to heaven.

It was an obvious construction zone, with a half-dozen cranes delivering materials to the unfinished towers, but it was still something to behold. Its soaring, layered mass echoed elements of Gothic religious architecture but looked less angular. In addition to statues of biblical figures, colorful bunches of balls and other whimsical carvings adorned the stonework. From every angle as we circumnavigated this extraordinary building, we could see intricately crafted saints and religious icons intermixed with flamboyant flares, all on a magnificent scale.

“Let’s go inside,” I urged my friends, anxious to see if the interior was as opulent and untraditional as the outside, but no luck. Entry required a ticket. The next available time slots were four days away. Instead, we watched a group of men play bocce behind the basilica as if the towers and tourists didn’t exist. I could hardly hear the clank of the metal balls above the din of visitors, street traffic, and hammering, but the bocce players appeared numb to these annoyances, probably from living in a neighborhood continually burdened by construction and tourists.

 

La Rambla

From the basilica, we decided to head southwest toward La Rambla without a specific route in mind. The GPS on my phone led us through Placa de Catalunya (Catalonia Square), a 12-acre, paved plaza considered the historical center of the city. It’s where the Barri Gotic met the Eixample, the “modern” part of the city built during the 19th century.

The plaza had a number of fountains and statues, but what caught our eyes most were the hundreds of pigeons that congregated there, hoping for handouts from everyone that strolled by. The plaza also marked the start of La Rambla. “Let’s ramble down La Rambla,” I said to Tanner and Pilar, making word play with the street name. “It means sandy riverbed,” smiled Pilar, who was born in Spain. “Before Barcelona was here, the street was probably a seasonal creek that turned to sand when it dried up each year.”

“It’s a human stream now,” observed Tanner as we waded into the crowd. La Rambla was a broad car-less boulevard, which would have been a great place for window shopping and people watching, except the entire middle of the street was torn up, squeezing everyone onto the original sidewalks. We moved with the flow, but quickly exited onto a side street into Barri Gotic.

 

Barri Gotic

We were immediately thrust into another, calmer world. The narrow streets curved this way and that below small, wrought-iron terraces. A man on a scooter rolled by us as we turned down one of the lanes. The lane ended at a small square where we discovered another basilica, the Basilica Santa Maria del Pi, a true 13th century Gothic church. It anchored one side of the square and would have been impressive to churchgoers during the 1200s, but after La Sagrada Familia, it seemed modest. 

On the opposite corner of the square a man played “The Entertainer” on an accordion in the lone ray of sunshine that pierced the old stone buildings. It was an odd tune to hear so far from the United States, but enjoyable in its familiarity.

As the man played the final bars of the song, we strolled out of the square down a different alley. A sign outside a restaurant advertised a starter, paella, drink, and dessert for only 19 euros, an incredible deal and a chance to eat paella. It was noon, early in Spain for lunch. No one was inside, so we picked a table by the window. It was a fortunate find. Paella, a popular Spanish dish, is a medley of rice, meat, and vegetables cooked in a large pan with garlic, saffron, and other savory spices. Though it originated in Valencia, seafood varieties have become a culinary specialty in Barcelona due to the city’s seaside location. It was delicious and a good thing we filled our bellies.

Shortly after lunch, we discovered Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, or simply La Boqueria, an amazing market filled with endless booths of fruit, candies, cured meats, vegetables, trinkets, crafts, cheeses, eggs, tantalizing parfaits . . . it was the Faneuil Hall of Barcelona!

As we strolled past the various vendors deeper into the market, the pungent smell of fish grew stronger. Eventually, we reached an entire section of fresh-caught hake, monkfish, bream, and mackerel, displayed on beds of crushed ice. 

Apparently, octopus is a seafood staple among Catalonians. Several whole octopi lay on the ice like pale slimy pillows. There were even octopus legs on a stick, ready to nibble as you walked. Not exactly my idea of a lollipop.

 

Port de Barcelona

We left La Boqueria and ended up back on La Rambla. We knew we were getting closer to the waterfront as the Mirador de Colom (Columbus Monument) grew larger the end of the boulevard. The monument, which overlooks the Port de Barcelona, commemorates Christopher Columbus, who landed there in 1493 upon his return from the New World. A statue of the explorer stands atop a 200-foot pillar and points toward Genoa, Italy, his birthplace, about 350 nautical miles across the Mediterranean Sea from the port below.

The Port of Barcelona has served as a Mediterranean hub for seagoing passengers and commerce for 2,000 years. It’s now a top destination for cruise ships, private yachts, and sailboats. The multitude of sailboats moored in the sizeable marina grabbed our attention, especially the tall ship Santa Eulalia, a historic schooner that’s maintained by the Maritime Museum of Barcelona. Completed in 1919, it sometimes sails along the Barcelona coastline, but it always brings the biblical Three Kings to the city on January 5 as part of the its annual Christmas pageantry. The mayor greets the kings and presents them with a magic key to every home in the city. Then the kings deliver the holiday gifts.

The best place to look at the marina was on another La Rambla, La Rambla de Mar, a broad pedestrian bridge that led to an huge mall and aquarium. Across the water, we watched a cable car span the harbor providing an aerial link between the nearby beaches and Parc de Montjuic, another Barcelona gem with gardens, Olympic venues, and a castle. It was tempting to check it all out, but our feet were too tired at this point to venture past the marina. Instead, we rested on one of the benches along the bridge, watching the gulls. 

One gull landed on a curious stark white buoy in the shape of a man looking up. We quickly spotted a second buoy that looked exactly the same. While these floating sculptures called The Stargazers peered at the sky, we gawked at them. It was impossible not to. They were only 12 feet tall, about the size of the harbor buoys that once bobbed there, but their whiteness and pose mesmerized us. 

Most of Barcelona did, too. The Three Kings might deliver gifts to this vibrant city, but the city gives many gifts back to those who visit. Next time, I’ll plan to spend a week instead of just a day.