ETR // Stage 51 // Cadaqués - Barcelona

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Distance

  • Cadaqués - Barcelona
  • Radius 100 km
  • 251 km

Highlights

  • La Costa Brava
  • Sant Pere Pescador
  • Ruïnes d'Empúries
  • Muralles medievals de Sant Martí d'Empúries
  • Ruïnes De Santa Magdalena
  • Montgrí Castle
  • Monument de l'Orquestra Catalana
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

The Wild Coast - La Costa Brava Catalán

Time for a nice float down through history and culture along the Catalan and Costa Brava coastline, passing through Roses, maybe through Figueres again, maybe not, riding through Sant Pere Pescador, south of which you can find Muralles medievals de Sant Martí d'Empúries next to the Ruïnes d'Empúries or Empòrion where you will find an ancient excavated city overlooking the sea with a forum and archaeological museum.

Ancient Greeks established a settlement here in the 6th century BC. It was the county seat until 1079 Empúries moved to Castelló d'Empúries as it was less exposed to attack.

While you're here, visit Fòrum Romà, Anfiteatro Romano and Ruïnes De Santa Magdalena before heading into L'Escala where you should check out the sculture entitled Monument de l'Orquestra Catalana, along the waterfront.

It's worth a ride over to the main pier area and stop at Bunquers De L'escala and Les Planasses before you continue south through Parc Natural del Montgrí to Montgrí Castle.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

From Montgrí, it's a fantastic ride down along the small past roads past the Catalan coastal towns of Begur, Calella de Palafrugell, Tamariu, Palamós, Lloret de Mar, Blanes, Mataró, Badalona to.........

BARCELONA!!

There are a million things to do and see in this mind-blowing city, and it's hard to know just where to start, but one way, is to just throw yourself out into it, and see what happens...

Start by taking a ride up to Montjuïc castle to get an overview of the vast expanse of cultural enlightenment that is Barcelona. To the southwest of Barcelona’s center lies Montjuïc Mountain with its breathtaking views of the city. On your way up from Avenida Gaudí, you’ll pass the picturesque Plaza España and Montjuïc Park. Alternatively, if you want to explore the area on foot, you can take a cablecar ride up to Montjuïc castle from the tower down at the port.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Montjuïc and The Olympic area

A good place to start exploring Montjuïc is the Communications Tower which rises to a height of 136 meters and dominates the main group of sports facilities on the slopes of the Montjuic in Barcelona, the site of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. Designed by architect Santiago Calatrava as a competition entry for Spanish telecoms company Telefonica, the steel tower is sited immediately next to the Palau Sant Jordi Arena, designed by Arata Isozaki. The tower not only became a symbolic focus to the dispersed Olympic complex but also a landmark for the city, and leans gently from a three-point foundation to coincide with the angle of the sun at solstice. Marvellous!

Continue exploring Montjuïc, and visit Museu Nacional dArt de Catalunya, originally built for the International Exposition in 1929, and provides you with the perfect camera angles to capture the city. While the panoramic views are free and worth the trip alone, you should pay into the museum which was two floors of work by impactful European Renaissance and Baroque artists. Enjoy the panoramic views of the city as you make your way back down from the top.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Supersculptures along the Barcelona beachfront

As you ride back into Barcelona Centro you can't help but notice Gambrinus, the giant lobster statue on Passeig Colom and Moll de la Fusta quay, near Port Vell. The 10m long fibreglass sculpture was designed and built by Spanish artist Javier Mariscal, and when the Gambrinus restaurant closed, the statue was bought by Barcelona city council, restored and now sits menacingly on the roadside, waiting to catch passing motorcyclists to devour them. Karma! But this isn't the only mad landmark you're going to remember for ever and ever.. keep riding along the coast road and you'll find a few more!

Next along the roadside is Wounded Star, also known as The Cubes. A mysterious work due to its strange name, it was installed by the German artist Rebecca Horn on the beach of La Barceloneta, and takes a few curious looks from different angles to figure out what's actually going on, there. And you probably still won't work it out. Keep riding along the beachfront and at Sant Martí you'll find Long Voyage, Torres i Monsó, another conceptual and eccentric sculpture with an ambiguous name.

As you continue along the seafront, you see something reflecting in the distance.. a giant goldfish 56 metres long and 35 metres high, which has become one of the symbols of post-Olympic Barcelona and looks as if it is floating on the waters of the Mediterranean. The sunlight is reflected in the scales of this sculpture by Frank Gehry that presides over the waterfront of the Olympic Marina and guards Barcelona's beaches. In 1992, the pristine Olympic Barcelona was transforming its seafront, a new Olympic Marina was taking shape, dominated by its twin towers. On one side stood the Mapfre Tower, on the other was the Hotel Arts. Frank Gehry placed his fish sculpture at the foot of the hotel, to just to be sure we couldn't miss it!

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Las Ramblas and Rambla De Mar

Originating up at Plaça de Catalunya, Las Ramblas is the main walking street, tourist trap and pickpocket heaven of Barcelona, and needs no introduction, but it's worth mentioning as an intro to the next experience. As you get to the end of it and the views starts to open up around the Columbus Statue things start to get interesting, as Las Ramblas crosses the road and continues onto the water. Before you head over there, visit Museu de Cera de Barcelona, and the Maritime Museum, Museu Marítim de Barcelona.

Rambla De Mar was designed in 1994 by Albert Viaplana & Helio Piñón. This modern aquatic walkway stretches over the sea and leads you to a great view out over the harbour at the end of the boardwalk. From there, hang a left along Moll d'Espanya over to Aquàrium Barcelona, which contains a series of tanks with marine habitats including a Mediterranean ecosystem, and the option to scuba dive with sharks, if the Barcelona traffic wasn't thrilling enough for you.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Carabela Cafè and the Columbus column

Walking back towards land through the park at Plaça de l'Ictineo, it's time for lunch, or breakfast, depending on the wavelengths of your circadian rhythms... After a quick round of Mexican Nachos and a beer at Carabela Cafè, it's time to take a close look at the Columbus Column again. Take a stroll back down Passeig de Colom, walking beneath Gambrinus again (trying not to get eaten) and Monument a Colom rises up ahead of you, a 40m Corinthian column with a 7.2m bronze statue balancing on the top. The statue was sculpted by Rafael Atché and is said to depict Columbus pointing towards the New World with his right hand, while holding a scroll in the left.

It was constructed for the Exposición Universal de Barcelona (1888) in honor of Columbus' first voyage to the Americas. The monument serves as a reminder that Christopher Columbus reported to Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand V in Barcelona after his first trip to the new continent to commit genocide on the tribes and peoples of The New World, bringing a legacy of disease, death and destruction to their ethnic way of life, and pave the way for unfettered exploitation and larceny, stealing whatever gold and other elements and metals the white man attached monetary or social standing value to.

In 2020, there were calls to pull down Barcelona's most iconic statue. 250 people took to the streets on June 14, 2020, to protest in favor of removing the statue. Columbus himself was not a slave trader, but he represents the colonial era and his arrival in the New World gave birth to Spain's overseas empire, the empire that decimated Indigenous populations through disease and war, bloodshed, exploitation, torture and slavery. Not the best legacy to bring to a new place.

Arc de Triomf

If you need to rinse your mind from all the atrocities, head on over to Ciutadella Park and float around there for a while. From there, walk up along Promenade Passeig de Lluís Companys to Arc de Triomf. Built by architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas as the main access gate for the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. The arch crosses over the wide central promenade of the Passeig de Lluís Companys, leading to/from the Ciutadella Park that now occupies the site of the world fair. It is located at the northern end of the promenade, facing the Passeig de Sant Joan. Just keep walking!

© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Photos

  • Dave O'Byrne

  • European Touring Route AS

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Highlights

  • Barcelona
  • Montjuïc Mountain
  • Communications Tower
  • Fundació Joan Miró
  • Palau Sant Jordi Arena
  • Museu Nacional dArt de Catalunya
  • Columbus column
  • Mercado de La Boqueria
  • Ciutadella Park
  • Arc de Triomf
  • La Sagrada Familia
  • Park Güell
  • Casa Batlló
  • El Born
  • The Gothic Quarter
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

La Sagrada Familia

Take your time and visit La Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí's best-known work which has become an undisputed symbol of Barcelona. The Nativity façade and crypt have been awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO and hold some of Antoni Gaudi’s modernist masterpieces.

Although work began on La Sagrada Familia back in 1882, the surviving models and drawings have made it possible to continue with the building work, which continues to be funded by private donations. It’s still under construction with an ever-changing completion date, years in the future. Probably never.

Two of the three façades have been completed and are open to visitors, along with the naves, the apse and museum. The latter gives us an insight into the past, present and future of the basilica through models, photographs, plans, decorative objects and audiovisuals. Visitors can also ride to the top of the towers in the lift and come down on foot and enjoy magnificent views of Barcelona.

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Park Güell

Designed by the main man of Catalan Modernism, Antoni Gaudí, Park Güell is a series of public parks opened in 1926, later named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Access to the park is free, and you can see some of the most famous pieces of architectural art, such as the Dragon Stairway, among many other experimental and sometimes seemingly insane pieces of 'desarchisculptitecture'. You'll understand when you see it.

Casa Batlló, Passeig de Gràcia

Antoni Gaudí undertook a radical refurbishment of a building in Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia dating from 1875 to create one of his boldest works. Gaudí's imaginative efforts were key to the development of the project, as was the decorative work of the artisans who collaborated with him between 1904 and 1906. A simple glance gives rise to myriad interpretations. The discs of multicoloured glazed-ceramics and broken shards of stained glass, placed with precision, depict flowers and water lilies and play with the reflections of the sunlight. This vast impressionist painting is often interpreted as the surface of the rolling sea in the heart of Passeig de Gràcia.Another magnificent UNESCO World Heritage Site to have voraciously consumed!

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Mercado de La Boqueria

Mercado de La Boqueria has long been the beating heart of the city and every day more than 200 traders roll up their blinds, ready to sell the choicest local and international gastronomic products. Originating as far back as 1217, according to official documents confirming the presence of meat stalls on Pla de la Boqueria, La Boqueria of today grew from a series of street market located on the Rambla. These markets consisted of temporary stalls in the open air, many of them set up by farmers from the villages surrounding Barcelona, who came to sell their wares in the city. Not much has really changed, since then.

Gotico - The Gothic Quarter

Spend another day or two exploring The Gothic Quarter and El Born for some beautiful evenings of tapas and flamenco. Lose yourself in the many highly-acclaimed tapas bars while taking in the medieval history that surrounds you in the narrow streets. Explore buildings such as Santa Maria del Pi, which represents the pared-down beauty of Catalan Gothic architecture; Santa Anna, a hidden medieval gem; the powerful Cathedral; and the noble and imposing Palau Reial. The squares, including Sant Felip Neri, where time seems to have stood still, the plaça Reial, and timeless thoroughfares express textures and stories that remain very much alive. Iconic places such as the Jewish Quarter also reflect Barcelona's vast cultural wealth. This necessary immersion in the city and its culture is an enriching experience for travellers to contemplate and explore Barcelona's most beautiful and time-honoured architectural landmarks. No matter how much you take in, it still won't every be enough!

© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS
© ETR // European Touring Route AS

Barcelona in the evening time

Treat yourself to one of the walking tours available in the city at night. Barcelona Turisme offers an intimate, sensorial tour where architecture converges with the phenomenon of the city and intertwines with history, art, sociology and culture in general. Experience Barcino, the charm and mystery of the city by night. See the old town when it's quiet, when it reveals its history by evoking the Roman city and medieval era. Explore the main landmarks in the Gothic Quarter and the historic districts of the oldest, and most beautiful, part of town… a truly meaningful place.
Along the way, you'll find plenty of nice foods, wines and beers and endless gastronomic magnificence to keep you rolling through the night!

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