Barcelona is a city with many different faces. What I like most are the numerous districts, each owning specific features which make them unique and disposing of quite a number of nice Barcelona apartments where you can spend your holiday..
First, the Plaça Catalunya, the big square at the heart of the city and a meeting point for everybody! From the Plaça starts the famous and popular La Rambla, a pedestrian street which runs way down to the Port Vell and the Monument of Colombus. This is an amazing street, full of colours, bars, stalls, mimes and overcrowed in the summer, unfortunately... Every time I go there, I can feel the soul and all the power of this beautiful city. La Rambla seperates two districts : when you face the port, El Raval district is on the right and El Barrio Gotico is on the left.
El Raval is a vibrant neighbourhood mixing many different types of population. Some of the streets ? particularly in the Lower Raval - have become immigrants ghettos and that's why it's said not to be a safe place. But the Upper Raval hosts today a lot of late night-bars, restaurants or galleries which make this place more friendly.
The Barrio Gotico is said to be the best preserved medieval quarter in Europe. The most pleasant , to my mind, is to wander through all these small, intricate, picturesque streets which drive you to lovely squares and monuments. I like to get lost in these streets, just lounging around and appreciate the beauty of the architecture.
If you cross the Via Leitana, you arrive in El Born district. Its particularity is to combine historical treasures and a really cool and fashionable ambiance. It's a good neighbourhood to go to eat or have a drink.
If you go then way to the sea, you'll arrive on the Port Vell, the Old Port. But it doesn't look old at all, with the palm-fringed stroll, the state-of-the-art shopping mall incluiding shops and restaurants, the IMAX cinema and the renovated aquarium of Barcelona!
In general, from here, I continue the stroll along the port to the district of La Barceloneta.The 'Little Barcelona' was used to be a fishermen area and even if most of the tourists come here to stay or to eat, you can still feel the warm atmosphere at the heart of the small streets. The stroll drives me then to Vila Olimpica, which was built for the Olympic Games of 1992. This is a spacious and comfortable place but the liveliest part is the olympic port, with luxurious hotels, a Casino, a lot of bars, restaurants and clubs.
On the other side of Barcelona is a fascinating big place : Montjuic, located on a hill. Here you can find huge gardens and green spaces, as well as museums, galleries, the 'Spanish Village' - built for the World Fair of 1929 and representing the architectures of all the Spanish regions - and finally tons of sport facilities. What I like in this place is the green places, it's really peaceful and you have an impressive view over Barcelona.
North way from Plaça Catalunya, we can find the distric of L'Eixample (Esquerra and Dreta : Left and Right). It was built in the late 19th century and means 'enlargement'. Well, you can see it when you walk through the streets, all built parallel and perpendicular! To see it clearly , just buy a post card, it's surprising! For me it is the most elegant and bourgeois district.
Finally, the last district I want to talk about is Gracia, a pieceful and pleasant area, the haunt of Barcelona's bohemians. This is the district of quiet squares, artistic and design shops, small cinemas and restaurants.
For sure, you need some time to discover the secret of each district of Barcelona. If you are coming to Barcelona for a few days, it's then strategic to find the best place to stay. And by the way, here you can find a Barcelona apartment which could be suitable.
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, known as MNAC, is one of the most important museums in Barcelona and loved by inhabitants of the city as well as tourists visiting Barcelona because of its cultural and historic heritage. Visitors of the MNAC will have access to an amazing permanent art collection divided in several time periods. The permanent exhibition at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya contains a total of 5,900 art works. The MNAC embraces all the arts (sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, coinage etc.) distributes the general history of Catalan art from the Romanesque period to the mid-twentieth century. The permanent exhibition includes: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque works, the famous Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. Modern art, drawings, prints and photography are also well presented. If you are interested in coinage, you should visit the temporal exhibition "Coinage at War. Catalonia in Napoleonic Europe" at the MNAC, which can be visited until May 2009.
Barcelona hotels and Barcelona apartments will be found around the area of Montjuic where the museum is located. Barcelona hotels near Montjuic are a good choice of Barcelona accommodation to stay next to the beautiful Montjuic park area and close to the famous Museu Nacinal d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC). Especially in the evening it is amazing to go to the grounds of Montjuic and the MNAC. After an interesting visit of the exhibitions in the museum, you can enjoy the Magic Fountains late in the evening.
