Barcelona Park
SOME cities strike us for their historic sites, some for their cuisine, some for their ambiance, and sometimes because of a more personal connection. For my wife Anna and myself, the city of Barcelona hits on all of those points.
I first visited the city of Barcelona back in 1992 when they were preparing to host the summer Olympic games. My dad works for General Electric and at the time was based in the city of Toulouse in Southern France, about an hour from the border of France and Spain. As an engineer, he was working on the development of the engines of A330 commercial aircraft.
When his 90-day visa was about to expire, we took a road trip to Spain for the weekend. That was before the open borders of the formalized European Union. After the weekend, we got our passports stamped again when re-entering France and were good to go for another 90 days. Today that would be much harder as a traveler would have to completely leave any E.U. country, not just one specific country.
Barcelona is the city where Anna and I first met back in 2010 so it will always have a special place for us. At the time we were not interested in each other but we did work closely together. It wasn’t until I left for a vacation back to my home of Cincinnati and then returned back to Barcelona that things started to move in a different direction. Some of our first “dates” were in that city. But most importantly, we were engaged in Barcelona more than a year later. Anna had gone to work on a different ship and we were fortunate that our ships were in the same port on the same day. I hurriedly went across the pier, popped the question, and then had to come back to resume my duties onboard my ship. It was a short-lived by life altering day on land for the two of us that led to our wedding the following year at Sacred Heart here in Cebu City.
But back to Barcelona, it is a city with a metro population of over 4.5 million. When it comes to cuisine, it is known for tapas, the small plates of food meant to be shared. Anna and I always loved that concept as we can sample a lot of small plates and learn more about their local food offerings. One of our favorites is called a croquette, a simple deep-fried roll filled with anything from meat, seafood, potatoes, cheese, vegetables, or any combination. The local ham and cheese was our favorite.
Another iconic feature of Barcelona is the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi lived from 1852 until 1926 and most of his buildings are found in Barcelona. Seven of his buildings have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites. His personal style was very ornate and ranged from modern to Neo-Gothic. Many people believe the English word “gaudy” comes from the style of Gaudi, but it is not true as the word was used hundreds of years before Gaudi’s birth. Gaudi was a devout Roman Catholic as he took daily walks to his local church for confession and prayer. His masterpiece is the still-unfinished Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction since 1882. They estimate that it will finally be completed in 2026, one hundred years after the death of its architect, and has already been declared a minor basilica.
Another one of our favorite areas to visit is a long stretch called Las Rambles. It is a 1.2-kilometer stretch from the statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) to the Plaça de Catalunya (Catalunya Plaza). It is a major tourist destination with everything from cafes to hotels to museums to souvenir shops. Over the past few years we have seen quite a cleanup of the area. Several years ago when we first visited, it was known for prostitution, drugs, pick pocketing, and illegal gambling on the street. In fact during a visit in 2010, somebody tried to steal my laptop bag inside of a Starbucks on Las Ramblas. I had been warned about pickpockets and theft so I put the strap of the bag around the leg of my chair to prevent a potential theft. The attempted thief pulled to take the bag even but luckily he couldn’t take it as the chair leg anchored it. The staff of Starbucks saw what he was doing and ran him off. When I asked why they wouldn’t call the police, they explained there is a loophole in the local law that an unsuccessful theft is not illegal in any way! Luckily in the past few years we have seen an increase in the police presence and a lot of the illegal activities have started to disappear.
Barcelona also has great shopping opportunities, especially if you ask my wife. They have everything from the high end brands of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Ermedildo Zegna to more affordable brands such as Zara (whose company is based in Spain), Bershka, H&M, and Pull & Bear. While a lot of the brands are now available here in Cebu, they typically roll out the newest options in Europe first so it was fun for Anna to buy things in Barcelona that weren’t available yet back home. While walking around Las Ramblas and browsing the shops, we ran into our friend and Manila theater actress Sheila Valderrama-Martinez with her husband, Loy, and daughter Simone. They were in the middle of spending several weeks traveling throughout Europe. The funny thing about a cosmopolitan city like Barcelona is that running into friends 7,000 miles away from home seems completely normal.
We had a brief catch up and they had to hurry off to the train station for their next trip.
We will always look back fondly on our times in Barcelona. It was the first place we met, the place we were engaged, and a place we have enjoyed visiting over the years. After my first visit, it took 18 years to return so I know if we ever get the chance to visit again in the future, Barcelona will be there waiting for us.