Great Things to do in Barcelona for FREE - CosmoCaixa Science Museum

It's been yonks since I got a free museum up on the blog, so no time like the present. Continuing on from my little series of great things to do for free in the city, the Cosmo Caixa is a worthy and late addition.

It's basically the city science museum, and is free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month (and when it's not, it's a measly 4 € for adults and kids up to 16 are free which is a bargain). It's located up in the hills at the back of the city, at the foot of Tibidabo, which is a bit out of the way, but there are excellent links via public transport. We went in the car, and found a parking space no problem outside for free. You know this place means business, when you have these two guys waiting for you at the information desk!

Newton's laws, fossils, evolution, a temporary exhibition about Micro-life - basically looking at things through microscopes and there were fun interactive things to play with for the kids. This temporary space changes throughout the year, so you can always go back and see something new. There's clearly far too many things for me to explain about the contents of the museum, so I took a few snaps on my phone to share. They kind of speak for themselves:

Jack and Chewy showing off the spider collection (there are some real ones in the museum, too).

A massive tree is the main feature as you wind down the stairs to level -5, and all along the way are fossils and explanations of evolution, nature's shapes, etc.

Apparently, this good looking specimen was laughing, as she was re-tracing the steps of a bigger animal or something. Scary.

Look what I caught?!

Ah, now this one needs a bit of explaining. The image below is unmistakable, right? Even my 6 year old got it. Cool, but the image is actually made up of a load of plastic flies all stuck together like so. When you walk past it up close it just looks like a load of flies.

Always wanted one of these when I was a kid.

The super cool "flooded forest" is a big attraction, and is at one end of the museum. It's really well done, with tanks on the outside as you can see, and all sorts of sizes of fish inside. Like this huge guy.

 We didn't even see a 1/4 of the things in the museum.

One of the main things to say about the CosmoCaixa is that it's bloody huge. There's tons of things to do and explore, planetariums, touching sessions with reptiles, guided tours, and the very cool "bosque inundado"  - like a life-like model of a rain forest with loads of trees, animals, creepie crawlies and it even rains every 15 minutes, like a real rain forest! On normal paying days, you have to buy tickets for the "extra" things, and they apparently sell out fairly fast, so if you do go, make sure you know to get in there early - although there's so much to see even if you miss out on that. Below is a picture of the sprinklers, making it "rain".

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A Darker Look at Barcelona Museums

Barcelona has got some pretty cool museums. Who can't be impressed by a museum dedicated to Chocolate?! Picasso, Maritime, History, Textiles, Anthropology, Modern Art, Magic, Erotic - you name it, and you can be almost sure you'll find it in Barcelona. Finding the time is another kettle of fish altogether. Many of the city's museums are free on Sundays, or the first Sunday of the month - although this month, the first Sunday was "worker's day" so not all were open. However, fear not! "The Night of Museums" comes to the rescue.



The Macba has held previous summer sessions at night during the summer, but as far as I know this is the most complete list of Museums that will be open next Saturday 14th May from 7pm till 1am free of charge. Imagine the Fundacio Joan Miro at night?! Pretty cool, right?! There's absolutely no excuse to nip into one of those you've always wondered about but never managed to get to - or those which you've never quite been sure it'll be worth the entrance fee for you personally. See the link on the official site above for a full list, and let me know if you're looking forward to anything in particular in the comments!!

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Great things to do in Barcelona for FREE - Part 7

OK, it's been a while, but I thought I'd give you another great thing to do in Barcelona for free. Now this might not seem all that appealing at first but remember, it's free, so hear me out.



One of the best things about Sundays in Barcelona is that everyone hits the streets and the parks and gardens of the city are filled with couples, families and friends reflecting on the weekend's activities and getting ready for the coming week. The FIRST Sunday of each month is also a little special as a few of the city's Museums open their doors to the public for free. What better way to spend a Sunday morning than in an air-conditioned museum soaking up some culture, before you head down to Barceloneta for a Paella and the beach, right?!



Sitting halfway up Montjüic is Barcelona's Ethnological Museum. Originally formed by a group of intellectuals in the 1920's who wanted to gather their interests in Folklore and ethnology in one place, the museum has seen a few homes, but is now in the building you can see in these photos, and has been there since 1973.

The museum has a staggering amount of information, history, anthropology and exhibitions ranging from close to home (Catalonia, Salamanca) and spanning almost every culture across the globe - Japan, Nuristan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Australia, South America and Papa New Ginuea are all covered in over 70,000 individual pieces. It's not one of those museums where you need to take everything in - just wander around and look at those things that come out at you - it gives you a real sense of the diversity in the world and makes you wonder about just how people lived hundreds of years ago. Fascinating stuff.

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International Day of Museums.

Sunday 17th May is the International Day of Museums, and to celebrate the day, 24 of Barcelona's museums open their doors for free to the general public. As well as some of the museums that also have Free entrance on the first few days of the month, there are some great museums that you might want to fit into your schedule, and take advantage of visiting to save some money.



The full list of participating museums can be seen here:

CaixaForum, CCCB, CosmoCaixa, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Fundació Joan Miró, Jardí Botànic de Barcelona, La Pedrera Caixa Catalunya, MACBA, MNAC, Museu Barbier-Mueller d’Art Precolombí, Capella Exposicions, Fundació Suñol, Museu Olímpic i de l’Esport, Museu d’Història de Catalunya, Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya, Museu de les Ciències Naturals, Museu de la Música, Museu d’Història de la Ciutat, Museu Etnològic, Museu Frederic Marès, Museu Marítim de Barcelona, Museu Picasso, Disseny Hub Barcelona y Centro de exposiciones La Virreina.

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Great Things to do in Barcelona for FREE - Part 4

With almost 890,000 visits a year, and tucked away on Carrer Montcada in el Borne district, one of the Top 10 Barcelona Museums is definitely the Picasso Museum.



Picasso was from Malaga, but spent some of his youth in Barcelona, where his father worked as an art teacher in an old town school. The Barcelona Picasso Museum traces a lot of his early life here, and was the only Museum dedicated to the work of the man which was opened during his lifetime.



So hold on, I hear you ask, surely this can't be FREE, as the title of the post suggests?! Well guys the good news is that on the First Sunday of the month, the Picasso Museum opens it doors to the public for free, and it's well worth trotting on down to see it - not only for the magnificent artwork you'd expect to find in there, but also because of the beautiful historical building housing the work. First opened in 1963, the museum has undergone substatial reconstruction work, and now covers 5 palaces over 11,500 square metres. You can see from the image below how lavish some of the places were/are.



One of the best things about the museum (in my humble opinion) is that you see that he was actually a really good recreator of natural forms. Maybe that sounds stupid, but I mean if you ask anyone to describe a Picasso, you'd more than likely get a reply that "he paints the eyes on the same side of the face and uses wacky colours" - you get the idea.

However some of his early stuff (you'll forgive me for not remembering the names - there are over 3,500 pieces on display) are excellent. There's one in particular of which he won a prize and made his mark as a serious artist, of a bed-ridden ill woman being attended to by a doctor and apart from being huge, it's very very good. I'm sure for art-lovers, then the entrance fee is well worth the money, but for those of you simply curious and fancy a look around with no pressure, get yourselves down there on the first Sunday of the month.

Like what you're reading? Please feel free to leave a comment below - I appreciate any feedback. For more information about the city see this short but informative Barcelona Guide and check out these apartments for rent in Barcelona for a great alternative to a hotel.

Great things to do for FREE in Barcelona - Part 1

Given the current financial stress everyone is under, it's nice to find a couple of ways to occupy your days which cost little or no money. So that's a principle I thought is worth blogging about and something I think people might appreciate, too. So I'm going to begin a mini series of blogs to let everyone know what cool things you can do in Barcelona for free.

First up, is the Maritime Museum. On the first Saturday of each month (as long as it's not a public holiday) from 3pm onwards, you can get in the Maritime Museum for free. OK, it might not be high on your list of Museums you'd love to see if you were paying for the entrance, but if it's free, then it's worth having a look - especially as it's really central and somewhere you're very likely to pass on a Saturday afternoon anyway! It's located at the bottom of Las Ramblas, to the right in the old Shipyards themselves. The first thing to note is that it's an extremely impressive building and just goes to show the importance that the Port of Barcelona has had throughout its history.

The museum is very thorough and literally gives you the history of all things maritime, but from the Catalan point of view. If you spent time reading all the information and viewed all the glass-encased exhibitions, you would be in there for hours. There's also a free audio guide in various languages you can take if you like. I could post a hundred photos on here, as there were some great things in there, and we only really whizzed round, not paying much attention to the information texts, ect.

Some of the most impressive parts are the real-life scale model of a galleon in the middle of the museum, and a re-creation of what it was like to live on a boat, too. I went with the kids and they loved it.

Scale model of Galleon.


As part of the entrance ticket, you also gain entrance to a second guest exhibition which is next to the Maritime exhibits, and changes every couple of months. Past examples have been the fantastic Human Bodies exhibitions, Tin Tin, and at the moment, there's a Chinese Maritime History one, complete with actors in costume and the lot.

The Maritime Museum is one of the many museumsin Barcelona with FREE entrance which I'll be blogging about here (although it's not all goung to be museums, guys, don't worry!!) so follow me or subscribe to my feeds at to the right of your page to make sure you don't miss out on anything!

For your next visit to the city, try renting apartments for groups in Barcelona