Tibidabo Amusement Park

The end of February 2009 saw the re-opening of the Amusement Park, up on top of Tibidabo which is the mountain at the back of Barcelona. The park has been going for a fair few years, but had seen a very big drop in visitors, partly because the park is a fair way away, and partly because the attractions in the park were...well, let's just say that for an amusement park, they were mild to say the least.



So the council decided to add a new attraction - much to the discontent of the locals and friends of Cosserolla Park (the woodland around the mountain) which aimed to pull back in the visitors to the amusement park. The result is the new rollercoaster of Tibidabo which at 718 metres, curls and winds its way around the park at speeds of 80kph, heights of up to 522 metres and gradient drops of 66%! The website of the Tibidabo fun park has a cool video of the start of the ride, which shows just how close to the trees you are. I'm a huge fan of rollercoasters, and it certainly looks cool, but at 25 Euros entrance to the park, that's hardly an "anti-crisis price" is it?

The park is split up into 6 different levels (you enter at the top, number 6) and there are the usual suspects for a fun fair with teacups, a big Ferris Wheel, halls of mirrors, puppet shows, dodgems, pirate ships and log flumes and top views of the city to boot.

I may well be proven wrong, but I just think if you want to go for some white-knuckle rides, you'd be better off heading to Port Aventura, which is a real Amusement Park (complete with huge queues for all the rides, overpriced food and drinks but sunshine!).

Getting to the Tibidabo Amusement park has allegendly been made easier by the Park owners. You can take public transport up to the Funicular, which has been doing double the amount of journeys since 2007 (according to TMB - the company who runs it). There's also the Tibibus leaving from Plaça Catalunya and taking you up to the park. Both tickets for the Funicular or the Tibibus are refunded with the entrance fee.

So, anyone reading been since the new roller-coaster is the star of the show? I'd be very keen to hear your comments! Let me know if it's worth it and any other info. Thanks!

For details on other sights and attractions in the city, see this Barcelona City Guide. And for accomodation in the city, try Apartments in Barcelona for a great alternative to a hotel.

Cool Sculptures in Barcelona

I wanted to add this post as there are hundreds of popular monuments in Barcelona, but some of them take all the glory (understandably so). However, when I was an English teacher, I used to work on Rambla Catalunya, in the Barcelona neighbourhood of Eixample which is a very central, tree-lined avenue parallel to Paseo de Gracia - probably the city's most famous street aside from Las Ramblas.

Rambla Catalunya, like Paseo de Gracia, has many terraces from some great bars, cafes and restaurants, and is a top place for shopping. But I'm not going to talk about either of those aspects on this post, rather the head and foot of the mediterranean boulevard. This is about 2 of the coolest sculptures in the city.

The Asociacio d'Amics de Rambla Catalunya presented two sculptures to "the city of Barcelona" in 1972 - one at the top and one very near to the bottom.

At the top, which is where Rambla Catalunya meets Avinguda Diagonal, there's a great sculpture of a giraffe which you can see from the image here, is lying down, coyly swinging it's tail around one leg. I think it's really cool, and is a great contrast to the serious street that it tops.



At the bottom, just touching Gran Via, is another sculpture of a bull, but in the pose of Rodin's The Thinker. Again, this makes me smile every time I see it (and it was a lot when I used to work there) and is something I always point out to friends or family if we happen to be passing by there.

I have no idea as to why two animals have been used at either end of the street, and especially a bull, which is traditionally a Spanish emblem, and pertains to bull fighting in Spain, something which is frowned upon in Barcelona. Maybe that's the point? That we should think about the use of bulls for spectator sports? Either way... I love them both and wanted to share them here, so I hope you like them too!


Thinking of coming to Barcelona? Why not consider renting Barcelona Apartments for your next trip - you can be closer to many cool local sights such as the Bull and Giraffe sculptures featured here today!

Barcelona Council Breathes Sigh of Relief After Champions Draw

Today's midday draw in Nyon in Switzerland has seen Barcelona draw German side Bayern Munich and the authorities at the council will breathe a sigh of relief - at least until the next round. Assuming Barcelona can beat Bayern, they will play either Liverpool or Chelsea in the semi-finals - both teams that have played in Barcelona in recent years.

Today's copy of La Vanguardia has a very large image of Celtic supporters (below)with the dramatic headline "Plan Antivándalos" (Anti-vandal plan). The article basically describes how the council had earmarked 3 zones of the city as the meeting point for the influx of supporters that will descend on the city next month - and the 3 zones depended on which team Barcelona were to draw.

The first area, dedicated to the "hooligans" as La Vangaurdia shamelessly and blatantly puts it, is the area in and around the Fira de Barcelona at the foot of Montjüic (away from the city centre) and would have been dedicated to Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal.

The second area, would be the area around Maremagnum and would have been dedicated to Villareal or Porto - a location recently used by Shalke (above image).

The final destination (used by Liverpool last time) is the beach area around the Olympic Village and is indeed where the Bayern fans will be encouraged to meet.

The article in La Vanguardia continues to detail how leaflets will be printed in German and handed out at the airport and other locations regarding the civic expectations, laws about public drinking, etc. All of this to avoid the, quote "lacerating images of a hooligan urinating...at Plaça Catalunya in front of an impassive Guardia Urbana" in November 2007.

Now, I know that newspapers need to sell copies (more in the current climate) but what annoys me most about the situation, and the particular way in which the newspaper reports the preventative measures against any possible situations, is that everyone seems to have such a short memory.

The largest scale of public disorder, violence, vandalism and destruction of public property was caused on the 18th May 2006, BY BARCELONA'S OWN POPULATION. Not only were bus shelters and telephone booths absolutely demolished, public bins burned and pushed along streets, but shops such as Levis, Burger King, Springfield and Decathlon (to name but a few) were damaged and the Optician's at El Triangle was completely rooted in a scene usually reserved for a war zone or a Hollywood Movie.....and Barcelona WON!! The evening ended with 107 people wounded and 45 arrests.

Such was the scale of the violence and vandalism, that the council estimated the cost of the disturbances at 100,000 Euros. I personally remember the night, and couldn't believe how the crowd was allowed to run riot (the game wasn't even played in the city, but in Paris !). There was also considerable damage to the city's metro system and the service was even interrupted for a while. Objects were thrown into the mechanical escalators so that other users could not use the metro. The list goes on. And this is compared to a Scottish bloke taking a piss on the corner of Plaça Catalunya.


Funnily enough, I have searched the Internet for a good couple of hours in google images, amongst others, and have failed to find any images whatsoever of that night, save one from the above link from 20minutos. Suffice to say that there were hundreds of images to choose for today's article in La Vanguardia this morning, and they chose some Celtic fans drinking beer from a funnel (my apologies for the poor image taken from the Vanguardia website).

I think that the British football fans have a bad press, often rightly so (Germany 2006), but that the majority of times, this is caused by ignorance and a "tarnished with the brush" attitude by the local cops. I saw England vs Andorra in Barcelona when Steve McLaren was still at the realm, and the mossos literally beat the fans through the turnstiles with batons. Had my friend and I not intervened on various occasions in Spanish, there would have been some very bruised arses and ribs to say the least! And this was before kick off! and against a team outside their country!!

As always guys, I welcome comments. The last time I added a particularly controversial post I got a cheeky comment back so come on guys, let me know your thoughts - were you around at the time? Any anecdotes?!

Coming to Barcelona soon? Try renting Barcelona Apartments for a change - you'll be pleasantly surprised, I'm sure.

Barcelona Welcomes Back 080 Fashion Show

Barcelona's fashion showcase used to be the Bread and Butter fair which has returned to its home in Berlin after a final turn out in January. There is another bridal fashion show in the city, but the attention is now drawn to Barcelona 080 Fashion show which returns to the city today, after a great show back in September last year.


The city council and even the Catalan Government have given their full backing to Barcelona 080 fair, with an aim to cement the fair as a big player in the fashion industry, and it certainly seems to be working so far. This is part of the 2007-2010 plan to promote fashion in the city, and this week's third fair will also see the first 080 Barcelona Fashion Best Collection award, which is worth over 20,000 Euros. An international jury will decide on the prize winner from 29 designers - 10 of which are catalan or catalonia based. If you have any interest in fashion, or want to keep up with the latest trends, head on down to the Fira de Barcelona, located at the foot of Montjuic.

For your accommodation while in the city, don't discount Apartments in Barcelona, which can offer a great saving on a hotel room.

Barcelona Re-invented - as a Video Game

Barcelona is already a popular spot for filming. Many TV adverts and a couple of films have been shot here - the most recent being Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona - and filming of a new comedy called "Spanish Movie" is currently going on here right now, too. And after the recent announcement that Barcelona is going 3D it comes as no real surprise that the Catalan Capital has been chosen as a base for a new video game called Wheelman.



The actor Vin Diesel, is the "actor" for the main character, and it seems like a very action packed game along the lines of Grand Theft Auto, and the like. One thing of note is that the city has been somewhat displaced in order to provide better gameplay - but at least it's a "real" city, unlike Vice city or San Andreas, in GTA.



I expect it to be a real hit - especially in Barcelona, as you'll be able to race down the streets of the city shooting the bad guys and driving however the hell you like on those same streets you use to go to work every day!



For some real information on the city (!) see this great Barcelona guide. And for your accomodation next time, why not try Apartments in Barcelona ?

Catalan in Cinemas

Earlier this month, there was a proposition of a new law in Catalonia which aims to "give the right to the citizens of Barcelona to choose the language when going to the cinema". At the moment, there are very few cinemas which offer dubbed movies in Catalan, and the new law will make it the law for the distributors of the films to produce the same amount of copies dubbed in Catalan as in Spanish.

This has been received with mixed reviews - mostly that "it was about time" etc. BUT there is a suggestion that public money would be used to fund the translating of the films, and this seems to have ruffled a few feathers. If you have any views then please leave a comment - I'd love to hear from you.

One small addition that I think is perfectly acceptable, too. There is a plaque on the floor in central Barcelona, on Rambla Catalunya, in the Barcelona Eixample district. I have a photo below.



The plaque is in English and Catalan. It says:

"Directors and actors as the artistic authors of films demand the moral right to have their work exhibited throughout the world in the form in which it was originally released"

So if the film has been made in Catalan, everyone should watch it subtitled and not dubbed. I remember watching "La Vita e Bella" in Italian with Spanish subtitles and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I can fully understand the request but I'm sure if the film in question was dubbed it would reach a much wider audience - which is precisely the idea of the new law mentioned above, right?

Apartments in Barcelona with BCN Rentals.