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

Iron in the Old Town

Wandering through the old town today, in the Raval, I came accross a great public show of ironmongers at work.

There is a new iron workshop or taller which has opened just off Carrer Nou de la Rambla (where you can see Gaudi's Palau Güell) on nearby Carrer Sant Ramon, number 25. As part of the opening, the association of Forja Viva organised a street exposition of ironmongers working and making things for the public. As I wasn't expecting this, it was a great little distraction, so I thought I'd blog it.

As mentioned, the nearby Palau Güell - a UNESCO World Heritage site designed by Antonin Gaudi - is just along the street, and Gaudi himself was the son of an ironmonger. This influence is apparent is many of his works, such as La Pedrera on the balconies, and the gates and windows at Palau Güell. It's fair to say then, that some of the ironmongers on display had been influenced in turn by the great Reus-born architect, and that would be no surprise, but there were still a few gems in there.

According to the leaflets and website, it's the first time that anything like this has been done in the city and it aimed to "recognise the work of artesanal hands of the forge and (gain) respect that this...work deserves, relevant in our history and culture"


Unfortunately, I was stopped at taking photos at the small exhibition space along on Nou de la Rambla,with the simple reply that you can't take photos "porque no"! so my apologies if the post seems a bit limp - I would have liked to have added a few more photos, but I'm sure you get the drift.

One of the little gems was this funky Spider bottle holder thingy, which I thought was very original.


It's one of the reasons I love living in the old town - unexpected exhibitions (it may well have been publicised, but I didn't see it) and one you can enjoy in a local Barcelona apartment for rent, too.

For more information about the city, too, try this local Barcelona guide.

Floor Plaques in Barcelona

One thing I've noticed walking around the city over the years is that Barcelona council awards certain places with a commemorative plaque (which looks like a drain top) which is placed on the floor on the path outiside the establishmet.

The kind of places tend to be well established stores, bars or even eateries. A few that I know are London Bar on Nou de La Rambla, "El Indio" textile shop on Calle Carmen, and Escriba cake shop on las Ramblas - you can see some photos here. Obviosuly the Escriba one on Las Ramblas gets walked over a lot more, so it's easy to see why it's more worn.

The text is in Catalan and is translated to "In recognition to your years of service to the city" and as you can see there are 2 dates - the early date must be when the establishment begun trading, and the later date, when the plaque was given. I have no idea how many of these are given or the frequency, but it's perhaps a little known fact about the city, and I think it's a nice touch.


For other information about the city and its neighbourhoods, try this Barcelona Guide


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Intorducing the new, reformed Palau Güell....well, not quite.

Nestled just off Las Ramblas is one of Gaudi's numerous famous creations - Palau Güell - perhaps one of the most famous houses in Barcelona. It is just a little way down Nou de La Rambla, near to Liceu metro station. This is the only work by Gaudi that he actually finished, and is a UNESCO World heratige site.

During recent years (I'd say 3, but I might be wrong) it has been undergoing a complete restauration and renovation, and many a tourist has been baffled to see scaffolding over the structure and a full memory stick on their camera ready to use in hand. The notice of the front of the building since the beginning said that renovation was due to be completed at the end of 2007. Indeed, all of the usual guide books printed this for their 2007 versions. However, true to form, the Spanish builders were well off the mark, and I think it was May/June this year when the scaffolding finally came down.

I had already done a full tour a couple of years ago, but then seeing the scaffolding on there made me forget how much of an impact the building makes, espcially nestled between a mini-market, a bank and a kebab house.

So recently I decided to pay a visit. I remember last time that the rooftop was especially interesting, Gaudi had a penchant for chimneys is my guess (see La Pedrera if you don't beleive me!) so I was looking forward to seeing this again, and what if anything they had done. The last time I went there were guided tours, and you had to take a ticket and come back at a certain time. This time it's queue and walk around on your own - and here's why. The sign says a "Partial visit: entrance, basement and facade" I'm not quite sure how you give a tour of the facade (I didn't get one), but there you go.

The entrance is looming, and uses wrought Iron in winding shapes like snakes and vines - no straight lines here people. Then there is a kind of courtyard which leads down a very steep slope to the basement. I remember from last time that this entrance was only for goods and went stright downstairs to the cellar - the part we visit as the basement. Considering this would have rarely been seen by count Güell, his family of even his guests, Gaudi put an awful lot of work into it and the attention to detail is amazing.

Brick pillars come up from the ground to support the ceiling (and presumably the rest of the building), but no two follow form - one is curved, the other square. The lighting added afterwards by the modern day museum gives a stunning balance of shadow and light. There are chains to chain the horses with a drinking trough too. Unfortunately here ends the visit, which is a bit of a let-down as it's when it just gets you going!

I didn't enquire as to when the next part will be open (there is a period house to be seen on 2 floors, I seem to remember and the rooftop already mentioned is amazing) as I know they would just guess. I got chatting to one guy but he just said he was "new there" and seemed to just want to hand out leaflets (I got a French one, hence the lack of historic detail to accompany the post!).

I guess we'll just have to wait and see....

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