Barcelona Zoo - join us at Parc de la Ciutadella

Barcelona Zoo is in a great location (located in Parc de la Ciutadella and near to the old city center and near the beach. It is a beautiful zoo, where animals live in spacious pens. Until 2003, a white gorilla called “Floquet de Neu” (snowflake) was the major attraction of the zoo. The animal died in that year to skin cancer, but this albino gorilla still has its own website on the Internet. This is not only to keep the memory of snowflake alive, but also knowledge about the endangered gorillas across. There are descendants of the albino gorilla in the zoo, but none has inherited the unique properties of snowflake.

Even without snowflake a visit to the zoo is worth it. You will not only find hippos, lions, tigers and monkeys, but also animals that occur only in Spain. Examples are the Iberian ibex and the Iberian wolf. Very nice is the Dolphinarium. Behind glass you can see how the 'nut' swimming in the water and often they are just curious to the window to see who they are now back to peep.

Like most zoos do, the Barcelona Zoo in maintaining many endangered species. For example, in a special native center, animals are bred and later they are released into the Donana, a protected area in Catalonia. Furthermore, the zoo has electric cars, picnic areas and a mini train.
In the park surrounding the zoo is a large pond, where you can rent a rowing boat. Parc Zoològic in Parc de la Ciutadella (also entrance on Carrer de Wellington).

Opening hours: 10.00 - 18.00 (summer 7pm)
Admission: adults €14.95, children 3 to 12 years €9

Things worth seeing in Barcelona: Montjuic Fort

Montjuic is a hill with a fort on the top, the Castell Montjuïc, and around a large park. The Parc Montjuïc was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1929, with beautiful gardens, the National Palace and sports. The stadium was rebuilt in 1989 for the Olympic Games, three years later. (nu lijkt het een beetje of je bedoelt dat het jaar 1989 3 jaar later is na 1929).

At night, the fountain at Plaça d'Espanya is a magnificent spectacle of light, music and water. Therefore it is called the Magic Fountain. In the summer, every half hour starts a new show, the first is at 21.30 the last at 23.30.

In the National Palace is the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya situated and shows the Catalan art from the 10th to the 20th century. Especially the collection of frescoes from various churches that have been reconstructed. Furthermore, the museum has many art nouveau works. Finally, Barcelona is the capital of the Spanish modernism. Price: €8.50

More modernism can be found in the Miro Museum (Fundacio Joan Miro). This surrealist artist known for its many bright colors that he used in his work: paintings, sculptures and tapestries. Price: €7.50.

The Castell Montjuic was built in 1640. This impressive fort now houses a military museum with old and new weapons, models of castles and military uniforms. Lovers of maps can enjoy the large collection of old military maps. Price: €2.50.

From the hilltop of Montjuic, you have a wonderful view of Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea. But there are more points in the park where you have a beautiful view, including from the botanical garden which is not so special.In the summer there are often open-air performances in the Parc Montjuïc: music, dance, theater and film.

The Palau de la Música Catalana

The Palau de la Música Catalana is an amazing building in Barcelona. The Palau de la Música Catalana organizes daily guided tours for visitors to discover the impressive architecture in this building.

The building is being used for several concerts. The Palau de la Música Catalana organizes 359 concerts per year. It is built between 1905 and 1908 by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The Palau de la Música Catalana was meant as a headquarter for the Orfeó Català. The building is funded by donations and has a constitute and symbolic heritage.

The Palau de la Música Catalana is open from 10.00 until 15.30. There are several guided tours per day in different languages. The languages are Catalan, Spanish and English. All the guided tours start in the Foyer (bar) of Palau de la Música.

The entree price is 12 euro per person. For groups over the 25 people the entree price is 11 euro per person.

The Picasso Museum - Attractions Spotlight

The Picasso Museum in the district of La Ribera is one of the most popular attractions of Barcelona. It is located in five mercantile houses which are connected and all have beautiful courtyards. The main entrance is in the Palau Berenguer d'Aguilar of the 15th century.

The museum gives a nice overview of the development of Pablo Picasso. His works hang in chronological order. The museum has many pieces from his earlier period, when he lived and worked in Barcelona.

There are also many works that Picasso made in his last period. The period 1907 - 1937 is less well represented. Unfortunately, because in this period he made very famous works. The real masterpieces you will not find in this museum, but the exhibition gives a good insight into how Picasso developed his own style. Besides paintings, the museum holds items of ceramics and graphic work of Picasso.

In a separate section of the museum you can see the changing exhibitions, but you have to pay an extra price for this. The museum is situated at Montcada 15-23, 08003 Barcelona. Opening hours: 10.00 - 20.00 (Monday closed) Price: €6.

The Joan Miro museum (el Fundació Joan Miró)

Best Museums in Barcelona series:

The Miró museum is a museum of modern art in Barcelona. The museum was built by Josep Lluis Sert, a friend of Miro, and was officially opened on the 10th of June in 1975. It has many paintings and sculptures by Joan Miró, but also from other modern artists.

The museum is owned by the Fundació Joan Miró and contains more than 200 paintings by Miró. The Most of these works are donated to the museum by Miro itself or by his wife. The museum includes also a library with more than 25,000 books and catalogs, audiovisual items and newspapers.

Joan Miró was born in 1893 in the Spanish Montroig, near Barcelona. Miró was a Catalan, Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist and ceramist. From childhood he began to draw, but later he also made paintings, sculptures, textile work, theatrical and monumental sculptures. Miro is known for its original style and one of the big three, next to Picasso and Dalí, of the Spanish 20th-century Modern art. He is also seen as one of the most visual artists of the 20th century by many art critics. He worked in different styles and in his younger years he was inspired by the impressionistic work of Van Gogh. But after his meeting with Pablo Picasso, he changed for a small period to the Cubism style.

Finally, Joan Miró created, by the influence of surrealist writers and painters, a distinctive and unique style and is counted by the art of surrealism. This unique style of painting is a style that was never practiced by other people.

This style includes that the artist disconnects the technical objects of a spontaneous poetic dream world of their original function to enable them to integrate them in a graphic world. These organic figures world was dominated by the sexual issues, nature, the moon, the star, but also women. Spontaneous spring poetry is the main show.Joan Miró died in 1983 at an age of 93 years.

The museum Fundació Joan Miró is situated on the mountain Montjuic in Barcelona.

El Poble Espanyol

The miniature city El Poble Espanyol is an open air museum, situated on the mountain of Montjuic. El Poble Espanyol is one of the remains of the international exhibition in 1929. This little town is a reflection of the Spanish architecture with real streets and squares. El Poble Espanyol is not available for cars and is a perfect place to relax. You can find here a lot of stores, restaurants and a few discotheques.

El Poble Espanyol was built in 1929 and was meant to create a real village in the middle of the city Barcelona. The purpose was to give an impression of an ideal model of a Spanish city including the most important characteristics of Spain in a surface of 49000 m2. To create this ideal Spanish city, 117 buildings, streets and squares were reproduced on scale. All of this pieces are carefully selected by the aesthetic criteria’s and which could be a part of the harmonious composition of this village.

When you are interested to visit El Poble Espanyol, there are several ways to reach the village. When you prefer to travel by metro, you can take the red L1 or the green L3 line to Espanya. There is also a train of Catalan Railroads FFCC to Espanya. But when you prefer to travel by bus, you can take bus 13, 50 or 61 to Poble Espanyol and Parc Montjuic. When you take the bus touristic, you can also step out at Poble Espanyol.

Tibidabo Tibidabo - Touring the mountains near Barcelona

Tibidabo Tibidabo, the top of mountain Serra Collserola is the highest place of Barcelona. On this place you have a beautiful panoramic view over the city but there is also an attraction park and a church. From almost every spot in Barcelona you can see the highest point of the mountain and especially the church Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor.

The church is the eye catcher of the mountain and is the first thing you see when you step out the funicular (cable car). You can visit the church for free, only for the lift you will have to pay €2,-. But when you are not interested in the church, you can also visit the old attraction park. This park is not really changed since it opened its doors in 1899. Some attractions of that time are still working.

One of this attractions is the red airplane L’avió. This plane turns circles since 1928. One century ago, this airplane was used for flights between Barcelona and Madrid.

Transport The Tibibus brings you from Plaça Catalunya directly to the attractionpark Tibidabo. But you can also take the train to Avenida de Tibidabo, this is line L7. And from there you can take bus 195 who brings you to the funicular. But in place of this bus, you can also take the historic Tramvia Blau.