Barcelona is a city I seem to keep passing through rather than spending a good length of time in.
First we were passing through on an Interrail trip where we were supposed to just change trains whilst heading south to Seville. I messed up reading the timetable though and we ended up having to stay a night in the city.
Rather than booking into a hostel or guesthouse, we decided to sleep rough outside the station, a very inadvisable thing to do. The police weren’t at all happy about it, but did send a car around to keep an eye on us occasionally.
We survived the night and the next day got our train to Seville and I was partly forgiven. We spent most of our time camped on a table outside the station.
The next time I went through was on an Iberian motorcycle tour. This time I rode into the city and did get to see some of the landmark buildings.
I pulled up my bike next to the Basilica de Sagrada Familia and marvelled at its unfinished strange architecture. Unable to leave my bike with gear on for more than a few minutes I didn’t go into it but did take a few pictures of it covered in scaffolding as it was for many years.
Then I tried to leave the city but got lost in the park around Montjuïc Castle. Eventually late at night I found a campsite south of the city by the beach.
The third and fourth times were on trips to Sitges. The first time we stayed in the city after flying in. An unmemorable area of town, but I saw a marathon being run and on the way back we saw another of Gaudi’s strange buildings as we ducked into the metro.
The fourth time I saw even less of the city as we headed straight for Sitges.
So Barcelona is largely undiscovered for me. It has a reputation for crime today with pickpocketing and people getting held up in the streets for their valuables by gangs. It is also one of the areas of Spain where the locals have become hostile to tourists due to rising rents.
So while I wouldn’t mind a trip there to see more, it isn’t really calling to me more than other parts of Spain. So we will have to see.