Montjuïc: a hill overlooking the town and a big park with plenty of sights to see:

- Nice view from the top. From there you can catch the cable car down to Mare Magnum shopping center (near Las Ramblas).
- The Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña is on the side of the hill overlooking Plaça Espanya. It displays the art of Cataluňa throughout the centuries. The building, the Palau Nacional, is quite an impressive sight.
- The botanical gardens boast all kinds of plants from all the countries with a Mediterranean climate. They are worth a look, and it makes for a peaceful walk away from the crowd.
- From the botanical gardens you can see the site of the 1992 Olympic Games.
- The Mirò museum is also in Montjuic. I recommend getting in to take a look.
- In Montjuic, I particularly love walking down the park and stopping for lunch in the restaurant. It has a beautiful terrace in a peaceful setting and serves simple and delicious lunch.

It took us many tries to pronounce "Montjuïc" and I still do not dare to write it phonetically. Montjuïc is a Catalan name signifying "Hill of the Jews," in reference to a strong Jewish presence in Barcelona in the medieval times. It is essentially a large hill at the outskirts of Barcelona's center that commands an impressive view of the city and its Mediterranean port. It is very interesting and apparently serves as one of the favorite Sunday destinations of the people of Barcelona. There are many ways to get to Montjuïc, including buses from nearby Plaza de Espana and a funicular train from the bottom of the hill. But the best way to get there is definitely to take a cable car that swings across the Barcelona Harbor. Unfortunately, summer of 2005 was apparently the time for repairs and we missed it, taking a funicular instead. Our first stop was Castell de Montjuïc, which could safely be skipped in favor of other nearby attractions, such as the Olympic Park where we went next.

The Olympic Complex was great, though very empty. It was interesting to walk through these marvelous spaces, knowing that great things took place there in the past. Usually you get this feeling walking through some ruins, imaging events from hundreds or thousands of years ago. Here the events in question had happened only 13 years prior, and yet the emptiness of the site gave out the same peculiar feeling. At the center of the Olympic Complex stands the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, named after the hero of Catalan independence movement. Barcelona was proud to host the 1992 Games, which were viewed as a powerful statement of Catalan autonomy. The games were most memorable for the opening ceremony, during which the Olympic torch was lit by a lone archer named Antonio Rebollo. To this day I wonder if they had a back-up system in case he missed.

The whole of Montjuïc is covered in ornamental gardens and water features and we took a path among these to our next destination, Poble Espanyol. Translated to mean "Spanish Village," Poble Espanyol initially seems like a tourist trap, but is actually very interesting. The site is literally a village that was meant to represent all of Spain. It was built for the 1929 World Exhibition to present Spanish culture to the visitors of the fair. It was constructed under the supervision of talented young architects, who traveled all of Spain to capture the unique flavor of each of Spain's regions and incorporate it into a single town, complete with the central square, several streets and plenty of narrow passageways. It takes about one hour to walk around this town and renting the audio guide serves as an excellent introduction to Spanish architectural styles spread across time and space. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience. One word of caution before seeing Poble Espanyol. It imitates the real architecture so effectively, that sightseeing Barcelona's authentic Gothic Quarter afterwords may loose some of its charm.

Montjuic is called the "green lung" of Barcelona. It is basically Central Park on a mountain. It affords great views of the sea and the city. The park is wonderful to walk, jog, or bike around, depending on your fitness level. I took the funicular up (you can catch this at the Parallel Metro station), walked up to the Montjuic Castle, and then meandered down. There are small and large gardens, museums, vistas, romantic picnic areas, gay cruising areas for those so inclined, public pools, and a soccer stadium. I was there in December/January and was quite warm with a sweater and jacket. There did seem to be a lot of people just about everywhere, but it was still great to just be outside and get away from some of the somewhat smoggy streets of the city below. I saw a few joggers and many bikers, but walking was enough for me. There is a pool open to the public; I believe it is the Olympic pool, but I'm not sure. One of Barcelona's soccer teams plays at the Olympic stadium.

There are signs just about everywhere, so there is no worry about getting lost. If you can find your way back to the Museu of Art, it is a short walk down to the Placa Espanya and the Metro. This also happens to be the area just below the museum that gay men cruise. I cannot say I'd recommend taking part, but the area was full of men of every variety looking for fun in the sun. There are benches all over for quick rests. And there are ample spaces for a picnic lunch on a nice day.

Despite the promise and allure of the Miro museum on this hill near the coast and on the outskirts of Barcelona, our Montjuic expedition was largely a failure. The cable car, or funicular, as they are called, was out of order, so we gamely took the bus midway up the hill to the Miro museum (wonderful, see entry!). From there, we had the bright idea of climbing up the hill to the Castell de Montjuic (or castle). This was when things began to go seriously awry. The guidebooks indicated several faint lines going between the major roads and connecting the major sights. We believed these lines were walking paths... foolish, foolish tourists. We set out to climb from the Miro museum to Castell along of these "paths" and were enjoying a beautiful hike when it unexpectedly dead-ended on a road with no signs indiciating which way to go. We guessed left and, after 45 minutes of switchbacks, headed to the castle… a run-down yet picturesque sight.

We opted to skip the military museum and instead spent 15 minutes taking in the magnificent views of Barcelona and the ocean. It is only because of these views that I somewhat recommend Montjuic. Hopefully I looked around for a cab to take back down the mountain, but all we found was the broken-down funicular, which we gazed at with some regret. If we had only known how that regret would fester during the next couple hours…

So, down we walked. As we descended, we stumbled upon a couple official "maps". However, the same faint lines indicating paths that these maps pointed us to ended in chain-linked fences. From time to time, we could see the Olympic stadium, and tried to orient our descent using that as our guide. This is a hill built for cars, and I would strongly discourage anyone from attempting to walk unless you have a much better map than we had. What a disaster. 

Three hours later we reached the beautiful Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. At least it was beautiful from the outside, we were too exhausted to enter, and instead gratefully made our way to the escalator leading directly down to a metro station to return to our apartment. To make matters worse, when we got back to the apartment we noted that the guidebook we had left there, strongly recommended we NOT attempt to walk to the sights on Montjuic. In general, we totally botched this visit. All in all, not a great day, but perhaps you will have better luck on your journey, and particularly if the funicular is working by then!

This "ciutat dels artesans was created for the 1929 World’s Fair to celebrate in miniature the varied architectural styles of the Spanish provinces. Of course, it’s faux, faux stone, wood, and brick. But it was designed by a number of the most prominent contemporary architects who had the financial wherewithal to enable them to construct it quickly, yet accurately in a year’s time. The then dictator of Spain, General Primo de Rivera, felt its construction would help his attempts to emphasize the unity of the country when Catalans were clamoring for independence. Instead of being dismantled after the Exhibition closed, it proved popular among locals and visitors and so it remained though in the ‘80’s it fell upon seedy days. To the rescue in 1986 came a private company that gained the city’s permission to operate it for 30 years.

Just to the east of the Mies van der Rohe pavilion, that was dismantled after the 1929 Fair, but rebuilt in 1985, this collection of Spanish villages also has a section devoted to eating and drinking with restaurants, bars, and night clubs. Especially in summer, the cool of Montjuic draws families escaping from a densely populated city, and so, in its refurbishment of the Poble the new management added Sunday clowns and puppet shows, and encouraged nighttime activities.

In early October on a week day when our son visited the Poble it was very quiet; few craft workshops were open and his photo taking was unhampered . In particular, he focused on doors and squares, but there are also church facades and towers, and the over-all variety of architectural styles does highlight the significant climatic and geographic as well as cultural differences in this large country. If you’re exploring Montjuic anyway, you can do as he did, just stroll around and take advantage of the picturesque "snapshots" of Spain before you. Many guidebooks and visitors feel this attraction is just a tourist trap, too expensive, but these generalizations apply to the site’s amusement park activities. On a weekday when he visited, its exploration can be pleasant and free.

While he was in the Montjuic area, our son also visited the Placa d’Europa and Torre de Calatare at the Olympic complex and the Castell where Catalans were imprisoned during the Civil War . Executed here was the president of the Catalan republic, Lluis Companys. The street running north to south at the Western border of Ciutadella Park commemorates him. Built in 1640 as a Spanish fortress to keep watch for Catalan revolts against Philip IV, this hated symbol of Spanish suppression is now the Museu Militar, but our son did not visit it but took photos of the scenery with beautiful castle gardens and terrific views of the city.