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.

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!

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.

This was a huge celebration that lasted past dawn. We knew in advance, but many people attending our meeting did not know and thought a small revolution had broken out! We watched some of the fireworks from the pool/roof deck of our hotel. We felt so out of the party although we were with wonderful friends.

I will never forget one young woman I saw on her way to Montjuic. Every bit as beautiful as a Vogue model, she wore a strapless white dress. She was going to spend the night in that! As she twisted in the wind, (testing out the swing of her skirt) dancing her way along with her girl friends, by the Plaza de Espana (please forgive me for not having the correct Spanish punctuation); she enjoyed the feeling of being young, beautiful and in Barcelona! Such a strong feeling of happiness! It was in the air.

Glorius, beautiful, fantastic Barcelona! Pure pleasure! Intense joy! I have never felt this way before. Were we younger, we would have gone up the mountain ourselves.