Barcelona Guide
The Ramblas
It is a telling comment on Barcelona that one can recommend a single street – the Ramblas – as a highlight. No day in the city seems complete without a stroll down at least part of what Federico García Lorca called "the only street in the world which I wish would never end". Lined with cafés, shops, restaurants and newspaper kiosks, and thronged by tourists, locals, buskers and performance artists, it's at the heart of Barcelona's life and self-image. There are important buildings and sights along the way, but undoubtedly the street life is the greatest attraction.
The name, derived from the Arabic ramla (sand), refers to the bed of the seasonal stream that once flowed here. In the dry season, the channel served as a road. By the fourteenth century it had been paved, as a link between the harbour and the old town. In the nineteenth century, benches and decorative trees were added, overlooked by stately balconied buildings, and today this wide tree-lined swath is still given over to pedestrians, with cars forced up the narrow strips of road on either side. You can walk the entire length in about twenty minutes.
The Ramblas splits the old town areas of Barcelona in half, with the Barri Gòtic on the east flank and El Raval on the west. You'll also notice that the streets to either side become a little less polished – even seedy – as you get closer to the harbour. The shops, meanwhile, reflect the mixed clientele, from patisseries to pizza takeaways, and stores selling handcrafted jewellery to shops full of sombreros, bullfight posters, football shirts and imitation Gaudí ashtrays. On the central avenue under the plane trees you'll find pet canaries, rabbits, flowers, plants, postcards and books. You can buy sunglasses or cigarettes from itinerant salespeople, have your palm read and your portrait painted, or just listen to the buskers and watch the pavement artists. Human statues are much in evidence, as are card and dice sharps, operating from foldaway tables and cardboard boxes. It's a never-ending show, of which visitors and locals alike rarely tire.