Barcelona Attractions

After you make the mile-long trek from the docks to the foot of Las Ramblas, you're within foot range of several of the city's popular tourist sites.

Las Ramblas itself was dubbed "the most beautiful street in the world" by Victor Hugo, and today its tree-lined length is a perpetual carnival of street performers, flower and songbird vendors, cafes, shops, and wall-to-wall people. It runs from the docks to Plaça de Catalunya, where it meets up with the almost equally enticing Passeig de Gracia, a wide, upscale shopping street.

Running north from Las Ramblas (to the right as you're walking inland), the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter) is a dense warren of narrow streets and buildings from the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, when Barcelona experienced a golden age of growth and expansion. Apart from the big attractions such as the Catedral de Barcelona on Plaça de la Seu (begun at the end of the 13th century and completed in the 15th, with a museum of medieval art in its cloister) and the medieval palace of the Plaça del Rei (where Columbus was received after returning from the New World), the Barri Gó tic's charm lies in its details -- the gargoyles that peer down from ancient towers, small chapels set into the sides of medieval buildings, small squares and fountains, and medieval buildings that were once the headquarters of Barcelona's trade guilds. During the day, half the fun is getting lost and walking the area's cobblestone streets and checking out its vintage stores and cafes.

Several miles from the cruise docks (though still walkable for those in good shape) lies Antonio Gaudí's masterpiece, La Sagrada Família (Church of the Holy Family), Mallorca 401, undoubtedly Barcelona's most remarkable structure. The cathedral's history extends back to 1882, when the first stone was laid, and extends forward into the future: It is still far from finished, with completion at least two decades off. The basic design follows that of a traditional Gothic church, but its execution is anything but traditional. Reaching toward the heavens, the cathedral's numerous thin spires (of which there will be 18, when everything's completed) have a remarkably organic quality, as if they'd been grown rather than built. The Nativity Facade on the Carrer Marina was the only part of the facade completed during Gaudí's lifetime. Abundant in detail, upon first glance it seems like a wall of molten wax, its entire expanse crammed with figurines of the Holy Family, flute-bearing angels, ripe fruit, and animals celebrating the birth of Jesus. On the cathedral's opposite side, the more modern Passion Facade is adorned with highly stylized, elongated figures acting out Christ's passion and death. Visitors with strong legs and lungs can climb to the top of some of the spires, looking through their glassless window apertures from a dizzying height. There's also an elevator that takes less hearty visitors up about halfway. Admission to the cathedral and its grounds is 12€ ($15.85).