Guided Bike Tours at La Barceloneta, Barcelona

I am not a biker myself but I have to admit riding bicycles is fun and at the same time helps to alleviate dense traffic in modern cities. Barcelona is more and more bike friendly thanks to the zeal of local authorities. On the wake of such events, travel agencies and tour operators found a gold streak and started offering guided bike tours covering popular spots in Barcelona. Perhaps riding along La Barceloneta beach is one of the most rewarding tours. Other posts showing groups of bikers listening to their tour guide were: Bike Tours in Barcelona Waterfront and Guided Bike Tours in Barcelona

Romantic Gardens in Europe: Parc del Laberint, Barcelona

Parc del Laberint d'Horta is not Versailles perhaps but it has its charm and it is amidst a very bucolic environment that is above all relaxing and ideal specially for tourists tired of stressing walks around the city. What can you find here? From the point of view of resorts, very little, in fact just a bar but from the point of view of art and beauty your spirit will gain in strength. There were other similar images in Barcelona Photoblog ,taken with a poor quality camera by the way, like: Labyrinth Park in Horta

Gracia Neighborhood: The Town Inside The City

As the title suggests the Gràcia quarter in spite of being a consolidated part of Barcelona city still makes you feel as if you were visiting the neighboring town it used to be back in early XIX when Eixample was just a plan in Ildefonso Cerdà's mind and there was nothing between them and the city behind walls (notice in this Wikipedia image the original urbanistic plan depicting the old city below, the symmetric blocks of future Eixample and the Gracia ville up north). Not that this is an external municipality anymore and its ways are not by any chance provincial in the pejorative sense of the word but the fact that most of its streets are pedestrian friendly, the fact that there is an intense small business activity, the fact life is so "extroverted" here, with neighbors spending more time on the sidewalks, on the squares, on the bar terraces than at home, really creates a comfortable, homy atmosphere that permeates your every pore upon trespassing its boundaries no matter which direction you are coming from. I hope this everyday scene adds up to what I wanted to convey in today's post.