Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SIGHTS
Port Vell & La Barceloneta
AQUARIUM
L'AQUÀRIUM
dive €300; 9.30am-11pm Jul & Aug, to 9pm Sep-Jun; Drassanes)
It is hard not to shudder at the sight of a shark gliding above you, displaying its toothy,
wide-mouthed grin. But this, the 80m shark tunnel, is the highlight of one of Europe's
largest aquariums. It has the world's best Mediterranean collection and plenty of colourful
fish from as far off as the Red Sea, the Caribbean and the Great Barrier Reef. All up, some
11,000 fish (including a dozen sharks) of 450 species reside here.
Back in the shark tunnel, which you reach after passing a series of themed fish tanks with
everything from bream to sea horses, various species of shark (white tip, sand tiger, bonnet-
head, black tip, nurse and sandbar) flit around you, along with a host of other critters, from
flapping rays to bloated sunfish. An interactive zone, Planeta Aqua, is host to a family of
Antarctic penguins and a tank of rays that you watch close up.
Divers with a valid dive certificate may dive in the main tank with the sharks.
MUSEUM
MUSEU D'HISTÒRIA DE CATALUNYA
93 225 47 00;
www.mhcat.net
;
Plaça de Pau
Vila 3; adult/child €4.50/3.50, 1st Sun of month free;
10am-7pm Tue & Thu-Sat, to 8pm Wed, to
2.30pm Sun; Barceloneta)
Stone Age through to the early 1980s. It is a busy hotchpotch of dioramas, artefacts, videos,
models, documents and interactive bits: all up, an entertaining exploration of 2000 years of
Catalan history.
See how the Romans lived, listen to Arab poetry from the time of the Muslim occupation
of the city, peer into the dwelling of a Dark Ages family in the Pyrenees, try to mount a
knight's horse or lift a suit of armour.
When you have had enough of all this, descend into a civil-war air-raid shelter, watch a
video in Catalan on post-Franco Catalonia, or head upstairs to the first-rate rooftop restaur-
