Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you have time to kill at Barcelona Sants station, nip around the south side to Basque ar-
chitect Luis Peña Ganchegui's urban park, the
Parc de l'Espanya Industrial
. Built on the
site of an old textile factory, it has a line of red-and-yellow-striped lighthouses at the top of
glaring white steps, with an incongruously classical Neptune in the water below. Altogether,
six sculptors are represented here and, along with the boating lake, café-kiosk, playground
and sports facilities provided, the park takes a decent stab at reconciling local interests with
the mundane nature of the surroundings.
Parc Joan Miró
C/de Tarragona 74 • Daily 10am-dusk • Free • Tarragona
ParcJoanMiró
was laid out on the site of the nineteenth-century municipal slaughterhouse.
It features a raised piazza whose only feature is Joan Miró's gigantic mosaic sculpture
Dona
i Ocell
(“Woman and Bird”), towering above a shallow reflecting pool. It's a familiar sym-
bol if you've studied Miró's other works, but the sculpture is known locally by several other
names - all of them easy to guess when you consider its erect, helmeted shape. The rear of
the park is given over to games areas and landscaped sections of palms and firs, with a kiosk
caféandsomeoutdoortablesfoundinamongthetrees.Thechildren'splaygroundhereisone
of the best in the city, with a climbing frame and aerial runway as well as swings and slides.
Arenas de Barcelona
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 373-385, at Pl. d'Espanya • Daily 10am-10pm • 932 890 244,
www.arenasdebarcelona.com
• Espanya
Landmark building on the north side of Plaça d'Espanya is the fabulous Moorish-style bull-
ring, the
ArenasdeBarcelona
, originally built in 1900 but re-imagined as a swish shopping
and leisure centre that opened in 2011. Conceived by architect
Richard Rogers
as a gate-
way to the city centre, and preserving the beautiful brick exterior, the various retail levels at
Arenas are hung in sweeping, circular galleries, while right on top, outside, is a wide walk-
around promenade circling the
dome
that offers 360-degree views of the western side of the
city. An express elevator whisks you up here from street level, or you can take the glass lifts
or escalators inside through four floors of shopping and entertainment that include a cinema,
gym and health centre, various restaurants (some on the top-floor promenade) and a museum
devoted to rock music.
Museu del Rock
4thFloor,ArenasdeBarcelona •Tues&Wed10am-10pm,Thurs&Fri10am-4pm,€5,under-13s€3;Thurs&
Fri 4-10pm, Sat & Sun 10am-10pm, €9, under-13s €7.20 •
museudelrock.com
• Espanya
