Highlight Tour - Barcelona

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http://www.heygo.com 20th February - Highlight Drive Barcelona



A first for virtual tour guide Josep, with his daughter Eva at the wheel we took a drive taking in the highlights of Barcelona.



Josep had obviously done a lot of planning to organise the trip so that in the allotted time of 45-50 minutes he could share the passion he has for the city of Barcelona.

During that time Josep was out if the car several times so that we could enjoy the historic building and magnificent views if the city.

Here’s what we saw Columbus monument, Old Harbor, Medieval Shipyards, Cruise Ship Port, Panoramic view of Barcelona from Miramar spectacular Viewpoint; Cable Car Station, Miro Museum , Olympic Stadium, Spanish Village, Caixa Forum, The Magic Fountain location, Barcelona’s 1929 World Expo, Plaça the Espanya with its Venetian Towers and Bull Ring arena.



Columbus monument was erected in 1888 for the Universal Exposition. The 60m high iron column is topped by a bronze statue of the famous Italian explorer who is portrayed holding nautical charts and pointing out to sea.

Although the monument is a tribute to the man who discovered the Americas who the statue is in fact facing in the opposite direction and points towards Mallorca!



Medieval Shipyards - During the Middle Ages Barcelona was part of the most important sea powers of the Mediterranean and it has a long seefaring tradtition that you can still recognise: the old shipyards is now The Museu Maritime.



Panoramic views of the city can be seen from several places but today we were at The Mirador of Poble-sec, hanging on the mountain of Montjuïc, the area has the characteristics of both a forest park and an urban one.

Dating from 1923, this area has become a viewpoint above the port, the mountain and the city is surrounded by 40 ombu trees standing in a double row. These are unusual trees, with a rich variety of colours and trunks which grow in extravagant forms these Ombu trees (Elephant Foot trunk) were quite amazing.



Miro Foundation Museum was created by Miró himself, at first principally with works from his own private collection, with a desire to set up an internationally recognised centre in Barcelona for Miró scholarship and contemporary art research. The Fundació opened to the public on 10 June 1975 and has since become a dynamic centre in which Joan Miró's work coexists with cutting-edge contemporary art



Olympic Stadium - Designed by architect Pere Domènech i Roura, the Olympic Stadium was opened on 20 May 1929 for the Barcelona Universal Exposition. The second-largest stadium in the world at the time, it was designed for the 1936 Olympic Games, but due to the political situation of the time they never took place there and the stadium fell into disuse. Half a century later, as a result of Barcelona’s bid to host the Olympics, the stadium came back to life. In 1985 work began to completely remodel the stadium, adding facilities and services necessary to host the 1992 Olympic Games. The entire stadium underwent remodelling, except the facade, the original of which was conserved.



The colossal Magic Fountain operates on 3620 water jets circulating 2600 litres of water every second in the 3.1 million litre pool. Then throw in 4760 lights and a max water spout of 52 mtrs.

Today though we just had a photo to look at that Josep pulled out of his pocket.

It must be amazing to see at night.



Plaça the Espanya - The square was built on a site that had been previously used for public hangings, until the creation of the now demolished Ciutadella fortress in 1715, where the gallows were moved. It was designed in 1915 and built in 1929 so that it could be ready to host the 1929 Universal Exposition. The square has been in public use since then.

The most striking part of Plaça Espanya is the two large Venetian towers.

The 47mtr high towers are modeled on the clock tower of San Marco Basilica in Venice.

All these tours I’m taking can be found on http://virtualtrips.io

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