Beach Day in El Poblenou

Have you been wondering why I haven’t managed to make it to the beach yet? Or, perhaps, you have forgotten that Barcelona has some amazing beaches? I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to finally mention them. I promise it wasn’t an oversight. You see, from where my accommodations are located, it is a long bus ride right through the heart of the city and on hot days in the middle of the pandemic, it’s not something one does without careful preparation. Plus there were so many other places to visit first! Fear not, however, I did finally make my way to the sandy beaches of El Poblenou. El Poble-what? Poblenou … this lovely seaside neighbourhood is famous for its hip bar and restaurant scene as well as various beaches, the Olympic Village (remember the 1992 Barcelona Olympics?), and the Royal Marina. It may be to Barcelona what the West End is to Vancouver (if the Olympic Village moved there from False Creek).

It took me about 40 minutes to get there on the bus, as it had to snake through the centre of town. Fortunately I don’t tend to get up very early so this escapade, as many of my other ones, started in the late hours of the morning guaranteeing me a fairly empty bus. As we meandered through the various neighbourhoods, one struck me as particularly intriguing: La Barceloneta. The Google Maps Quick Facts blurb makes it sound like a little urban paradise, but let me tell you, it’s far from it. There is an area of roughly 4×6 regular city blocks of five- or six-storey buildings, except in the space of a regular block, there are probably three or four buildings with narrow passages between them. I don’t know, maybe I just lucked out and went by there when laundry day was on, but from the bus all I could see were these seemingly very crowded, rather ghetto-like apartment buildings with more humanity than one would expect in an area this size. The West End is crowded by Canadian standards; La Barceloneta has a feel of overpopulation on a much grander scale. I really wish I had snapped a photo to illustrate but you’re welcome to do a little Google Maps walk-about and get a bit of what I was seeing. Why did I bring this up at all? Well, it appears that in many Spanish cities, the poor neighbourhoods are rather close to the beaches, as I have since found out. I don’t know what the apartments in La Barceloneta go for and, for the sake of the occupants, I do hope not a lot. Of course here is where the similarity to the West End goes right out of the window. (I refer to the current West End, of course. I still remember a time when it was a very affordable area and where many of the city’s new immigrants, not to mention LGBTQ folks, found their home.) I still am not sure how I feel about this … how can a location be this great and this bad at the same time?

I started my beach promenade walk (isn’t that redundant?) at the Somorrostro beach, and made my way north. I chose not to walk by the water itself because the beaches are all broken up by a large marina and multiple jetties (espigó in Catalan, or “ear of corn”), making it impossible to have a nice, uninterrupted walk. The promenade was lovely anyway, and the wonderful sea wind made the experience quite pleasant on a hot day. There is something very satisfying in walking along a path, hot sand on one side, interesting architecture on the other. An example of that was something that looked very much like one of those typical Spanish conquistador hats but see-through (it was a sculpture). Imagine my surprise when I realized it’s not a hat at all but, rather, the very cool El Peix d’Or (The Goldfish) by Canada’s own Frank Gehry! It sure makes a difference to look at things from the right point of view, doesn’t it? I probably should have known, but, in my defence, when the 1992 Olympiad was on, I was rather busy with a small child and no PVR to really pay attention to anything sports-related. And, spoiler alert, that was 28 years ago — I am allowed to forget things!

It didn’t take long to get to the Port Olímpic Marina with its many sailboats and other watercraft. It is a very large marina, with a bank of restaurants on two sides, and it took me a while to go around it. I thought of finding a place for lunch there but nothing spoke to me just yet. What did catch my eye, however, was a very interesting skyscraper that appeared to be changing shape as I moved around it. It took me a moment to realize that this was so because of the reflections of the sea and sky bouncing off the mirrored sides of the building. That, in itself, would not have had quite such a drastic effect, however. What made it super cool were the mirrored panels at 45° between each floor. The effect was rather ingenious and I hope the photo in the Gallery captured enough of it. A video would have been better; note to self: take more videos. This was the Torre Mapfre where, I later found out, the German Consulate is located, just in case you needed to know that.

The next beach over was Platja de la Nova Icària, with a row of restaurants here as well. This time I could not resist temptation and decided I needed to have a seaside meal at last. I was a little disappointed that they no longer had gazpacho (the very refreshing cold tomato soup I’d been having as my first course often) and when I expressed this sentiment, I was told it was too cold now and would I like a hot soup instead. I tried not to hurt the poor fellow’s feelings by informing him that 25°C is hardly cold weather but it was the end of September so, I guess, for the locals, that’s almost winter. Yes, I’m still rolling my eyes at that 😉

Sated and unnecessarily warmed up (I did have the soup), I continued to the next jetty (Espigó de Bogatell), where the city had, very wisely, installed some concrete loungers for people to take advantage of. Seeing how many folks were enjoying them, it was only right that I should join them. With music in my ears, wind in my hair, and sun actually reaching my exposed (and still rather white) skin, I settled down for a little rest. It was heavenly. I don’t really know how long I stayed there; it didn’t really matter since I wasn’t in any hurry anywhere. At some point I did pull out my Kindle and read a bit, all the while trying not to be distracted by the activity around me. People watching is fun when you’re hidden behind sunglasses and there was plenty to watch.

Eventually, I realized I couldn’t stay lounging forever, and made my way further north. By this point I was starting to notice that people on the next beach seemed to be all very brown. All over. I still think they should have had a sign at the other side of the beach, and maybe they did, but I missed it. Had I seen it, I would have done a better job not letting my gaze land where it shouldn’t … I know most beaches here are topless ones, that I was expecting; it’s the bottomless ones that came as a surprise, and right after lunch at that.

There was one more beach for me to walk by, Platja de Llevant, and here I really got the sense I was getting further and further away from the action. Fewer people, fewer amenities, no restaurants. The area is clearly undergoing some sort of revitalization, and there is a huge mall under construction right on the waterfront. All this is just steps away from an area rich in culture: Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (Natural Science Museum) and Jardí Botànic (Botanic Gardens), and a bunch of parks, but I was too tired at this point and still needed to make my way back to a bus stop somewhere. I also had to leave some things unseen so my next visit to this beautiful city wouldn’t be all walks down memory lane. As the bus took me down a new path, one thing struck me immediately: La Sagrada Familia is visible from pretty much everywhere in Barcelona. The view of its soaring towers kept me company through quite a few neighbourhoods, only to disappear when the buildings got taller and denser; I just needed to look between the buildings to get a glimpse of it then.