Barcelonawalks (Henry Holt Walks Series)

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Summary: Find this book!
Review: As much as I have enjoyed the other books on Barcelona that I have read, nothing has brought this spectacular city to life in quite the same way as Barcelonawalks. I went on the walks with a native who knows the city so well she can get navigate the labyrinth of the Barri Gotic with her eyes closed. The book was a revelation even to her. George Semler, the author, brings considerable reserves of insight, style and wit to the proceedings. As a book, it's a wonderful confection. As a guidebook (a recipe I don't ordinarily care for since they often do to their subject what the Kraft company does to cheese), it is more like private tour with someone who knows the broad arch of the city's rich history, the character of it's people, as well as a baroque quantity of entertaining minutia. Semler's restaurant recommendations alone might be worth the price of admission, as you are likely to find yourself the only tourist in various characteristic and popular neighborhood eateries.

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Summary: Estupendo!
Review: Barcelonawalks is the best guide book I have ever come across. It allows you to explore the old city without the pressures of a tourist guide, introducing you to history that you would never uncover on your own.

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Summary: Find the heart of Barcelona by walking its streets.
Review: George Semler has told as much about the passions of the people of Barcelona as about its buildings. From the medieval splendor of the Gothic Quarter through the 19th neighborhood of Gracia to the wildly idiosyncratic buildings of the Catalan Renaissance, each block is revealed not only as a sequence of architectural structures but as the place where the great and the ordinary people of Barcelona fought, dreamed and struggled. I walked every one of its routes with pleasure and a great sense of history. Marvellous!