New View of Plaza Espanya

This is Plaza Espanya as never seen before from the newly opened commercial centre Las Arenas de Barcelona. The building is a conversion of a 19th century bullring and the original facade has been restored and houses the new centre.

Bb and I walked around it yesterday and it really is impressive, with over 100 shops over various floors, a 12 screen cinema, a museum, gym, as well as many cafes, bars and restaurants. The most impressive part of all though is the open rooftop terrace with 360 degree views of the whole of Barcelona! I'm sure this will become a favourite spot for locals and tourists alike and we'll definitely be taking our visitors there now to enjoy the views and partake of some liquid refreshment.

The restoration and building took about eight years to complete as the project was paralysed for a long time because of disputes between the British firm of architects Richard Rogers and the Spanish architects.

Most of the square and the buildings up the hill were built for the 1929 World Exhibition and the grand building up the top is the National Museum of Art of Catalunya and is said to have the largest room in Europe.

As blippers we saw lots of opportunites to be had here and we'll definitely be back, cameras in hand!