Life in Barcelona

What about watching a shark pass you by with just 30cm distance between the two of you?

Well, the idea would scare me to death if I didn’t know that there was a thick piece of glass dividing my world from the beast on the other side. I am talking about a visit to the Barcelona Aquarium in Port Vell, which is considered one of the best in Europe! As I hadn’t visited this kind of spectacle for a decade or so, I thought it would be a great way of spending a Saturday afternoon.

This collection of the world’s marine life is actually amazing!  On your underwater tour you can see hundreds of species of fish and many other sea animals swimming around in their environments, whether it is the reefs of the Tropics, icy polar waters of the Southern Hemisphere or in precious Mediterranean biospheres, the aquarium has mastered the necessary conditions and succeeded in gathering all the marine species under the same roof! This underwater “Noah’s Ark” contains “only” about 450 species living in the 45 acclimatized tanks!!!

As I was walking through the glass tunnel underneath the water, with all the weird fish and other slimy creatures swimming around and above me in circles, it felt more as if it were US, the freaky non-aquatic humans, who were the objects of attention, than the reverse!

My absolute favorite that day inside the aquarium was definitely the orange plant-like sea horses with loads of twigs coming out of their bodies. How on earth can it be practical to swim around like that? But I guess it is better to struggle slightly in a funny disguise than to be eaten alive!? I think that this kind of visit is great, both for children and adults (and for childlike adults!) and you will definitely see another side of Barcelona, catching a glimpse of what is underneath the water. Maybe also curious knowledge for the next time you are swimming in the sea… Have a nice swim!

/Elin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 3:33 pm and is filed under General Barcelona, Other, Things to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.