Greet the New Year in Barcelona

Barcelona offers a full range of options for saying “out with the old and in with the new.” If you feel like an evening out of doors you have the area around the Torre Agbar. This bullet-shaped tower, the last word in architectural modernity, has aroused quite a polemic and inspired not a few jokes due to its form which to many is reminiscent of a giant…well check out the attached Youtube and judge for yourself. And on New Year´s Eve there is a full sound and light show.
La Plaza Catalunya and the area around the Cathedral are more traditional places to gather, sing, shout and eat the twelve “uvas de la suerte”. You traditionally gulp down one grape with each of the twelve bells of midnight. If you get all twelve down in the allotted time you will have good luck for all twelve months. Eleven grapes, eleven months, and so on. And all is washed down with copious quantities of cava (Spanish champagne). The atmosphere is very “animado”: warm, friendly, and a bit raucus. Or you can go to “El pueblo español”, an open-air space with reproductions of iconic Spanish buildings, restaurants, bars of all kinds, and a huge party in la Plaza Central.
For those who prefer a quiet dinner most of Barcelona´s best restaurants such as old favorites Can Culleretes and Els Quatre Gats offer special menus which traditionally include two courses, various wines and cava as well as the usual New Year´s paraphernalia: paper hats, comfetti…
But for Catalans midnight is just the start of New Year´s Eve. The discos and bars are open all night long full of those wanting to keep the party going.