A wonderful walk
Visiting Las Ramblas seems very common and unoriginal but, for many travelers, it is and always will be a wonderful walk. Even after many times, we keep being as fascinated as the first time we saw it.
Personally I got to know Barcelona and the Ramblas in 1976. At the time, Spain was Spain and Catalunya was less Catalunya than nowadays. To be honest, as foreigners visiting Barcelona, it is a little bit hard to understand you visit a place with a double personality. Today Barcelona is the heart of Europe, the favorite place for young people who come to live a cosmopolitan experience in an old and noble city.
This time I arrived in Barcelona by boat and I was amazed at the new building of the harbor, with hundreds of thousands visitors a year. I must say every time I visit the city it is more beautiful and has a better atmosphere for tourists. Yes, it's true it lost a little bit of this typical spirit you could only feel in Las Ramblas. Everything was unique, you could only see certain things there: the traditional people, the flowers, the painters and artists showing their work, the stands with fruits or other goods form the region, and, of course, the tourists throughly enjoying Spain.
Now it is more of an international, open-minded, diverse, original, alternative and funny atmosphere. You can bump into the famous human statues (mimes) representing the creative magic of the young, or groups of support or protests against cause X; art, culture, shops, food; today being a foreigner is the common factor share by most of the passers-by 24 hours a day.