An amazing tour, the highlight of my trip to Barcelona. The tour is fascinating for both those with... read more
An amazing tour, the highlight of my trip to Barcelona. The tour is fascinating for both those with... read more
I can’t recommend this tour enough. Nick brings to life a complicated episode of history and... read more
Absolutely outstanding tour - history in it's most vivid form! I recommend this tour to anyone with an interest in history in general and, of course, in european and spanish history. You will love it!
My daughter Maddy and I arranged a trip to Barcelona around this tour, having read stellar reviews, and feeling that it was the best thing in Barcelona to meet our requirements of in-depth study of the city's role in the Civil War. It did not disappoint. Particular highlights include standing outside the buildings that were instrumental in Orwell's book; Nick's enthusiasm and passion for his subject which were infectious to our group; being able to handle and learn stories from actual artefacts from the war; the coffee and lunch break in authentic Spanish cafes (which were in themselves a little like stepping back into history); and overall, emerging after five hours of 'teaching' with the feeling that we had visited a living museum and gained so much more than a usual museum visit. For me it re-ignited my passion for the subject which I studied 20 years ago at university - for my daughter, it helped her to learn more on a topic that is quickly becoming one of her passions.
An exceptional dive into the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona and the conflict's continuing reverberations today. Nick Lloyd is a fantastic teacher!
I cannot recommend this highly enough. My wife and I took this tour in Barcelona a month ago, and I think about it every day.
Before we went, we had only a vague sketch in our heads of the history of the Civil War, and Nick was brilliant at explaining the complex and tangled history. He expertly uses photographs, stories, and the city itself, and gets you to imagine the drama and tension happening right where you are standing.
The tour may be five hours but you'll wish it went longer and won't believe it is over. You'll really feel you have gotten to know these heroic men and women—both the individuals whose stories Nick tells, and the millions of courageous people who fought for justice and equality—and learning their fates is a genuinely tragic and heart-wrenching experience.
I can't exactly say that the Spanish Civil War is a story that ends on a happy note. But the stories you'll hear will inspire you to make a real difference in the world.
I admit it, the price caused me to pause before booking this tour. I'm so glad I overcame my frugality. In this case, you do get what you pay for...and much, much more. Catherine led the tour of six people, two Germans and four from the U.S. Her love of Barcelona and its history are quite contagious. Each of us left a good deal more knowledgeable about the Civil War than we were when we started the tour.
As Catherine explained what happened in Plaza Catalunya on the day of the attempted coup in 1936, a very real workers' protest march stepped down Las Ramblas just steps away. As our guide got to the fiery climax of that important day, the demonstrators set off firecrackers and hundreds of birds rose up and turned the Plaza into a scene from Hitchcock's, "The Birds," just as they probably did at the sound of gunfire in 1936. There is something about being in "el lugar de los hechos" that makes history come alive, and this tour makes Barcelona in the 1930s come very much alive.
As important as being there, for example, where Stalin's NKVD captured Andreu Nin in 1937, was Catherine's enthusiasm for and knowledge of her subject. She is a professional historian who curates her tour, rather than merely presenting it. The commitment to curation has meant putting a lot of time into thinking about how to capture the imagination of her visitors.
I had walked through the "Square of the Unknown Militia Fighter" at least a dozen times before Catherine pointed out the faded lettering that still marks that special spot today. Visitors to Barce in 2018 can see the commemoration only because a neighbor had the foresight to cover it with a wooden sign as the darkness of Francoism came over Barcelona at the war's end. Only after Franco's death did someone take down the board and reveal what is now one of the few remaining signs of an amazing time in the city's history.
Aware that five hours is a long time to wander around Barcelona, the organizers have programmed in two stops along the tour's way. Of course, here the two stops must be in cafe's, one in the Raval neighborhood, where the cafe owner has created a second- floor display of civll war propaganda, and the other between Raval and Poble Sec, another of the neighborhoods in which Spanish anarchism flourished at the beginning of the last century. At both stops, we looked over photos and handled artifacts of the war collected by Catherine and her tour partner, Nick, and heard more stories of the narrow passages we had traveled.
The tour also does a great job of connecting civil war history with the resurgence of Catalán nationalism today, and public fears about where current relations between Barcelona and Madrid might be heading. The civil war story renders those fears quite understandable. Catherine, allowed her customers to come to our own conclusions about what the painful history of the 1930s might mean for all of those with signs in their Barcelona windows about freedom for political prisoners.
I did find myself wondering how a Barcelones would tell the tale. Obviously, it depends: The historical "objectivity" to which Catherine aspires is understandably difficult for people who have always called the place home. But the fact that Catherine is from Galway, not Gracia, does not take away from a tour that is, for the guides and the participants, much more than another stroll through the Gothic Quarter..
1936-39 was a pivotal moment in Barcelona's history. This tour offers you a window on that time that you'll enjoy looking through, regardless of why you find yourself in one amazing city.
An in-depth and tangible examination of a mostly buried chapter in history, as exciting as it is brutal, which makes it unlike any other touristic endeavour in the city. Well worth the time and investment for anyone. For those who take an interest in politics: it is not possible to understand much of contemporary politics in Barcelona and Spain without being in possession of the information which has been ably concentrated into this extensively researched tour.