Are the words written in a large yellow font draped across the blue stadium seats. Today while the girls decided to do their ´thang´ window shopping, girl chat, etc., Brad and I decided to see Camp Nou. The home of FC Barcelona. The museum of Camp Nou has grown to become one of the most visited museums in Europe and arguably the most visited in Spain. Being in Spain we thought we would take the opportunity, which Brad and I both knew would be an experience we wouldn´t have the chance to do again. That is unless we become millionaires and have money to burn to fly half way round the world to visit. I couldn´t imagine flying all the way back to Barcelona once we arrive back in Australia.
At the moment it´s the sort of city that once I´ve seen I´d rather explore more uncharted territories that I have yet to see. Walking through the entrance of Camp Nou you begin to notice the high stature by which this city prides it´s team. It´s team and players are placed upon such a high pedestal that they´re looked upon as mythological gladiators of the ancient roman era. Surrounding the stadium are 5 meter high flags of players from the team defining their stature.
There´s a 13 Euro entrance fee to enter the stadium, which is well worth it for die hard soccer fans or for mediocre fans like myself, I found it well rewarding.
The Apparent Team Locker Room
The first major highlight of the tour takes visiters through ´The Team Locker Room´. Reading of this room on the brochure there is an ideal image in your mind in which you create. Players by the names of Ronaldinhio, Messi, Henry, Puyol, can literally walk on the field for a game and can get paid hundreds of thousands of Euros for a game. Players worthy of multi-million dollar contracts both on and off the field. With such unbelievably high salaries one would expect the team´s locker room to be laced in marble, showers shining with granite mosaic tiled walls, massage beds fitted with industry leading cushion technologies that you see on late night telesales advertisements. A locker room in which kings and royalty would use after games with the amount of stature these players are held at. Instead you walk into a run down locker room with tiled walls almost dirty and identical to that you see in run down subways. It looked like a locker room that was last used during the 1950´s.
From there we walked down the players tunnel until we reached the pitch. Walking through the tunnel one can begin to envisage the roar of 1ooooo people at full strength for the Champions League or major Spanish League matches.
Standing on the side of the pitch it was a grate opportunity to absorb the size of the stadium, and to feel like a soccer player for a few minutes of your life looking up at the seating.
We gradually made our way up through to the VIP and to the box seating areas. If only walking through or selecting a seat during real games was this easy. If you are go to the Camp Nou website starting prices for games against lower ranking teams begin at 30 Euros. These seats will allocate you way at the back where players will appear to be like rice pebbles running on the field. Once you start looking at the price for Real Madrid or Champion League games then that’s an entirely different money quadrant.
Eventually making our way through the historical museum this is the area in which visitors really begin to appreciate how successful and influential this team really is. Taking you through historical periods of soccer from the early 20th century through to todays era, FCB has cemented its name as one of the greatest sporting teams in the world in any team sport. There are glass displays of winning trophies that seem to montage entire walls that really define how deep the history and strength is of the team.
Not being a die hard soccer fan like a majority of Englishman after the days tour of FCB I have been converted. If you are to visit Barcelona then Camp Nou is a must see even for non soccer fans.
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