Sants is the district most visitors only ever see as a train platform, which is their loss, because it hides the most surreal park in Barcelona and a high street that simply refuses to end. Three kilometres in the afternoon, from the dragon slide to the longest run of shopfronts in the city.
Start at Barcelona Sants and walk straight into the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial — a 1980s reimagining of an old textile site, with a stepped boating lake and ten lighthouse towers standing guard like something from a stage set. The Drac de Sant Jordi, the giant black dragon whose tail is a slide, is the park's heart; ride it if the queue's short and your dignity's flexible.
Inland, Plaça d'Osca is where Sants exhales — terraces, plane trees, neighbours. Drop down to the Mercat de Sants for the daily shop, then join Carrer de Sants, the high street that locals will tell you is one of Europe's longest. It's ordinary in the best way: awnings, family shops, no performance. End at Plaça de Sants and the metro, the shopfronts trailing off behind you.
