Stroll to the shady corner of the Ermità fountain, in the Serra de Collserola Natural Park; cross the Santa Fe beech forest to the Empedrat de Morou, in the Montseny Natural Park; or climb, skirting lakes, towards the Pica d’Estats, in the Alt Pirineu Natural Park. Catalonia's natural spaces offer excursions for all tastes and levels. However, a three-kilometer walk in Collserola and a demanding ascent in the Pyrenees have more in common than it seems: for the experience to be complete, both excursions begin long before lacing up your boots.Planning an outing is essential to enjoy it to the fullest. Knowing whether to book parking, check the weather conditions, choose a route suitable for the group's experience, or be aware of the regulations of a particularly vulnerable area makes all the difference. To facilitate this preparation, the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the support of the four provincial councils, has the espaisnaturals.cat portal, a website that gathers official information about the natural spaces of Catalonia. The space allows you to discover places, consult itineraries and routes, prepare your visit, and access recommendations on access, available activities, and the natural and cultural heritage of each area. It also helps you find out if there are temporary restrictions or if you need to make a reservation before arriving.The charm of a good route

Official itineraries are precisely one of the best entry points to the territory. In addition to offering routes adapted to different levels, they allow you to discover the points of interest of each space and advance with greater safety, while avoiding passage through sensitive habitats, private properties or areas where agricultural and livestock activities are carried out. Preparing yourself, following the indicated path and adapting the visit to each place are three simple gestures that benefit both the hiker and the environment.The cards for each route allow you to consult its distance, elevation gain, difficulty, starting point, and main attractions. This is particularly useful data when appearances can be deceiving. The walk to the Ermità fountain, for example, is less than three kilometers long and is suitable for a leisurely outing. The Empedrat de Morou itinerary is just over six kilometers long and takes you through the forests of the Santa Fe valley. The ascent to Pica d'Estats, on the other hand, exceeds eighteen kilometers and accumulates more than 1,600 meters of positive elevation gain: it is a high mountain route that requires experience and careful preparation.Consulting this information before leaving helps to calculate the necessary time, check if the route is suitable for the whole group, and prepare essential material. It also allows us to anticipate the places we will find: a fountain hidden among the vegetation, an old hermitage, a granite balcony, or the ponds that guard the path to the summit.

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The proposed project by the Barcelona City Council and the Catalan Government to build a Provincial Court building on the current "historic site" of the city (Passeig Lluís Companys, 1-5) is a complete absurdity. And it is absurd both in terms of its content and its procedure.

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The essence of the game is free playThat is, being able to decide who you want to play with, what you want to play, and when you want to play. And for this to be possible, it is necessary for adults to value play—which is not only a vital activity for children, but also a right recognized by the Convention on the Rights of the Child—and to provide the necessary conditions: time, adequate space, playmates, and autonomy to do so. Play is a source of physical and mental well-being, of learning, and has a positive impact on children's development. But the point is to play for play's sake. Play is a pleasurable activity in which the process is more important than the results. Productive lives, consumer activities, and other tasks and responsibilities that we adults have seem to extend into childhood, and we are gradually forgetting that children up to the age of 17 are still children and have the right to play. In fact, for 10- and 11-year-olds in Barcelona, ​​​​one of the areas of their lives that has been rated the lowest since 2017 is the amount of free time: half of them think they don't have enough.

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