Barcelona –
In the cosmopolitan city of Barcelona are a lot of Dutch hotel and catering industry entrepreneurs. Most of them opened today the doors of their pubs again, after yesterday’s locks.
Vincent van Leeuwen is owner of café Amarre, on the Paseo Joan de Borbo, the road from the port to the beach. He also closed yesterday for 18 hours, the case.
“My brother Erik and I have a case: Rembrandt. That is a little further from the centre, but which we have also closed. For the simple fact that we have football broadcast. And we thought: we can take it to the city of Barcelona will not sell that today we are cheering people in our café. That’s what we don’t.”
“Today is a new day. We are just opened again. I have no fear, be careful. The whole city is today a minute has been quiet, there was a meeting at Plaça de Catalunya. The people are angry, sad, but not broken. That’s really nice to see: and solidarity reign. You’ll also see that people volunteer in hospitals, to give blood, or to help. All people: locally, internationally, they add together. In a city where people sometimes opposite of each other, is that nice to see.”
“No, I don’t think tourism is going to decline. The first month maybe. But every big city runs such a risk, it is a bit of a roulette, or a lottery: how you say that. Here We have months and months of anti-terror units seen – and yet this is happening. You can there is little meaningful about say. But the town comes back on!”
Luuk Mande, 53 years old, owner of Bar Ke on the main square of Barcelona: “I have not a very different feeling now than I would have if the attack in another city, had happened. We were already in a state of heightened terrorist threat – and Barcelona is an attractive target: a city full of tourists. So in that respect, you could almost wait. Fortunately, there are no personal friends or acquaintances of mine involved, I hope of course that it stays that way. I got my bar yesterday it closed because my staff wanted. No, I was not, I do not think that there is a greater risk of an attack than otherwise. And I think that for people is fine, to come together in your tribe or neighborhood bar, and then together. The (additional) threat was, in my eyes, so not real, but the fear of my staff – so I paid and am close to gone. Today we are open again. What I actually especially minds: why were there no posts on the Ramblas? The newspapers write that the authorities/mayor Colau that is not wanted. If that is true, then that is a very bad thing.”