Leaving this week for Barcelona!

I'm curious about this too. We won't be there till late January. Let me know how your trip went.

My wife and I were on a RS tour that started in Barcelona on 14 October. We arrived several days earlier. There were some demonstrations but nothing violent or disruptive. While in Spain, we heard that Barcelona tourism was down about 15% but I don't have any references to cite. It was just news comments. Personally, I'd still do if on a trip scheduled for next week but I'd be especially observant of potential bad situations. My wife would be going silly with concern on going at all. Take your pick.
For what it's worth, I'd go to Barcelona for the standard tourist visit this week rather than walking around some areas of Houston (even in daylight).

I'm not there now, but I would caution to keep up on current events and be alert to the possibility of transportation problems while there such as street closures, demonstrations by either separatists or unionists, and metro closures. Be alert, adult, non-political, and enjoy your visit. Barcelona is a generally peaceful and enjoyable city. Great food and architecture.

At least neither side in Catalunya is targeting the United States! We finished our trip to Spain/Catalunya in Barcelona, returning home on Friday the 27th. I regret the energy I wasted worrying about what might happen while we were there. The demonstration on October 21st disrupted our walk to the Block of Discord, but we survived!

My general impression was that neither side really wants to disrupt tourism and that this is their issue, not ours. As Americans, we are so used to public demonstrations turning into riots that we just assume it is going to happen whenever people assemble.

We stayed in the Eixample, a bit removed from the activity of the Ramblas, and that was great for us. We walked to everything we wanted to see, except for Park Guell. We did take cabs back to the hotel a few times.