Barcelona: "No tinc por" was the message Barcelona wanted to send on Friday, the day after terrorists struck the city.

"We are not afraid."

At midday thousands of locals - and curious tourists - gathered in the Plaza de Catalunya at the top of Las Ramblas, close to where the driver of a truck began his murderous attack the day before.

Security was high, with police improvising a cordon of bag-checks around the square.

Spain's king, president and other local dignitaries joined the crowd under a baking sun for a minute's silence, broken only by the buzz of police radios.

But the minute's silence was followed by several minutes of sustained, emphatic applause.

And then the chant began: "No tinc por."

A local explained what it meant. "We are not afraid," he said. "You cannot scare us."

And then the applause began again - it was a clear message of defiance, and a thank you to the police and emergency services who had been quick to the scene the night before.

A semblance of normality returned to Barcelona on Friday.

At the site of the attack, the only signs of the atrocity of the night before were some closed market stalls and two oases of flowers, candles, soft toys and messages, where people left their small, sad tributes to the dead.

Tourists queued in the sun at the Sagrada Familia cathedral, and packed into Las Ramblas.

But an Australian living in Barcelona said the thoroughfare was usually much busier. Many of the thousands of tourists in the city had decided today was a day to stay in their hotels and take a breath.

Among them was Alana Reader, 26, from Melbourne, who was in a shop on Las Ramblas when the attack began, and was caught up in the panic and fear.

Back at her hostel, she and the two friends she was travelling with had tried to sleep in, and were making no plans for the day.

Reader said the past 24 hours had felt unreal, and only now the adrenaline had faded was she dealing with what she had experienced.

They had been in a clothing store waiting for a friend who was still shopping when panicked people started running into the store and the security guards shut the front doors.

For a time it was not clear what was going on - some kept shopping, and staff kept serving.

But then it became clear that something was very wrong outside, Reader said.

"Out of nowhere hundreds of people turned and ran," she said. "I have never seen a group of people so terrified."

She and her friends sprinted to the back of the store and crouched behind a display, too frightened even to look out to see what was happening.

Using the store wi-fi, and asking nearby shoppers, they began to piece together what was going on.

After 20 minutes police told them to leave, but they didn't know where to go. It took them more than an hour to get back to their hostel on foot.

"The walk home was quite frightening," Reader said. "We were desperate to be somewhere safe. Every car door slam, every siren you jump at."

And a day later she is still mulling the "what ifs" - what if they had lingered just a few minutes longer in the market? What if they hadn't waited for their friend to finish shopping before going outside?

But Reader says she is determined to continue her European holiday, which began just over a week ago and will last to mid-November.

"Today we're going to take it easy and just rest," she said. "But we still want to see the rest of Europe.

"It's horrific, but you can't let it dictate your life."

She had not been at the noon ceremony - but she was echoing its message.

Fairfax Media