History buffs can stroll through the Barri Gotic, an old, historic quarter with windy back-alleys that now house cool, little West-Village style boutiques. Shoppers can head to the pricy boutiques on the Diagonol, or head for Catalunya Playa or La Rambla... major thoroughfares that house everything from the most famous Brand names to huge shopping malls to your run of the mill souvenir shops. For beach bums, the beaches, although we only saw them on our one sunny day, looked clean and the water didn't look too rough. For those interested in architecture, well, our next destination, Prague, might be the only place in Europe that can rival the architecture of Barcelona! For foodies, if you can afford it, Barcelona has got it. We ate everything from tapas to seafood and it was all yummy.
All in all, we've decided that we're going to have to give Barcelona another go in the near future, and hopefully the weather will cooperate a bit more than it did this past week. Having it rain on you for 6 out of your 8 days in any city is not the way to spend a vacation.
Top Destinations:
- La Sagrada Familia: This church is going to be phenomenal when it is finished (scheduled for 2025). The architecture exemplifies Gaudi's genius (or madness!), and the building already towers over the city even without the central dome!
- Park Guell: A beautiful park with breathtaking views of the city all the way to the ocean. Not to be missed.
- La Padrera: All the Gaudi sites were great, but this tour was the most informative when it comes to Gaudi's vision and sources of inspiration. The tour in Casa Batllo cost more than the one in La Padrera (15 Euros per person), and wasn't close to being as enlightening.
Top Likes:
- Mass Transit!: Similar to other European cities, the Metro in Barcelona was amazing. Easy to use, cheap, convenient, and reliable. We took 3 cabs the entire 8 days we were in town... two to go back and forth from the airport with our luggage, and another one on a late evening when we were still out after the Metro stopped running.
- People: The people of Barcelona are amazing... warm, kind, patient, and thoughtful with their advice. People were quick to help us and everyone we ran into was so willing to help!
Top Dislikes:
- Muy Caro: If you want to hang out in Barcelona and have a good time, you better come to town with some serious coin in your pocket. We knew it was the most expensive city in Spain when we booked our tickets, but it turned out to be worse than we expected! Yikes!
Here's some parting shots of Barcelona...
Peep the architecture!...
The Barcelona Cathedral getting some much-needed TLC...
The inside of the Barcelona Cathedral...
Barceloneta Beach...
Not only were the subways great, but they had huge vending machines selling everything from tampons to Mars bars!
Adios for now! We're off to Prague where we're looking forward to seeing the Old Quarter, the Prague Castle, the famous Astronomical Clock, and more beautiful architecture. Not to mention what we now find out has the world's best beer... even better than Germany's!
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