Barcelona!

It’s almost a year ago since Tom and I went to Barcelona for a few days, so I’ve been reminiscing about what a great time we had and remembered that I actually wrote a blog post about our trip and never got round to posting it! So, here it is…

Tom and I went to Barcelona for a few days for a quick holiday and the opportunity to soak up some sun and sangria! We’d both visited Barcelona before with our families when we were a lot younger, but neither of us could really remember it and fancied going again for a proper look around.

Barcelona is the perfect location for a getaway – it has all the elements of a city break as well as a beach break, as it is on the coast and has some beautiful beaches. We went in early June and the temperature was in the mid to late twenties every day – just right for us and not unbearably hot for all the walking we did!

We booked to go for 4 nights – arriving in the evening and leaving in the evening meant we had 4 full days there. I’d definitely recommend going for this length of time (or possibly an extra day or two if you can) as there was so much to see and do. We had such a busy four days and did so much walking, you could easily spend another day there and spread out the sightseeing a bit more.

You can fly to Barcelona pretty cheaply; we flew with Monarch from Leeds Bradford for £29 each! Monarch unfortunately went out of business last year however you can also fly to Barcelona from Leeds with Jet2.

Accommodation wise, we stayed in a one bedroom apartment in the El Born region. El Born is right near the infamous Gothic Quarter and a short walk away from the beach (Barceloneta region). It’s a really old part of the city; full of authentic tapas bars and beautiful architecture.

On our first day we decided to get out and about and have a proper sightseeing day. And boy did we do that! We started by going to see the Arc de Triomf, which was only a 10 minute walk away from our apartment. I’m a big architecture geek so I loved seeing the Arc de Triomf. It’s basically a red brick version of the Paris landmark but a bit smaller. It was an impressive sight to see.

Next, we headed to the Gothic Quarter and saw the Catedral de Barcelona and walked down La Rambla (the most famous street in Barcelona). La Rambla was ridiculously busy! We had originally intended to go to the Bocqueria Market (just off of La Rambla) to grab some lunch but it was so busy we ended up just grabbing a quick sandwich and heading to the Ciutadella Park to sit down and eat.

We spent some time in Ciutadella Park after lunch and I’d really recommend going there. It was a really lovely area of the city with a beautiful fountain and a big pond where you could hire rowing boats. The park is also home to the Barcelona Zoo!

We then hopped on the Metro to the Eixample region of the city, to see some of Anthony Gaudi’s work. Again, as a big fan of architecture, this was high up on my list of things I wanted to do in Barcelona. Gaudi has such a huge presence in Barcelona – so much of his work is there and we managed to see a lot of it during our trip. First of all we went to see Casa Batllo, then on to La Pedrera / Casa Mila (I don’t think it was named after my niece…) and finally to La Sagrada Familia cathedral – probably the most famous landmark in Barcelona. It was amazing to see La Sagrada Familia up close, it’s such an impressive piece of work and Tom even said this was his favourite part of the trip. It’s crazy to think about how long ago it was that work began on the cathedral, and that it is still going on now! It is hoped that the project will be complete by 2026 – 100 years after the death of its creator, Gaudi.

After a packed first day, we headed back to the apartment to freshen up and went for dinner at a pizza restaurant called Via Margutta, which was about two streets down from us. We headed straight to bed after dinner to get a good nights’ sleep, ready for our second full day. We did so much walking on this first day; Tom’s phone counted our steps and estimated we had walked over 10 miles!

For our second day in Barcelona, it was also my birthday! Before we went away I’d already planned what I’d like to do for my birthday and that was to visit the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres. I’ve been a big fan of Dali’s work for years and it’s always been a dream of mine to visit the museum in his hometown. Dali designed the museum himself and is actually buried there too.

After having a quick breakfast we took a train to Figueres Vilafant from Barcelona Sants train station. I’d already booked our train tickets before we went away and chose to travel to Figueres Vilafant instead of the main station as it only took 50 minutes! It was then a short walk to the town centre. Both Tom and I were really impressed with the train journey – the train was so different to the ones we have in England, we really did feel like we were in first class (again, an even better first class than the English trains offer…).

Figueres is quite a small town and the Salvador Dali museum is pretty much the main attraction. The museum itself was amazing! So unlike any other art gallery I’ve been to before; so quirky and a little bit different. It was so good to see so many pieces of Dali’s work all in one place and such a treat for my birthday.

After the museum visit we headed back to the train station and travelled back to our apartment in Barcelona where I opened my birthday cards! I’d said to Tom that I wasn’t bothered about a particularly fancy evening meal for my birthday and all I wanted to do was walk to the beach and eat a burger (I’m easily pleased!). We went for dinner at Bacoa Burger and both ate burgers and chips on the beach as the sky was turning pink – just what I wanted. The burgers were so good, I’d definitely recommend Bacoa and especially the Barceloneta branch as you can sit outside right on the beach front.

We had a walk along the beachfront after dinner then headed back towards the apartment and had an ice cream as an after dinner treat.

On our third day we’d already booked activities ahead of the trip and in the morning we headed to Park Guëll on the Metro. Park Guëll is another piece of architecture designed by Gaudi – this time as a park that was intended to be a mini village within Barcelona but was never finished, so it is now a park open to the public. You do need to pay to get in here (about €7.50 each) and luckily we’d already bought tickets. Only a certain number of people are allowed into the park at a time (to try and control the crowds) and we wouldn’t have been able to go in if we hadn’t already bought our tickets.

We both loved Park Guëll. It was such an interesting place to walk around, with beautiful mosaics and quirky pillars everywhere. There was a great view of the Barcelona skyline too, once you’d got to the top, as well as a view of the entrance to the park which looked like two gingerbread houses.

   

For our next pre-planned activity we jumped back on the Metro to go do something that Tom had specifically wanted to do whilst we were in Barcelona – visit the Barcelona FC stadium. Tom’s a massive football fan (well, most sports really) so we booked tickets for the stadium tour at Camp Nou. I’m not a sports fan in any shape or form but I surprised myself and I did enjoy visiting Camp Nou. It was a really impressive stadium and you got to see so much of the behind the scenes areas too including the press room, the changing rooms and the commentary boxes. It was also quite staggering to see the trophy room and just how successful the team has been! (Although they did seem to be a bit obsessed with that Messi bloke, his name was everywhere!)

For our last night in Barcelona we decided to go out for some traditional Spanish tapas. We went to a little restaurant not far from our apartment called Celler de la Ribera and it was amazing. Tapas is now my favourite food – I even woke up the next day still thinking about that meal. On our last night we also decided to stay out and have a few drinks and ended up at a bar called Numero Nueve, so we had drinks Inside Number 9 (for anyone that is a fan of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton then you will understand how this amused us).

On our last day we didn’t need to get to the airport until later in the afternoon so decided to spend the day doing the things we hadn’t already had chance to do, as well as going back to a few favourite places. So we started the day with croissants at Alsur Café (if we ever go back to Barcelona I need to go back to this café and order the red velvet waffles!) then headed to La Rambla to look in some shops. We ended up having a good walk along the Port Vell marina and looking at some of the expensive boats before heading back into the centre for some tapas for lunch. After a bit more exploring in the Gothic Quarter, we started to make our way back to the airport for our flight home later that evening.

  

So, there you have it – our 4 day trip to Barcelona (or 3 and a half, as our last day was pretty chilled out waiting for our flight home). We had such a good time, but definitely felt like we needed another holiday to get over it once we were home! We’d just fit so much into the days we had there and managed to see a lot, so were very tired by the end of it! I loved Barcelona, and would definitely go back there again.

I’ve listed a few of our favourite places that we visited and ate at, for anyone who may be interested to know. As well as a few hints and tips for anyone who may be planning a trip to Barcelona:

Sights we visited / things we did: 

• Arc de Triomf – the Spanish equivalent of the Paris landmark
• Catedral de Barcelona – not quite as famous as Gaudi’s cathedral but still as brilliant
• Ciutadella Park – a really big park which is home to the Barcelona Zoo and generally a really nice place to sit, relax or eat a picnic
• Casa Batllo – a house designed by Gaudi where you can pay to go inside
• Casa Mila (La Predera – a house designed by Gaudi where you can pay to go inside
• Sagrada Familia – Gaudi’s most famous piece of work. Again, you can pay to go inside here (would book ahead for this)
• Salvador Dali Museum – not in Barcelona but a 50 minute train ride away. Amazing museum for any Dali fan, full of Dali’s work
• Barceloneta beach – one of Barcelona’s beaches
• Park Guell – Gaudi’s park, definitely worth a visit (and definitely book ahead)
• Camp Nou – the stadium for Barcelona Football Club (sign up to become an official fan on the website (it’s free) and receive 10% discount when booking tickets)
• Maremagnum shopping centre – big shopping centre right on the Port Vell marina

Recommended places to eat:

• Via Margutta – pizza restaurant right near our apartment (El Born region)
• Bacoa burger – Spanish burger chain, amazing burgers!
• Celler de la Ribera – tapas restaurant in the El Born region
• Numero Nueve – really nice bar in El Born
• Alsur Café – great breakfast menu (there are 3 of these across the city) I really want to try the waffles!

Other hints and tips:

• Do some research on Barcelona before getting there – I found this really worthwhile as it helped us plan what to do each day and to get the most out of our time,
• Use Pinterest – such a useful tool for compiling a list of things to do and see, as well as inspiration for photographs,
• Buy a T-10 travel card for the Metro – we bought one for €9.95 each (now €10.20). You get 10 journeys on the Metro (within Zone 1, which is pretty much the whole of Barcelona city centre) and can even use it to travel to and from the airport on the R2 Renfe train. It’s valid for 7 days and you can use it on buses and it saves loads of money!
• Download the CityMapper app on your phone – I downloaded this before we went away and it came in so handy for navigating the Metro or figuring out which route was the best to take.
• We both agreed the Metro in Barcelona is the best underground system we’ve been on so far. It was really easy to navigate, the trains were air-conditioned and it was great value when using the T-10 card.

I hope you’ve found this useful or interesting to read – if you’ve been to Barcelona before I’d love to hear about your time there or see your photographs!

Thank you for taking the time to read what I have to say and please share my blog with your family and friends if you’ve liked what you’ve read!

H x