In my previous posting, lots of you chipped in with information from Baltics and Greece, but our plan has changed, D would like to visit Barcelona in depth for 10 days. So we have purchased airfare and booked airbnb in downtown Barcelona where the owner told us Tapas is the best on that street.
Obviously lots can be done in 10 days. Picasso & Dali, Montserrat, Andorra, Tapas, The architectures, Flamenco, Gaudi’s Casa, Bike Tour… etc.
Like to hear from your personal experiences, the good the bad and the ugly.
TIA.
When are you going artloversplus? I will be there August 18-23. There is a week long festival that starts shortly before I arrive and ends around the 23rd in the Garcia district.
My whole family really enjoyed a guided walking tour called the Spanish Civil War Tour. It was very informative and fascinating. The cost was about $25 and it was totally worth it. It is led by a really dedicated, knowledgeable guide. You can find it on trp advsr or ylp.
I love Gaudi’s Casa Batlo and Park Guell. Not a big fan of La Sagrada Familia (too much of a hodge podge, architecturally; Gaudi died before its completion). I also enjoyed the beaches and restaurants at Barceloneta. Finally, it’s fun to just walk around the Barri Gotic at night; all the shops and restaurants stay open until very late. Ooh, La Rambla is cool too!
We went to Barcelona this spring for 9 days and it was wonderful. The city is interesting, the architecture is beautiful and the food is wonderful and relatively inexpensive. We mostly did non-touristy things – while Park Guell and Sagrada Familia were cool, they weren’t our favorite parts. Avoid Las Ramblas (ridiculously crowded and touristy and lots of pickpockets).
I also loved taking a day trip to Girona by train. Tip – go to the local department store’s travel agency (El Corte Ingles) to purchase train tickets (as it’s much more straight-forward). There is a high speed train that travels between the 2 cities in about 37 minutes.
I’m surprised, @blackeyedsusan. We found La Rambla interesting for the street performers, the long tree-lined walkway, the al fresco restaurants, and the La Boqueria market. We walked away from La Rambla with our wallets still in place. Kinda hard to see how you can go to Barcelona and not at least walk awhile on La Rambla. The Champs-Elysees is crowded and touristy too, but when in Paris, well…
I just returned from Barcelona after completing the Camino de Santiago. Barcelona is very busy and crowded so not exactly my cup of tea. (Santiago de Compostela and Pamplona were much nicer in my opinion). But the Gaudi house, Casa Botio was interesting. Parc Guell was disappointing as it wasn’t as extensive as I’d been lead to believe. Just a small park. I did enjoy the Picasso Museum and the Barrio Gotic. Las Ramblas was just crowded and filled with stands selling touristy junk. The markets were very interesting particularly Santa Caterina (which is near the Picasso Museum). It wasn’t as crowded or touristy as the Boqueria.
But the highlight was definitely the Sagrada Familia. The light coming in the stained glass windows lit the place up in rainbows.
The Miro museum was hands-down one of the best museums I’ve ever visited – the audio tour is fabulous.
Visit Las Ramblas once, hold onto your bag very tightly (I do know someone whose pocketbook with passport was stolen) – and then move onto other areas.
Barcelonetta is worth a few hours. We rented bikes and rode up and down the beach, and then had paella at an outdoor cafe.
All the Gaudi buildings are worth visiting – I walked in Parc Guell every day (our apartment was near there) and loved every minute.
Another fabulous day trip is to Montserrat. Fascinating location, great hike, easy to get to.
Barcelona does have a different accent, plus a bit of Catalan mixed in. But still very easy to get around. We walked and took the metro (husband almost had his wallet pick pocketed). We did a 2 week home exchange and really enjoyed it, though August was hot. Saw all of the obvious Gaudi sites. Loved the Miro Museum in the Montjuïc area (also fun to walk around Montjuïc Castle, which is a fort) Our girls were younger so we went to the Tibidabo Amusement park whichis on a mountain overlooking Barcelona. Did a day trip to Montserrat, which was fabulous. Day Trip to Girona. Day trip to Sitges beach. Long weekend to Llafranc beach town. Stopped at the Dali Museum (fabulous). Great trip:)
No. Catalan is a language in its own right. It does not derive from Spanish, or even from French, even though many people say that Catalan sounds like a mixture of both. Catalan evolved directly from common Latin. This of course explains Catalan’s similarities of vocabulary and grammar with French, Spanish and even Italian, because all of these languages fall under the so-called Romance languages, which branched out from Latin."
"So which is spoken in Barcelona - Catalan or Castilian Spanish?
Both. In Barcelona, 98% of the population speaks Castilian Spanish. About 50-60% of Barcelona’s total population speaks Catalan. Some of the Catalan speakers speak it as a first language, and Castilian Spanish to them is considered a ‘second language’. Some Catalan speakers consider Spanish their first language, and Catalan the second. In a very small number of cases, Catalan speakers speak no other languages at all, not even Spanish."
Love reading all of this as DD, MIL, and I are headed there for a couple of days in early August (DH can’t get away from work, oh well, we’ve promised him lots of postcards) before going to Madrid. Our trip includes the Dali museums in Figueres and Portlligat. Will report back here about what we learn.
Just wanted to chime in that my D just did a couple of weeks backpacking Spain and fell in love with Barcelona. It was her favorite spot of the four locals she visited including Sevilla and Madrid (I can’t remember the 4th at the moment). So much so that she is planning to go back and spend more significant time. Have a blast!
I just wanted to thank everyone who had some input. We head to Spain and Portugal for our first European trip this fall. Start and end in Barcelona. (Dumb move on my part…booked in and out in same city while under the influence of anesthesia from surgery…I blame my kid and my husband for letting me on the internet!) We have some great places booked to stay…now trying to figure out the rest. Would love any recommendations outside of housing since that is set. We will be in Barcelona for a total of 8 nights…6 full days because of flights.
Book any of the things you want to see ahead of time, especially Gaudi places, if you can.
We also visited the Olympic grounds in Barcelona and found them interesting. At the Magic Fountain, near there, they have a light show on certain nights. It gets crowded.
We always think the double decker bus tours are a good thing. Yes, touristy. But they take you around and you can get on and off with a day pass. Kind of like a subway pass. Pay one price and on and off wherever they go all day.