Safety tips and my experiences -----https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/general/safety/barcelona-safety.html
Well it almost happened to me today.
We were on the bus 92 towards Park Guell to visit the famous monument. I was standing in the bus and this guy tried to nudge near me. Sooner or later I felt a little pull in my pocket as my cell phone was in there. I looked into the guy and he quickly pulled the hand that had touched my pocket.
Good catch! Do you have a credit card and extra cash in a money belt under your clothes?
Yes valuables, including money and credit card are under the cloth, but I need the cell phone to communicate.
It was a lot of fun to be at the Paella cooking lesson, had a lot of Sangria to boot.
Any tricks you can pass on? I remember the paella as being less “loaded” with veggies, seafood, etc than many of the restaurants here. I think you mentioned this also. Any explanations from your class? is this the authentic version, or just my bad luck in choosing a restaurant?
Paella tips, please!
The class we took was the least expensive one at US40 from here
https://m.viator.com/things-to-do/Barcelona/562-6-19-1-0/Cooking-Classes.htm
Will publish the all seafood recipy upon returning. Too hard to type into the cell phone.
Monserrat is beautiful you should try to take a trip there if you have the time.
Today is the Catalonia day, everyone has a day off and flags are flying everywhere.
I agree. We loved Montserrat. Well worth the trip!
For the last 10 days we went to over 20 restaurants mostly in the “old town” area, of all we think La Bona Sort is the best.
I am back in the States. I have to complain about the Oakland airport US Custom procedures, they were very tedious and inefficient. The SFO processes are more streamlined and much faster. To Start, OAK does not have a “Global Entry” processing capability, perhaps it is because of its size. Also, they do not have enough agent to process any volume, if there were two flights arriving, it might take HOURs to process the passengers, it took us 2 hours to go through and it is for only one 787.
First of all, here is the paella recipe as promised
http://travelbar.com/paella-recipe/
For the last few days in Barcelona, we took a gondola ride on to the Mountmoji and took a walk in the old fort, it has the best view of the port and the city. Well worth it.
Also, we took a side trip to Girona, but did not visit Figueres for Dali Museum which is the next stop on the same train. Girona’s old town is very interesting, lots of walking nevertheless.
We did not go to a lot of museums, for those who wish to be museum hopping, the “Barcelona Card” is a good choice. It will let you to enter almost all the museums in Barcelona and provide all you can ride subway/bus fare plus the bus or train ride to and from the airport.
All in all, you need strong legs and comfortable shoes to visit Barcelona, most of the time, we have to walk around, hiking or up and down the subway steps.
At the end, we took a taxi to the airport, we asked the taxi driver, is shopping always that expensive in Spain? He said, no, it is where we were in the tourist districts that they charge exorbitant for everything and they really do not care for the quality, as you will not come back any time sooner. In the regular market, you will pay much less and Spain is a great country for retirement, if language is not a problem.
Thanks for the updates and recipe, @artloversplus. I appreciate the detailed instructions, my paella technique is sort of hit or miss with associated results. This will help.
@artloversplus and Barcelona travelers … can you make any suggestions on finding leads for a September 4- night rental (VRBO, flipkey etC) for three couples?
DH and I were in Barcelona in 2012 one night pre-cruise, one night after. We stayed at Hotel Continental on Las Rambles near Placa de Catalunya, recommended in Rick Steves book. . That was lovely and included free 24 hour breakfast foods (and wine and icecream). It is pricier now, and this time we will be 4 nights and have two other couples as travel companions, So we think an apartment in a central neighborhood would be nice. Ideally it would have 3 bedrooms and multiple bathrooms. The Eixample neighborhood has been recommend, but we are open minded to other options. Some places are near the beach - that might work.
We stayed in the Old Town area near the Picasso Museum and it was wonderful at night. Plenty of people walking the street, walking distance to La Rambla. We booked through booking.com, its a bit pricey, but the condo we had was adequate for three of us. We walked in the Eixample area during the day, but it does not have the same feeling as the narrow streets of old town with those old fashioned street light.
Wow - thanks for the quick response. Here is one I’m looking at tonight. It would $103/couple per night … and it has decent reviews. However the area may be noisier than we’d like. https://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p8459985
Here’s the place we picked for our late Sept vacation (recommended to me in an earlier post.). Great location, great apartment for 6 people - https://www.habitatapartments.com/en/barcelona/apartment/view/rambla-deluxe-A.htm
Glad to answer questions.