Barcelona

Barcelona where the Sangria flows and the Paella is plentiful.

We arrived in Barcelona late in the evening and made our way to our hotel – Hotel Curious. I liked this hotel for its name whereas Z actually read the reviews and chose it based on those. This hotel is centrally located in an area known as La Rambla and was only about a block from the main street. La Rambla is the place to be; it’s a 1.25 km pedestrian boulevard lined with restaurants, bars, shops , flower stands and thousands of people walking around. There is also an amazing market where you can find everything from fresh fruit and fruit juices to fresh meats, cheeses, stinky sea food, candies and more. This street is alive from morning to the wee hours of the morning with people of all ages. Something that struck me as so different from back home was that you see little children out late at night with their parents and nothing seemed unusual about it here.

After our very long journey, Z figured I needed a little “down” time, so he found a great beach for us to hang out for the day. We took a train 1 hour north to a place called Canet de Mar, somewhat off the beaten track. The train ticket was inexpensive at $6.80 Euro round trip for the both of us. We were told that the beaches north of Barcelona had nicer water than in the city. We arrived in the town and found a lunch spot where we ran into a “local” originally from France who said that not many foreign tourists make it this far and she was surprised to hear English. This beach was worth the trip. While the beach itself was a fine pebble beach instead of sand, the water was absolutely great. The Mediterranean Sea was a little cool, but refreshing and great to swim in. The beach was not crowded whatsoever with only locals around. We spent the afternoon into early evening just chilling at the beach before the
clouds started to take over the sky.

On day 2, we walked around the city exploring different neighbourhoods and sites. Given our short stay, we purposefully decided to skip museum visits and instead take the city in on foot. This day wasn’t the best in terms of weather; it started out raining, but stopped as we started our exploration. As we stopped in at a little cafe and ordered our cafe de leche, the sky opened up and it poured for a good 15 minutes. Seems no matter where we
travel, we can’t seem to avoid the rain.

One thing about Barcelona that we both thought was great, is that every street you turn down there is usually something there waiting to be discovered. We found many neat plazas by just taking a turn off a main street and walking down what looked like an alley. There is no shortage of eateries in Barcelona and the selection of food is quite diverse. Eating outside on the restaurant patios is the thing to do and this allows for some good people
watching opportunities.

The city has a diverse mix of architectural styles ranging from Gothic to Modernisme to Contemporary. One of the biggest influences on the city’s architecture was Antoni Gaudi. One of his most famous projects is the still unfinished La Sagrada Familia, a church that when finally complete can accommodate 40,000 people. This is definitely a site to see, and while we didn’t venture inside due to the massive queue of people, the facade is truly spectacular and should not be missed.

This evening was capped off with a Flamenco show. For $23 Euro each, we were entertained by a live Flamenco show that lasted an hour. The show was spectacular and well worth seeing. We caught the early show, so afterwards with the evening still being so young we hopped on the Metro to go see La Font Magica. These famous fountains put on a spectacular light and music show in the summer (much like the water fountain show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas). The shows run every 15 minutes Thursdays through Sundays from 9:30 to 11:30pm. Again I was surprised to see the number of families out with small children watching the shows after 9:30pm. It was a great way to cap off our day.

The weather was looking much better for day 3 so we decided another beach day was in order.