Barcelona has it all, we discovered this long weekend. The ocean, a thriving city, ancient streets and modern areas. Plus, really good food everywhere you go. And that was just our impression after four days!
Sure, touristy tapas restaurants and brightly lit bodegas were a plenty, but you can avoid them and easily find good restaurants and plenty to do.
Before we left, we were constantly warned about the plentiful pickpockets and it was hard not to constantly worry about them as were were walking around the very crowded areas - it was a holiday weekend here in Europe; Toussaint in France, Los Santos in Spain or All Saints. We were lucky and didn’t have any experience with them. I kept my purse close to my body and zipped at all times, and David left his wallet in the safe and only carried cash and some cards in his front pocket. It worked for us.
That's not the only thing we got lucky with ...
We had perfect weather for our trip, despite my father’s repeated warnings about the rain (in Spain falls mainly on the plain). It was in the 60s and sunny everyday. Great for early November.
AND we had fabulous restaurant karma, which never happens to us. We arrived at restaurants and were immediately seated every time. And often a large amount of people would enter just behind us. Though, some of this could be attributed to not eating at standard Spanish meal times. I picked highly rated spots but because we’d often show up at opening, like 8pm for dinner, it wasn’t a problem. (Typical Spanish dinner time is 10pm).
The Catalan language was interesting to me, as there were some signs in both languages, and some in just one or the other, and still other signs in Spanish, Catalan and English. Catalan is very close to Spanish and some words I could figure out. But most people spoke to us in English which just about everyone knew.
Overall the city gave us a San Diego vibe, which we liked. We talked about how different it would have been if we had been relocated to sunny Barcelona instead of Paris. Would we have been happier? How different would our daily lives be? Alice was sure she’d have been happier in a city with a beach.
I’d come back to visit some of the neighborhoods further from center that sounded interesting. Maybe even give Gaudi a proper go. We noticed a few buildings and spent 10 minutes at the Sagrada Familia, maybe he’d grow on me with some further appreciation.
On a side note: we're noticing that it's getting harder to travel with our emerging preteens. They’re either making funny videos or happily taking selfies of the monuments, or they’re grumbling about the amount of walking, the plans ("what's that? I've never heard of it") and being tired (“when are we going to find something fun to do.”) With a bunch of travel coming up, as we take advantage of short flights from. Pairs, this is going to get old very fast. Is there a way to accelerate this growth process?
Want more of the details of our trip? Here's the post where I did a day-by-day with links to all the places and restaurants we visits.
Related posts:
More Travel posts
Sure, touristy tapas restaurants and brightly lit bodegas were a plenty, but you can avoid them and easily find good restaurants and plenty to do.Before we left, we were constantly warned about the plentiful pickpockets and it was hard not to constantly worry about them as were were walking around the very crowded areas - it was a holiday weekend here in Europe; Toussaint in France, Los Santos in Spain or All Saints. We were lucky and didn’t have any experience with them. I kept my purse close to my body and zipped at all times, and David left his wallet in the safe and only carried cash and some cards in his front pocket. It worked for us.
That's not the only thing we got lucky with ...
We had perfect weather for our trip, despite my father’s repeated warnings about the rain (in Spain falls mainly on the plain). It was in the 60s and sunny everyday. Great for early November.AND we had fabulous restaurant karma, which never happens to us. We arrived at restaurants and were immediately seated every time. And often a large amount of people would enter just behind us. Though, some of this could be attributed to not eating at standard Spanish meal times. I picked highly rated spots but because we’d often show up at opening, like 8pm for dinner, it wasn’t a problem. (Typical Spanish dinner time is 10pm).
The Catalan language was interesting to me, as there were some signs in both languages, and some in just one or the other, and still other signs in Spanish, Catalan and English. Catalan is very close to Spanish and some words I could figure out. But most people spoke to us in English which just about everyone knew.Overall the city gave us a San Diego vibe, which we liked. We talked about how different it would have been if we had been relocated to sunny Barcelona instead of Paris. Would we have been happier? How different would our daily lives be? Alice was sure she’d have been happier in a city with a beach.
I’d come back to visit some of the neighborhoods further from center that sounded interesting. Maybe even give Gaudi a proper go. We noticed a few buildings and spent 10 minutes at the Sagrada Familia, maybe he’d grow on me with some further appreciation.On a side note: we're noticing that it's getting harder to travel with our emerging preteens. They’re either making funny videos or happily taking selfies of the monuments, or they’re grumbling about the amount of walking, the plans ("what's that? I've never heard of it") and being tired (“when are we going to find something fun to do.”) With a bunch of travel coming up, as we take advantage of short flights from. Pairs, this is going to get old very fast. Is there a way to accelerate this growth process?
Want more of the details of our trip? Here's the post where I did a day-by-day with links to all the places and restaurants we visits.
Related posts:
More Travel posts
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