Barcelona trip report

Recently, hubby and I were in Europe for a month (mid-April thru mid-May '08) visiting family in the Netherlands. We managed to take some side trips to Spain, Norway, and Belgium. This trip report will cover our trip to Barcelona. I'll post the other trip reports in their respective country boards.

Flight: We flew Vueling airlines. Given it was such a short flight on a budget airline, we weren't expecting much, but we were pleasantly surprised with Vueling. We had no hassles at the terminal, the crew was nice and polite, and the flight was smooth and on-time. The plane was clean and before the end of the flight, they passed out mint candies. Great value with Vueling and we would definitely recommend them.
We took the Aerobus from the airport to the Plaça Catalunya which was convenient. We bought a Barcelona card that entitled us to a discount on the airport bus, as well as free use of public transportation and a ton of other discounts for museums and other touristy attractions.

Hotel: Hotel Inglaterra - Very central, convenient location off the Plaça Catalunya. The hotel was pretty expensive for a 3-star, but we were pleased with the cleanliness, service, and location.
We used the Metro so many times since we had the Barcelona card and the hotel was so close to two metro stations (Universitat and Catalunya). Even though we used the Metro as much as possible, we still walked a lot. As others have posted on their trip reports, the blocks in Barcelona are long and the avenues are wide.

Sights: We visited three of Gaudi's works: Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, and Sagrada Familia. All were impressive (this was our main draw for wanting to visit Barcelona). Try to get there early in the morning to avoid long lines to get inside.
Casa Lleó-Morera (not a Gaudi house) was down the street from Casa Batlló. We only saw it from the outside, but it was still a nice sight.
In the evening we saw the light show at the Font Màgica which was beautiful.
La Boqueria and Las Ramblas were chaotic. I didn't care too much about either spot, but still thought it's one of those places you should see since you're there anyway. We bought some souvenirs and were surprised that we had to bargain with the shop owners for prices.
Barceloneta beach was not an impressive beach at all (it was clean, but just wasn't anything special), but since it was easy to get to on the Metro, it was still a nice place for strolling and to cool off. We also had a seaside lunch at one of the cafes.
We shopped for some items at Casa Gispert, but the quality and prices of nuts, for example, was just about the same as the vendors in the Boqueria. You just get nice packaging from Casa Gispert if you're buying things to take home as gifts.

Food:

Tapas - Taller de Tapas - the place was crowded so we had to wait a short time before we got a table. The service was excellent and the tapas were good. We had Iberian ham, chorizo, fried potatoes, fresh prawns, and ham croquettes.
QuQu (Quasi Queviures) was really good. It seemed a bit more touristy than Taller de Tapas, but we actually liked QuQu better and ate here twice. Hubby was crazy about their Rioja house wine. We ordered similar dishes to what we had at Taller - a charcuterie platter, fried potatoes, a few different kinds of croquettes. They had an excellent selection of desserts, all of which were good (yes, we ordered all of them to taste each one).
BIOasis - a little place we stumbled upon off Las Ramblas on Carrer de Bonsucces. Excellent tapas, although we found out later this is a popular vegetarian place. Their desserts were good, too, especially their homemade chocolate cake.
Tapac 24 - we tried to eat here, but ended up angrily leaving. The line to get in was very long but we waited, and by the time we were 2nd to next in line for a table, some guy a few parties behind us in line (who had constantly been complaining about why HE needed to wait) walked up to the host. He had a little chat with the host and then it appeared he was bribing the host. He and his party proceeded to be the next ones to be seated. We were so shocked, too hungry and tired to make a fuss, so we left.

Churros and sweets - We had churros con chocolate at Granja La Pallaresa and Dulcinea, but both places were a bit of a letdown. The churros tasted a little stale and the chocolate wasn't really that thick. Later, we stumbled upon a little churreria that had wonderful churros that were warm and the chocolate was sweet and creamy. It was a little hole-in-the-wall down the street from the Picasso Museum (going towards the Jaume I metro station). The exterior of the building had blue framed windows and the sign said Churreria Granja.
We also had some delicious pastries at Escriba on Las Ramblas. We were lucky to grab a table outside as another couple was just leaving.

Overall, we had a good time and Barcelona did not disappoint