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Our First Trip To Barcelona, But Not Our Last!

Our First Trip To Barcelona, But Not Our Last!

Old Nov 19th, 2010, 03:20 PM
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Our First Trip To Barcelona, But Not Our Last!

The Trip: Nov. 9-15, 2010 - BOS to BCN on Swiss International
We purchased tickets last January 2010 for $536 per person total. It was too good a price to pass up. I enjoyed 9 months of trip planning (hmm sounds like I gave birth to a trip). The flight over was good. Connections in Zurich are simple. We arrived on time in Barcelona and made our way over to the train station. It requires a walk, a bus ride and another walk. The train was an easy way to reach our apartment. We were able to get off at the Passeig de Gracia stop and walk over one block to Rambla de Catalunya and up 3 blocks to our apartment.

We rented through habitat apartments. They were great to deal with, always prompt with replies. Very good communication. We chose to pay ahead with credit card for a 4% fee. I didn't want to have to carry the euros with me from the airport. It's just a personal choice. The young woman from the agency was waiting and showed us around the apartment, "La Pedrera". It was exactly as shown on the website; modern, spacious, nicely decorated, and comfortable. This was the same apartment that another Fodor contributor, Nikki, stayed in and recommended. So, thank you Nikki, we loved it. The apartment had a front wall of windows that looked over Rambla de Catalunya, specifically the outdoor cafe of the restaurant, La Bodgueta. It was great for people watching. The t.v. had only one Spanish station. We never watched it. We chose to sit and watch the parade go by in front of the window, while drinking cava and snacking on cheese and bread.

As we arrived to the apartment in the late afternoon, we decided to find the nearby grocery store, Bon Preu, and stock up and eat in. Later we strolled around the Eixample, heading over to the Sagrada Familia which was lit up and looked quite spectacular. We passed many impressive modernisme buildings on our way there and back. Exhausted we went to bed with traffic and people still walking about on the street at 1:00 a.m. The apartment however was quiet enough to fall asleep almost immediately.
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Old Nov 19th, 2010, 03:31 PM
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looking forward to more. Rambla de Catalunya is my favorite street in Barcelona.
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Old Nov 19th, 2010, 04:24 PM
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Glad you enjoyed the apartment. I'm always relieved when my recommendations turn out well. Surprised to hear about the TV, they must have changed their service because we got several stations including CNN and BBC, if I remember correctly. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your stay.
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Old Nov 19th, 2010, 04:27 PM
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I'm looking forward to more, too. We were in Barcelona in October; stayed at HOtel Granvia in Eixample, about 5 minutes from Placa Catalunya. We love the city!! Eager to hear what you did, what you saw, where you ate!
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Old Nov 20th, 2010, 03:17 AM
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Thanks for the interest everyone. I can understand as we absolutely loved Barcelona. We definitely plan to return. Nikki, the owner of the apt. had apparently decided on only local stations. We could only get one, but didn't care. We listened to local radio stations instead.

We found the location to be perfect on Rambla de Catalunya. We were one block from the Diagonal Metro station, which we used quite often. We walked everywhere, but made much use of public transportation as well.

Our morning breakfast spot was Mauri's on the next corner up from the apt. It was established in 1929 and was decorated in that era. We had our café con leche and pastry every morning. I will post some pictures when I get a chance of the pastries. We also purchased small sandwiches to take with us when we headed up to Parc Guell and Tibidabo.

We purchased the ArtTicket for 22 euro each. It definitely paid for itself. It didn't get you to the head of the line, but we more than made our money back on it after 3 visits. We first visited La Pedrera, a Gaudi designed building. I was very much impressed with the architecture and beautiful design features. You were able to tour the top 3 floors which included the roof. One floor was a furnished apartment; the next was the "attic" with explanations of the design of Gaudi; the third was the roof. I have height problems at times and this was one of them. My husband had a great time roaming around the roof and taking pictures. I had to beat a quick retreat inside when it got to be too much for me. I did manage to take a number of shots myself.

We also visited the Picasso Museum in the Born area, the Fundacio Joan Miro on Montjuic, the Fundacio Antoni Tapiés, the Contemporary Art Museum in Raval, and the National Art Musuem of Catalunya - all of which were included in the ArtTicket. We paid separately to see the Mies Van der Rohe Pavillion on Montjuic. It was simply the building with nothing else and quite a hefty 9 euro admittance fee. I am still glad that we saw it. I took many good pictures there. We attempted to see the Maritime Museum, however it is under renovation and only has small exhibits open, for free. It worked out for us as we wandered over to the waterfront by the Columbus Colom and decided on the spur of the moment to take a 35 minute tour of the harbor on the Las Golindrinas. It was a beautiful day and we saw Barcelona from a different perspective. Barcelona is a working harbor with cruise ships thrown in. In the inner harbor there was a boat show going on with some of the most amazing and expensive looking boats I have ever seen (we just cruised by them).
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Old Nov 20th, 2010, 04:23 AM
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How did you find out about the harbor tour on Las Golindrinas? I don't remember reading about it in my guidebook. That would have been interesting to do. But we did get good views of the harbor from the fort at the top of Montjuic. What did you enjoy the most in Barcelona?
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Old Nov 20th, 2010, 04:52 AM
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I had read somewhere, I think on Fodors that the harbor tour wasn't worth it. We were down at the Maritime Museum and walked toward the waterfront and there it was and the next tour was leaving in 15 minutes. It was 6.5 euro and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There were other tours for 90 minutes that went down the coast, but we didn't really want to invest that much time or money on it. We also had great views from the Cable Car that went from Montjuic to Barcelonetta. I don't know what I enjoyed the most. I think we enjoyed the wonderful contrasts of Barcelona; the water, the mountains, the architecture and art, the food and drink, the friendliness of the people. It was a city, yet it was very much an outdoor destination. We loved the tapas and the informality of just stopping to eat and drink and not make a big huge meal of it. As far as the museums went, I liked the Fundacio Joan Miro the best of what we visited. It was a bright and airy building with color everywhere.

We spent our second day, after breakfast at Mauri's, heading over to La Pedrera, which I already mentioned. On the way back we made another stop for café con leche; we needed our caffeine fix to combat the jet lag. We were planning to go to a club that evening, the Harlem Jazz Club http://www.harlemjazzclub.es/ on Comtessa de Sobradiel in Born, so we wanted to figure out how to get there before the evening arrived. We took the Diagonal Metro to the Liceu stop and walked a couple of blocks down the Ramblas and over into the Born area and easily found the Club. We then headed in search of stamps and a post office (correro). We found at a tobacconist that they don't sell stamps as they do at the tabac in Paris and he gave us directions to the main post office, that was nearby. After much puzzlement, we figured out where to purchase stamps and mail them. The post office functions as a bank as well as a post and it's not always easy to figure it all out. There different lines for different services. Well of course it is always easy if you know how and we did ask and get the postcards mailed off to the USA.

From there we walked over to the Picasso Museum http://www.museupicasso.bcn.es/en/ and spent about 2 hours. The most interesting art for me was of Picasso's very early years before he had developed his "style" as we know it. The building that the museum was housed in was very old and interesting as was the Born area. I had considered an apartment in Born, but I am very happy with our choice in Eixample. It was very bright and busy where we are on the Rambla de Catalunya.

We were beginning to get hungry and we had decided to try the Ciudad Condal (Ciutat Comtal) on 18 Rambla de Catalunya. We used the metro from the Jaume stop to get to Placa Catalunya and walked a short ways from there. The restaurant had been recommended to me by a Spanish gentleman I had met where I work. It was hands down our favorite place for tapas and food while we were in Barcelona. I am posting a link to a blog that reviews this restaurant. http://savourthisflavour.blogspot.co...barcelona.html We had a "surf & turf" tapas (veal tenderloin and shrimp en brochette) patatas bravas, esclavada (sp?) (eggplant, pepper, and goat cheese heated), calamari. I had a small bottle of cava and my husband had the Voll Damm beer. We went twice on our trip.
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Old Nov 20th, 2010, 07:18 AM
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opaldog, I'm enjoying your report.

Regarding the Mies Pavilion, did you take a tour? I timed my visit with a scheduled guided tour, and I learned a lot from the docent than I would have if I were to wander around on my own.
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Old Nov 20th, 2010, 09:02 AM
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I'm really enjoying your report and completely agree with your comments about the contrasts in Barcelona. I will add the harbor tour to our list of possibilities for trip #2 next year.

I'm anxious to hear what you thought of Harlem Jazz Club. It was absolutely packed and very smokey the night we were there, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. We also went to Jamboree for live music, and I definitely preferred the feel of Harlem.

I'm surprised you weren't able to avoid lines with your ArtTicket. I remember that at least for the Picasso Museum, Miro, and Le Pedrera we were able to avoid the longest lines with the ArtTicket (and in fact avoided a line altogether for Picasso).

Looking forward to more of your report!
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Old Nov 20th, 2010, 11:11 AM
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Did you visit Monserrat? We are considering it during our one day stop on a Cruise, since we've been to Barcelona a couple of times.
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Old Nov 21st, 2010, 01:37 AM
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yk: I was wrong about the admission cost; it was 4.5 euro each. We weren't there for a tour, I'm sure it would have been interesting. We went up to Montjuic on a Friday and after the Joan Miro and National Art of Catalunya we walked over to the Mies van der Rohe. We took the long way around as we weren't sure from looking at our map exactly how to get there. We ended up walking in a very big circle, but we did see alot of the Olympic sites. When we arrived at the Pavillion it was closed to what appeared to be a very exclusive reception of possibly government and business officials. So we ended up going back on Sunday and walked around and sat and enjoyed the space and took many photos.

oopsy: we loved the Harlem Jazz Club. We got there around 10:00 for a scheduled 10:30 show of the Mala Junta Trio, a local gipsy guitar jazz group that regularly plays at Parc Guell. They were great. We bought their cd. They had a young woman, "Tui" sing with them. She made me think of the "girl from Ipanema", the evening was very enjoyable. We were thinking that we would have to take a night bus after the show, however the bartender said, "It's a beautiful night for a walk" and gave us directions through Born up through Placa Catalunya and straight up Rambla de Catalunya. It capped off what for us was a perfect night out in Barcelona.

We encountered very few or small lines at the museums so perhaps we could have passed the lines but it didn't impact us at all. We showed our ArtTicket and then the ticket was either punched or checked off with date that we visited and we were issued a ticket for the site we were visiting. We felt the ArtTicket was a good buy for us.

On Friday we decided to visit the Montjuic area. We took the Diagonal metro to the Para.lel stop and got on to the underground funicular that took us to the top of Montjuic. The stop was very near Fundacio Joan Miro. I absolutely loved this museum. It was a great building, white, contemporary, open and full of colorful artwork. There appeared to be a school or daycare nearby and the museum was full of small children learning about art. There were outdoor areas that gave expansive views of Barcelona. From here we walked up and down through a garden, there were many gardens along the mountain, and over to the MNAC, National Art Museum. It looked like a huge old church high on top of the mountain, but it actually wasn't such an old building. There was an elevator on one side of the mountain that allowed people walking from Placa Espanya to ride up to the entrance of the museum. We however trudged up the hill. We kind of breezed through here as the weather was beautiful and our time in Barcelona was short. We wanted to get outside. From there we walked (the long way around) and ended up at the Mies Van der Rohe Pavilion only to find it closed to the public. My feet were beginning to kill me (my shoes!) so we figured out we needed to take the #50 bus and breezed over to the Miramar stop overlooking the mediterranean (sp) where we planned to take the cable car to Barcelonetta. As an aside the T-10 metro card worked well for us. We actually ended up purchasing 3 of them. You could use it to get to and from the airport as well. Unfortunately, another of our planned stops didn't pan out, the cable car was closed due to high winds. So back to the funicular and down we headed to Barcenoletta. More walking and by now I was feel were hobbled by my shoes, which I have worn on other trips with no problem. We walked along the promenade by the beach. People were sunbathing and we even saw some children in the water. We walked over to Born and stopped at Taller de Tapas for a bite to eat. It was really not good at all. Maybe it was a bad day, but it was extremely touristy and the service was poor as well as the tapas. The day was going down hill fast and we were very tired. So we found a metro stop, got off at Passeig de Gracia and wandered through the Vincon store, a very expensive IKEA (not impressed) and then back to our apartment where I soaked my feet in hot water and rested up.

That evening we walked over to Calle Sepulveda near the University to have dinner at a Vietnamese Restaurant Pho Bar.www.myphobar.com It was small, but very nicely decorated. We have a favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Worcester, MA, "Dalat" and they are the standard for comparison when we travel and try other Vietnamese restaurants. So far nothing has compared to them and Pho Bar was no exception. We had Spring rolls, steamed rolls, and Bun with rolls. It was presented nicely, but bland. We walked back to the apartment and ended the evening with pastries we had bought earlier from Mauri.
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Old Nov 21st, 2010, 08:15 AM
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" We walked over to Born and stopped at Taller de Tapas for a bite to eat. It was really not good at all."

We had dinner at TdeT on Ramblas de Catalunya a couple of years ago.
Did not like the food at all. The place was soooo touristy...we never went back.
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Old Nov 21st, 2010, 05:19 PM
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Thank you again for this report. I felt like I was walking through Barcelona with your description (but without the foot pain)!
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Old Nov 21st, 2010, 08:52 PM
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Aleta,

Don't mean to highjack this thread, but I just went to Barcelona in Sept and went to Montserrat, which in my opinion is really worth it...to be honest, I didn't spend much time in the monastery itself, I spent more time enjoying the outdoors.

If you want to see pictures, I posted some of my pictures on my website:

http://www.lynnsview.com/Gallery/

The Montserrat pictures are in the Barcelona album on the 4th page.
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Old Nov 21st, 2010, 08:56 PM
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opaldog,

loved reading your report, I just went to Barcelona in Sept and you did so many different things than I did, which reinforces my desire to go back there...there is so much more to see!

Do you have your pictures posted on line? I would love to see them.
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Old Nov 22nd, 2010, 02:03 AM
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danon: couldn't agree with you more about Taller de Tapas; stay away!
We did not go to Montserrat as there was so much to do in Barcelona. We only touched the tip of the iceberg, there is much more to go back for.
lyb: I will be putting up pictures online very soon. I just have to organize them all. We both took a camera and have a huge number of photos.
The link to Pho Bar was incorrect. It should be www.myphobar.com

On Saturday of our trip the weather continued to be beautiful and we planned our trip to Parc Guell. We had the usual breakfast at Mauri's and purchased some small sandwiches while there for a picnic lunch at the Parc. I had been eying the sandwiches for a few days and got a nice assortment consisting of a small baquette pernil (ham with a relish), brioche with tuna, focaccio type roll with pernil and suisse, and a pate on a brioche.

We headed out to the Diagonal stop and realized after hopping on the train that we had forgotten the sandwiches, so off at the next stop and back to the apartment. The metro stop was so close to the apartment that it took all of ten minutes. As it was Saturday and beautiful, the park was crowded with families and couples doing exactly the same thing we were. The views, the buildings and structures, the paths, the foliage were eye popping. We followed the path off to the side away from the crowds around the main staircase and came to an area that overlooked the wavy, tiled benches. There was an outdoor café/cafeteria that sold food and drinks. We purchased some sodas and headed back up to the top of the Parc where we sat at a picnic table under a shaded arbor area and had our Mauri sandwiches. Music from musicians that were stationed throughout the park wafted upwards to where we were sitting. One man was playing bossa nova, another group was playing African drum rhythms, while down in the wavy bench area a quartet was playing Spanish music. Dogs were playing, children were laughing (and screaming and crying). It was an idyllic outing. We took alot of pictures and then headed back down the mountain (hills) to the metro.

We went directly to Placa Espanya at the base of Montjuic and walked up to the Mies Van der Rohe Pavillion. This day it was open to the public. We stayed a bit and took many photos, trying to be artistic with our shots. Now we knew to take Bus# 50 over to Miramar, having done it a couple of days before. The cable car was running, however only one way. This was fine with us as we had only planned to do one way. We waited about 20 minutes and got on our car first. My husband stood at the front at the open window. I stood next to him and held on, even though there was absolutely no danger of me falling out the small opening. We got some great photos. It was a spectacular aerial view of the whole city and surrounding area. There were a few people in the car who couldn't bring themselves to open their eyes. It wasn't really bad and this is coming from someone who has height problems.
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Old Nov 23rd, 2010, 12:50 AM
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There were two other museums that we visited using our ArtTicket. The Fundacio Antoni Tapies is located in a modernisme building. I did not know much of anything about the artist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_T%C3%A0pies The building facade was interesting, the art was very modern. We also visited the Contemporary Art Museum in Raval. The building is very impressive; Boxy, white, and spare. Some of the art installations were beyond me and others were interesting. The plaza in front of the building was filled with skate boarders as it's design lent itself to skateboarding. We went there in the evening and the area was crowded with people walking and shopping. The Ramblas was packed!

That same evening we decided to have our dinner (now getting into the very late night dining routine) at La Bodegueta http://barcelona-guide.info/restaurant-la-bodegueta the place that had umbrellas and tables set up directly in front of our apartment. The people watching was great. We sat for as long as we chose to, but the food was mediocre. We wanted to experience what was a very popular place in "our neighborhood" and could see that it was all about location, location, location.
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Old Nov 23rd, 2010, 03:28 AM
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We found the people watching from the benches on the Rambla de Catalunya to be just as good as the people watching from the tables for La Bodegueta. We had lunch there one day and were surprised to get our tortilla, which is like a potato omelette, served cold. We weren't sure whether it was intentional or not, but I have been told since then that sometimes tortillas are meant to be served cold.

In any event, we spent a pleasant hour or so one day sitting on the bench outside the apartment while my husband took pictures of the feet of the passers-by. I guess he was intrigued by the shoes. We couldn't have done that from inside the apartment, but otherwise it was the same view.
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Old Nov 23rd, 2010, 07:34 AM
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"The building is very impressive; Boxy, white, and spare"

it was designed by Richard Meir, well known American architect.
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Old Nov 23rd, 2010, 10:33 AM
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Great report! I just got back from a very brief trip to Spain and definitely need to plan an extended stay.
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