Wesch

We arrived in Barcelona last Friday evening. We stayed at the Hotel Bertran (www.hotelbertran.com), which was great for us. It's an "aparthotel", so the rooms have a small kitchen facility. What a find!! With a 2-year-old, this was perfect. The rooms were very spacious. There was no microwave or oven, but 2 burners, so you could make soup, etc. A nice size fridge also, so cereal in the morning for us. The only downside to this place was the stale smoke smell in the room. But it seems that everyone in Spain smokes, so what can ya do? The hotel was a 5 minute walk to the subway. We got on at Ave Tibidabo and rode to Placa Catalunya, where we picked up the Bus Turistic on Saturday morning. I had read good things about this hop-on/hop-off bus on this board and in Maribel's files, and they were all correct. Especially when you have a short time in the city, it's the best way to see a lot. We got off at the Sagrada Familia and took the lift to the top. Very tight space - guess I'm a bit claustrophobic! Got down from there and toured the area. Had some nice Gaudi items in the gift shop. The Gaudi street performers were pretty interesting to watch as well. We also went up to Parc Guell, but didn't stay too long there. We then took the subway and headed towards the beach. Our daughter had a ball playing in the sand, and we just relaxed and enjoyed the nice sunny weather. We ate dinner on La Rambla and called it a night.

We would've loved to have spent more time there...so much to see, so little time, as they say. We also wanted to see Montserrat, as we've heard many great things about it, but time was limiting us.

Gaudi is definitely an interesting character! We hope to make it back to Spain again in the future.

Cheers!
Mindy

Myer

Was this a one day trip?

Wesch

Yes, pretty much. We arrived there Friday night (coming down from France) and left again Sunday morning.

Myer

I guess if you only had one day and spent time at the beach then going to the ocean is a treat. Correct?

We're leaving this week for two weeks in Spain.

However, we live near the ocean.

Wesch

Correct. AND...we have a 2-year-old, and since we drug her around to all the other places that day and the days prior, it was only fair to let her have some fun too. She is a great traveller, and does really well. But she is 2, and can only be expected to tolerate so much sightseeing. We had such a great time watching her play in the sand and cover her 'piggies'. : )

Have a great time on your trip!! Spain is beautiful.

Wesch