KatPen

Back from a great 5 day trip to Barcelona. This was a special pre-wedding, mother-daughter trip, so I tried to find activities that would be special for DD, and not necessarily tick off all major attractions. Here are some of the highlights:
After not much sleep and a very early flight, I debated what we could handle on the first day. Walked around the Gothic quarter near the hotel and then Ramblas and the Boqueria market for our first meal. We walked towards the back of the market and decided on the Bar Boqueria. It was around 3pm so we didn’t have to wait for a place at the bar and had some really good food – especially the sea food. Loved the vibrant atmosphere of the market and sitting and eating with all the action around. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we also had our last meal in the market. This time we wanted to try the Pinotxo bar at the entrance to the market which was highly recommended. But after waiting for a place we discovered that they were all out of sea food, so we moved on. (I guess you figured we really like our sea food!). We went to the Kiosko Universal which was very crowded (usually a good sign) and you need to register and wait for a table. After about 10 minutes we were seated at the bar and I loved the selection and fresh flavours. I love eating at market stalls and La Boqueria is the mother of all markets!
Gaudi
After deliberating on which Casa to visit, I decided to start off on our first evening with the night visit and light show at La Pedrera (Casa Mila). The night visit includes courtyard, the attic and an amazing audio-visual show on the roof (The Origins). It does not include the apartments. You can really feel Gaudi’s genius and it was a unique start to our trip. Not cheap – at 34 euros, but I thought it was worth it. By the way, I purchased tickets on the website on my phone just a few hours before, and just showed them the confirmation email at the door. No need to print out. Later in the week we visited Casa Battlo and here very much enjoyed seeing the apartment and the whole interior design. Their smart guide with augmented reality is really cool and adds an extra dimension to the visit. For both casas, ordering online is highly recommended.
Hop-on Hop-off bus and Graffiti tour
I often like to do the HOHO tours in a new city and just sit on the bus for the whole ride to get the lay of the land. I wanted to do the red route, and for some stupid reason thought that the colour of the bus determined the route! Well it doesn’t. And we found ourselves on a red bus (turns out they are all red) on the green route going in the wrong direction. But all wrong turns in a new city have a potential for discovering something else…and we got off at an enormous flea market (Mercat Encants) and my daughter loved rummaging around and buying a few knick-knacks. We had to get a taxi (pretty cheap) back to the correct bus stop and we were back on track for the red route. We decided to get off and walk around Poblo Espanyol on Montjuic…and this was the only negative of the trip. I thought it was a waste of money and time…unless you really want to see models of different types of architecture.
But another highlight was coming up! The graffiti tour.
We loved this tour. It was run by http://barcelonastreetstyletour.com/ . A free tour and just tip the guide at the end. They have a morning tour of the Gothic and Borne areas, and an afternoon tour (4:45 pm) of the Raval area – which is the one we did. It was super interesting to hear a bit about what goes on behind the figures and images painted around the streets, and understand the culture that has grown around street art. This company also holds workshops which we really wanted to do…but they only do for large groups and none were on that week. A great, fun afternoon!
Stay tuned for Dali and Figueres and a terrific cooking class...

Rhea58

Thanks for your post! Will be in Barcelona in Oct & am
avidly readng your comments

kimhe

Great report, very interesting about the street art, keep it coming!

KatPen

Rhea58 I am already ready to go back and do all the things we didn't have time for. Enjoy your planning. It's half the fun. And of course for that I meant to thank all Fodorites whose posts and replies are always so helpful. Kimhe I especially followed your posts on Flamenco, which unfortunately we did not get to this time. I am glad you found the report interesting and hope it will help future travellers. Next post soon...

KatPen

A trip to Figueres and Dali Museum

The next day was dedicated to Dali…another genius! It was an amazing day, easy to do on your own, and I will concentrate on a few tips for those who decide to do it. First of all I wanted to book the museum online, but the only available time was 9:30! There was no way we would make it to Figueres by 9:30, so no pre-booking. I don’t know why they do that, and I just checked many dates up until July and only found a few dates with later time slots. So I was annoyed when we got to the museum and I saw a long line. But it turns out that the line was for groups, and the individual ticket office had no line. So it worked out OK.

But back to travelling to Figueres. I also wanted to book a train ticket online, but gave up when it kept switching to Spanish. We were there in early April so I hoped it was not peak season and we really had no trouble buying the ticket at Sants train station. Make sure you get there with enough time to spare. The metro station is a few minutes walk from the train station. We found ourselves outside on the street, when there is actually an underground walkway between the metro and the train. There is a slow train, (about 2 hours) or a high speed AVE or AVANT train (55 minutes) from Sants station to Figueres Vilafant. We took the high speed. There were promo tickets for the early train around 11 euros, but ours cost 21 euros each way. If you buy a return ticket it is cheaper, and you can change the time for an earlier train…but not a later one (I am assuming this rule does not apply for the cheap ticket…check). So the ticket clerk suggested selecting an evening train, and changing it at Figueres train station if we want to return earlier. Worked perfectly. Super comfortable train – it continued to Paris (very tempting!).

After 55 minutes we arrive at Figueres Vilafant (the slow train goes to a different station, closer to the town). Here there was a bus waiting and dropped us at the center of town in 10 minutes. Cross the road and walk a few minutes up the hill towards the museum.

As I mentioned there was a huge crowd at the entrance to the museum. Turned out that most of them were groups of school kids on an excursion. Although we did not have to line up for tickets, inside the museum it was packed. We tried to navigate around to the less crowded rooms and enjoy this amazing surrealistic space. After a while we needed a coffee break, and I was surprised to discover that this museum has no cafeteria or coffee shop. I asked if we could leave and come back, and so we got our tickets stamped and walked back out into the town for a break. This was the best thing we could do, as we sat in the town square, enjoyed a coffee and something to eat, rested our legs, and most importantly had a break in the ladies room. Needless to say the facilities at the museum also had a long line of school kids waiting.

So, after feeling rested and refreshed we headed back to the museum and were very glad to see that most of the groups had left. The museum was much more fun and accessible without the hordes.
When we finished at the museum, we wandered the streets and looked at the shops (many were closed for afternoon siesta). But we managed to spend some money and ask the sales person for recommendations for a meal. Following her advice we went to Can Jordi and really enjoyed the food and the local atmosphere. We caught the bus back to the train station where we had no trouble changing the train time (make sure you have the times of return trains with you and leave enough time to wait for the bus…or you can catch a taxi), and were back in Barcelona after a wonderful day trip.

Tommmo

I'm thinking to do a day trip to Gerona and the Dali museum by organised tour. It seems for $100 you get all the transport (bus) and entries taken care of , there's free time to explore but a guide included for Gerona and it's a full day taken care of.

Einyel

Hi,

I´m doing a paper for university about travellers to Spain, so I´d appreciate if you could answer some questions regarding your recent trip to Barcelona. I have tried a private message, but I can´t find the option, so please let me know how I can send you the questions in case you are interested.

Thanks!

KatPen

Tommo we also looked at tours but decided we wanted to do it at our own pace. I am very glad we did and posted the details to help anyone else considering this. But I understand the advantage of a tour if it suits you.
Einyel, I wouldn't mind answering questions but there is no option on Fodors for private messaging (according to their FAQs).

travelhorizons

Thank you for the walking tour information. I'm going to check it out on April 30th!

Einyel

Thank you KatPen, so if you don´t mind I can post the questions here:

1. Have you had any problems to communicate while you were staying? Who with? Why?

2. Do you think that in general the level of English of Spanish workers is good enough?

3. If not, does it make you think of not coming back for this reason?

4. Has your way of travelling changed in the last few years? How?

5. Do you know what "New Tourism" and "The New Tourist" are?

6. Do you consider yourself one of these "new tourists"? Why?

7. How would you improve the quality of the service in hotels, restaurants, parks, etc?

Thank you very much!

KatPen

Travelhorizons, I hope you enjoy the tour. Look at the photo on their website of exactly where they meet. If you do the afternoon tour, the meeting place is just to the left of the doors of the MACBA (museum). The square outside the museum is a mecca for skateboarders, and we arrived early and enjoyed watching the action.
Einyel, I am not sure of Fodor's policy, but maybe you could ask these questions on the lounge or open your own thread if you need more replies. But here are my answers.
1. There were a few places when I was surprised that little English was spoken (can't remember where), but mostly there was no problem with communication.
2. In general, good enough.
3. No
4. Shorter trips to one destination.
5. No.
6. Don't know
7. I found the level of service good.