Any suggestions on Daytripping from Barcelona?
 

I'm planning a trip for my wife's 30th B-day to Barcelona. Her and 6 other of our close friends will be joining us in Mid-March for a week. I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a daytrip out of Barcelona, aside from Montserrat. I overheard a co-worker speaking of a large miliary fortress east of the city, apparently the largest of its kind in Europe. Does anyone have any idea what he could be speaking about? Thank you for any comments or suggestions.

I'm not familiar with the large military fortress your friend was taking about, but he may have been refering to the medieval castle of Cardona, now a 4-star Parador. Cardona is located about 100 kms (63 miles) northwest of Barcelona.

One thing you may want to do is to download a copy of Maribel's Guide to Barcelona (http://maribelsguides.com) to help with planning this adventure. She offers a lot of practical information for visiting this area.

how nice! your wife must be so excited.

i think your co-worker was talking about Parc de la Ciutadella within the city of Barcelona, between the Arc de Triomf and the harbor. below link is the reviews by others. it's a nice place to visit but you can do that while you are staying in Barcelona. Girona is another

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http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel...ella-BR-1.html
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as for day trip or over night trip, if you like ocean and nature, i recommend Costa Brava region (northwest of Barcelona). it might be still too cold to swim, but the area is just beautiful just to rest. 4-5 full days in Barcelona should be enough to cover most of the city at a leasurely pace. why not spend a couple of days outside of the city?

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accomodations in costa brava region:

1) Hotel Sant Roc
http://www.santroc.com/principalUK.htm

2) Aigua Blavahttp://www.aiguablava.com/html/eng/benvinguda.asp

3)Aiguablava Parador
http://www.parador.es/english/parado...maCabecera=ing
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I have always wanted to go to the monastery at Montserrat via the Catalan railway. The Esconalia, the boys' choir, sings there at 1:00 p.m. daily. Next time I go to Spain, I will go there for sure.

Cava:

Another option for a day trip is the Cava (sparkling wine) producers near by in the Penedes region. Freixenet and Codorníu have wonderful tours. These two cava producers create more sparkling wine than the entire country of France. This is well worth a day trip from Barcelona.

Just wanted to say thanks for everyone's help and suggestions. Come to find out that the military fortress my co-worker was speaking about was the Castell de Sant Ferran in Figueres. Thanx again!
And BTW my wife has no idea that she's going to Spain. Quite a surprise, I hope.

the you MUST take her to hoffman cooking school/restaurant for a superb culinary experience.

telephone
34 93 319 5889

they have a webpage but i have had no luck finding it.. lots of good reviews.

so many of my friends there keep telling me we need to go, we will try first hand in march, ourselves.

topping please