Barcelona, Costa Brava, & Mallorca
 

(This is a continuation of the report I started...don't know how to post on 2 boards at once...think I'd know after all this time...):D

So after 5 gorgeous days in Paris, we flew to Barcelona (vueling.com--couldn't get the great advertised rate, was more like $75 each).

It was as if we'd brought "Seattle weather" with us, but we're used to it, so that didn't bother us too much.

Thanks to Maribel--(where are you?), we stayed at HOTEL BANYS ORIENTALS
C/Argentina 37
129 Euros for a suite
Loved this hotel—thanks Maribel. http://hotelbanysorientals.com. We had a suite and as Maribel has pointed out, this place isn’t for everyone, but we loved it. Very difficult to find the hotel, and even more difficult to find the suites which are on the next block, but if you like contemporary, high tech décor, you’ll like this place. Lots of room and some very nice comps such as free Internet and free bottled water (after I tasted the Barcelona tap water, I really appreciated this!)

We had “Seattle weather” in Barcelona, so didn’t do some of the things we had done before but planned to do, such as Parc Guell, but did some others that were good such as the Contemporary Art Museum and the tour of the Palac de Musica, which was very worthwhile. Plus we went to a concert there which was very good, especially the Beethoven piece.

Usually I’m not at all a big shopper, but I really caught the bug in Barcelona. I thought the shops and the values were incredible. (And I was treated very nicely, but this might be because I speak more Spanish than French.)

The energy in Barcelona is incredible, but the Gaudi sights are packed with tourists (like us ) My only disappointment (besides the weather) was that there seemed to be much more graffiti (and I don’t mean the “pretty” kind) this time than last, and I read enough Spanish to understand that some of it was saying “The tourists are ruining this city.” Well, maybe they have a point there—this certainly is a debatable issue anyplace that draws lots of tourists.

A real treat was going for wine and tapas with fellow Fodorite, Claire. I can still see her riding up on her collapsible bike—what a delightful person.

HIGHLIGHTS
The Magic Fountain on Saturday night
Casa Battlo
The tour of Palau de la Musica
The Museu d’Art Contemporarani

RESTAURANTS

BEST—one comment about my list—none of them took reservations and ALL of them had LONG LINES and unless you get there early, you can plan on a LONG wait, but ALL on this list were worth the wait (just make sure you’re not too hungry or you might get cranky like I do when I’m hungry)

Cal Pep
Placa de las Olles
(between Barceloneta and Via Layetana)
This really lives up to its reputation
If you have a party of 6 or more, you can get reservations in the tiny back room
The tuna tartar and potato tortilla were unbelievable
Lunch with 2 glasses of wine was 72 Euros

Le Quinze Nitz
La Placa Reial 6
Everything here was great, but the taramusu (sp?) was
Amazing, and the calamari was just good
Dinner with bottle of wine 49 Euros

La Dolca Herminia
Magdalenes 27
Near Palau de la Musica
Lunch with ½ café of wine was 26 Euros

The Attic
Les Rambles 120
This place wasn’t on our list, but we were desperate and hungry and even though we were told we’d have to wait ½ hour only waited 15 minutes and were glad we did
Dinner with bottle of Cava was 66 Euros

DISAPPOINTMENTS
Senyor Parellada
(sorry Maribel, maybe it was an off-night?) But it was inexpensive—dinner with bottle of wine was 35 Euros)

Taller Tapa
(sorry Claire, we disagree on this one) 3 tapas with ½ bottle wine—26 Euros

TIPS
As Maribel has suggested, the tourbus is the way to go, though we went on a rainy day so didn’t have to wait in lines. Might be an issue on other days.

I just now saw your trip report. Thanks for the info - we leave for Barcelona next week! I'm looking forward, in particular, to Casa Batllo and the Palau de la Musica.

Tell me more about why Senyor Parellada was a disappointment. We intend to eat there for dinner our first night on vacation, as a restaurant pretty close to our hotel, with decent Catalan food. Maybe if there are dishes to avoid...

Lexma,

Maybe they were just having an off night, but we thought the food was just so-so, although it was very reasonably priced--35 Euros for 2 startes and 2 main meals and a bottle of wine. The dish I thought was good was the potato stuffed with meat, but the green beans and mushrooms were overcooked and my sausage and cabbage was just so-so and DH's veal was also just so-so. Also, the service wasn't great (although the service at the hotel was), but the restaurant is very pretty.

If you're willing to go a bit further (and don't mind waiting), the others I mentioned are really terrific.

Hope this helps.

Yes, it did - thanks! Especially for our first, jet-lagged night, I don't think a place with a wait (and with our 11yo son in tow) would be good. And we have an all-star restaurant lineup for the other dinners. So I'll cross my fingers, and hope they just had an off night. Or maybe we'll decide we're not so jet-lagged...

COSTA BRAVA

This was one of the true highlights of the trip—I LOVED this area. The Parador Aiguablava was simply beautiful, the setting, with a cove on one side and the Mediterranean on the other, was breathtaking, the room was large (for a Parador), and the restaurant was excellent. We stayed 3 nights and I could have happily stayed longer.

HIGHLIGHTS

The magical village of Pals where we wandered for hours along twisted midevil streets and found the delightful shop of Pan Planas on Placa D’Espanya 8.

The sedate village of Peretallada.

Girona—was only there a few hours, but loved what I saw—the overall feeling—the old city, the outlying park. This is one place I certainly would like to explore more in the future.

Empuries—awesome beyond our expectations!

The village of Rupit—while a bit of a drive out of our way, it was really worth it!

Casa Gala. As much as I disliked Theatro de Dali, I really liked Casa Gala, especially the coffee table in the living room and the garden.

Parador Cardona. Worth the overnight—not as thrilling as Leon, but worthwhile for a night and the restaurant was very good.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

The Theatro Dali in Figueres
Don’t even get me started on this—DD and I can’t begin to have a civil discussion about this, but I’ve never been a big Dali fan, and I’ve never been so negatively affected by a museum in my life. I couldn’t get out of this place fast enough. If you’re a big Dali fan, you’ll like it I guess, but otherwise, I’d say skip it.

Figueres—the entire town just didn’t appeal to me at all.

Besulu—(maybe we went to the wrong place, but except for the footbridge, I was disappointed and glad all the tourist buses came here and not to Pals and Peretallada.

The Parador at Vic (my least favorite so far)

After the Parador at Cardona, we stopped in Montserrat on our way back to Barcelona (to catch our flight to Mallorca)…so will report on that next.

Hi Art Lover..and thanks for the Barcelona report.
We will also be in a suite at Banys Orientals in July. Will a taxi driver have a difficult time finding it?
Did you have a chance to eat at the Hotel? We have a reservation there which I made after reading a few good reports.
Also...how far from the Hotel are some of your favorite restaurants? Again..should we take a taxi?
Thanks for your help.

roomiec,
This was one of my absolutely funniest memories of the trip. We took the Auerpuetor (sp?) bus from the airport to Plaza Catalanya to get a cab. I had the address written down and went to the first taxi in line and he went with it to the 2nd, who got the 3rd out of his cab and the three of them were having this incredibly animated discussion about where the hell the hotel was...hands going wild, all very passionate, and DH had to turn away 'cause he thought it was so funny. Well, the driver told us (I speak very limited Spanish) that he couldn't drive down the street, would have to let us off "near it," which he did. However, when we left, we managed to catch a cab that had dropped some people off in front. So, the answer is...it depends.

Are you staying in the hotel or the suites? The suites are a few blocks away, but they walk you to them. Some people have commented that they found the alleyway "spooky", but we didn't have a problem with it.

As far as the restaurant in the hotel goes, it's Senyor Parellada, and others have said good things about it, but we were disappointed. It is a nice setting though, and very inexpensive.

All the other restaurants I mention were "walking distance" for us, but we're big walkers, so it depends. And, as I mentioned, they all had long lines and didn't take reservations (with the exception of Cal Pep if you're a party of 6 or more), but each and everyone of them were really terrific.

Hope this helps.

After the Parador at Cardona, we stopped in Montserrat on our way back to Barcelona (to catch our flight to Mallorca)…so will report on that next.

When we went for dinner at the Parador, a woman said “hi” to us, and I said “hi” back. She said, “You look familiar. Weren’t you at Vic (the Parador)?” I told her we were and was truly impressed with her memory. Turns out, she—Becky and Scott from Maryland, were also at the Parador at Augiblava and were also celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary! Not only that, but their son is in college in Seattle, where we live, and their daughter is studying abroad in Barcelona (ours had been in Italy), so we had much to talk about. On a sadder note, their kids had friends at Virginia Tech, so that added a sad note to the evening, but we really had a lot of fun comparing notes and such. And the dining room at the Parador was fabulous, as was the food. Reasonably priced too. I’m so impressed with the Paradores!

Anyway, Becky and Scott been to Montserrat and Becky warned me that by all means we should park at the bottom and take the shuttle to the top. They didn’t and she said she was scared and nauseous from the drive. And as you know, I have issues with DH’s driving as it is, so oh boy, was I grateful for this tip which I’m passing on to you.

One thing I found very strange in Costa Brava were the young women in miniskirts or shorts and boots standing alone the highway by themselves in rather deserted areas. Makes me wonder if prostitution is legal in Spain. Also makes me feel rather sad for them.

MALLORCA

I was drawn to this island because of the raves from George Sand and Chopin, so maybe my expectations were too high, and while I enjoyed the week we spend there, and am glad we went, I wouldn’t go back. However, for beach lovers and people who love bike touring (which apparently half of Germany comes to do), it might be the perfect spot.

We stayed at a timeshare, Cali Pi, which was charming and next to a sandy, white beach. We rented a car through carjet.com, which was a must for where we were staying.

HIGHLIGHTS

I loved Valldemossa—George Sand and Chopin’s hangout, and although it was a bit “touristy,” I thought it was charming with a wonderful garden and really liked wondering around the village.

Deia—a delightful town with some wonderful panoramic views of the outlying areas.

Soller felt like I expected Palma to be—a mid-sized town with a wonderful main plaza that had some modernistic building. I really liked the feel of this town.

La Reserva—beautiful nature reserve—nice hike with wonderful waterfalls and more peacocks “showing off” than I’ve ever seen in one place before!

Coves del Drac—marvelous caves with an underground lake where they have a concert where the musicians play on boats that float into the dark and invite you to exit on the boats. Even though it’s touristy, we really enjoyed it.

Miro Foundation—difficult to find, but worth it for us.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

Palma—except for the area around the cathedral, this town didn’t appeal to me.

The Thursday market at Sineu. This was especially frustrating to me because I wanted to purchase herbs for BF here and when I asked for them (in Spanish) and even showed the salesmen what I wanted, I was told, “Oh, I know someone who can get that for you.” I’m sure they weren’t referring to the kind of herbs I wanted to purchase!

Restaurants—I honestly couldn’t make one recommendation from the entire week we were there.

Overall, I’d give this trip a 10!!! It was great and showed how important planning (but not overplanning) can be. The only minus is the jetlag I still have…but it’s worth it!

Very interesting! Thank you!

You're welcome! Will try to post pixs if I can figure out how to do that :D

Artlover! I am completely out of the fodors loop, but decided to take a look and see if I could find out how the rest of your trip went. Sounds pretty incredible, indeed, and I do hope you come back.

It was wonderful to get to meet you after so long on the board and I am currently working on getting my Mom to stay at Banys Orientals when she comes later this year.

See you again?!

Claire

Hi Claire,

I'm sortof out of the loop myself trying to catch up after being away. I do hope your mom stays there--we really enjoyed it, and you, and yes, I hope someday we can repeat the experience.

Remember those pixs Bill took? They turned out good and I'll e-mail you copies once I figure out how to do that!

Best wishes,
Paula

Makes me wonder if prostitution is legal in Spain.

Yes, it is.

Ok, thanks, that explains it.