Help with planning a week in/around Barcelona Sept 09
 

Help! My husband and I are finishing up a week in northern Italy by flying to Barcelona, and have about 6 days to spend there. We will be there the last week of September. We love art museums, architecture, good food, good wine, walking, markets, and he is a skilled semiprofessional photographer who speaks (Mexican) Spanish. We want to plan about 3 days in Barcelona, then rent a car and travel into the surrounding countryside for the next 3 days, perhaps seeing some wineries (good time, harvest, although we expect them to be busy and less than available to tourists - ). Does anyone have some suggestions for where to go outside of Barcelona for three days and nights and what to do? I have downloaded Maribel's guides to Barcelona and am pretty prepared for what to do in the city, just don't know where to go from there with the limited time we have...thanks in advance!

Just so you know, the language of Barcelona is Catalan, not Spanish.

This wine region is near Tarragona, but the websites are not in English.
http://www.turismepriorat.org/

http://www.priorat.org/vi.php?PHPSES...7f5a16fe690226

http://www.espavino.com/spain_wine_r...es_priorat.php

Girona & the greater Costa Brava area to the north are worth considering. Not a wine area but great for art, architecture, food & all the rest.

Ian

Thanks - we'll just have to muddle through without speaking Catalan....since we are most interested in the Priorat and Penedes wine country and it seems closest, does anyone have any suggestions about where to stay in that area? Would Tarragona be a nice place to stay for a night or two?

"Just so you know, the language of Barcelona is Catalan, not Spanish."

after 3 visits to Barcelona , I can assure you that not speaking Catalan is not a problem. Spanish is spoken by almost everyone

Since you like museums, you are in for a treat in Barcelona. The Miro, Picasso, the Tapies Foundation, among others. On Thursday evenings you can tour an apt inside Casa Mila, which was very worthwhile, but guided tour is in Spanish.
I agree, you will get along just fine with Spanish.