annhig

as a birthday present, DH gave me a trip to Barcelona - aren't I a lucky woman?

the plan was to fly on easyjet from Bristol to Barcelona, arriving early afternoon, and stay for 3 nights at the www.firapalace.es, which i discovered was on the slopes of montjuic, up by one of the big museums and something called the magic fountain.

I only had about 10 days notice, so I turned to my fodorite friends for some tips, and by the time we set off, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to see and do, with gaudi and teh picasso museum towards the top of the list. However, I soon discovered that the fira palace was possibly not in the most central location, so we were going to have to do quite lot of walking and using the metro too to see all we wanted to.

we had a pretty uneventful journey there, apart from easyjet deciding that my carry-on was too big [the case was ok but the wheels took it over the size allowed] and I had to pay £16 at the gate to put it in the hold. oh well, never mind, it's my [un]birthday. fortunately the luggage was on the carossel by the time we got through passport control, and there were loads of taxis just outside the building. I'm sure that there are other ways to get into Barcelona from the airport, but after several occasions when we have wasted a load of time getting to our destination, we always get a cab there; we may use public transport on the way back. the cab was €20 from the airport to the city - a standard fare.

first impressions of the hotel from weren't brilliant as the outside is rather dull and boring, an in a pretty unpreposessing area just opposite barcelona's exhibition centre [an equivalent to olympia I suppose] but once inside, it's very bright and airy. our room was huge - there was still plenty of room to move around even though we had a king-size bed, large sofa, and full bathroom - with great views over the city. we didn't spend long indoors, but changed our clothes [it was rather warmer in barcelona than in bristol, thank goodness] and set of to explore and get some lunch - being spain, 2pm was actually early for lunch, though it was late for us!

as we had just arrived, we thought that it would be good just to wander around to get an idea of the layout of the city but this was a mistake; Barcelona is much bigger then my researches had revealed and we ended up walking through a rather flea-bitten area before we got to the centre. but we got to a rather nicer bit in the end and found ourselves in the plaza reail. hungry and thirsty, we sat down more or less at the first table we saw, and discovered that we were sat at Taxidermista, a rather trendy bar-restaurant according to my fodor's barcelona guide. we started off just with a couple of beers, but the tapas looked very good, so we tried a few - the ubiquitous pa amb tomaquet [bread with tomato and olive oil] fried calamaries, and some anchovies. all this, and a couple more beers, came to about €20 - it didn't sem like too much for what we had, but the cost of tapas soon add up. often it is actually cheaper to have a proper meal, especially at lunch-time when lots of restaurants offer a "menu del dia".

not having too much idea of where we were going, we walked on, and eventually found ourselves on the beach at Barcelonetta, where we had a couple more drinks and some olives and nuts, which came to another €12. the beach looked lovely, but we hadn't brought our cossies, so it would have to wait til later in our stay. from the beach, it's possible to get a cable car across the harbour to montjuic, with the aim of walking back down to our hotel. we got a really good view of the harbour and city and after about 5 -10 minutes, stepped out onto Montjuic. which was where our problems started. first of all, it wasn't clear where exactly on montjuic we were - our maps and the roads didn't seem to co-incide.

eventually we managed we thought to work out where we were, and started walking in what we hoped was the right direction. and walked, and walked. after what seemed like an age, we came to a park, and ended up at the fundacion joan miro, which was sort of in the right direction. finally we got to the musuem of catalan art which is at the top of the hill looking straight down over the magic fountain down to the plaza espagna, which was just along the road from our hotel.

thank goodness for that - my feet were very sore and the rest of me was not much better. why we walked so far is a mystery - but actually there was very little choice once we had got off the cable car, as there were few buses up there and no metro. time to go back and have a lie down, or at least a shower and a rest !

CAPH52

Great start, Ann! Looking forward to more!

annhig

hi caph,

thanks for the encouragement. Barcelona was a place that I had wanted to visit for a very long time, so i was thrilled when DH gave me my birthday card with the flight tickets in it. regretably, as will emerge, it didn't quite live up to expectaions.

yk

ann, thank goodness it wasn't pouring rain in Barcelona!

annhig

lol yk, rain was forecast, but the sky stayed blue [or black at night!] until the last morning when we were going home.

ironically the weather was great at home too - summer finally arrived in Cornwall just as we left!

yestravel

nice b-day present! I look forwawrd to hearing about the resrt of your weekend. And thanks again for the comment on my question re the location. Guess I can read about the opera flamenco here...

annhig

note to self - a shower and a short rest can do wonders - but unfortunately not for my feet. they were buggered! because the weather was so nice when we arrived I'd put my sandals on, quite forgetting the trouble I had in Krakow earlier in the year when I did the same thing and rubbed huge blisters.

my feet were red raw - like the meat in a butcher's window. yuck. so our options for the evening were a bit limited, but fortunately we had picked up the idea from amsdon on his spanish music thread of going to see some flamenco at the tablao di carmen in the poble espanyol which wasn't very far away, allegedly.

before I started to look at Barcelona I'd never heard of the poble espanyol. a look at the website www.poble-espanyol.com should give you an idea. the buildings are as authentic as the architects who toured spain in 1929 could make them but inevitably there is an element of disney, as there is in any artifical village. there are some nice [and some quite classy] shops, a few bars, but the main emphasis is on restaurants, or there was by the time we got there, which was about 8.30, but which time the entrance price [entrance price??? yep but fortunately at night it was only €5 each].

after a drink at a bar, we decided to try to find the tablao de carmen, [www.talbaodecarmen.com] but I didn't really want to walk too far, and strangely the map you get at the entrance numbers all the bars, shops and restaurants, but doesn't give you a key. eventually we gave up and as it was getting on for 10pm, settled dowm for something to eat at a galician restaurant, where we had some cava and some more tapas, including the silkiest, loveliest serano ham i have ever tasted - and at €10 for a plateful it was by no means their most expensive, which was €22!

of course 10pm is quite early for the spanish to eat dinner, but we were quite surprised when a family of seven [a couple plus baby and both sets of in-laws] came and sat down at the next table just as we were leaving about an hour later, and started ordering a three course meal - and they were french! incidentally, the poble stays open until 5am [yes, 5am] on Friday and sat nights in the summer if you fancy a later night, but I don't know when the restaurants stop serving.

by now we were wilting, so we decided to leave, and on the way out found, guess what? the elusive tablao de carmen. we did consider the 2nd show, which was about to start, but at €35 each for the show and a drink we decided it was a bit rich for us, and left. and found outside the longest line of coaches that i have ever seen - where were all the people? well, we soon found out as we were walking back to the hotel as we were engulfed by all the folks who'd been watching the magic fountain, which we realised we'd missed. boohoo. but just then it started up again, and we had five lovely minutes of the patterns being made by the water, the colours, and the music, [you know it's over when they do camina burana as nothing can follow that] and because everyone had left, we had it to ourselves [and perhaps a 100 others!]

from there it was a gentle [thank goodness] downhill stroll back to the fira palace and bed.

tomorrow [yestravel-this is for you] we actually get to see some flamenco.

CAPH52

The Magic Fountain was one of many things we didn't get to during our short stay. Sounds like it was lovely. And crowded! Glad you at least got a peek at it though.

annhig

CAPH - more than a peek - we saw it two nights out of three. the crowds up there were incredible - the escalators and walkways up from the plaza D'espagna were chocka. so our location at the fira palace was from that point of view perfect.

TDudette

Just realized I had missed your Barcelona report. Is there more? My friend said she almost passed out when she saw how "beautiful" the male dancer was... LOL

Nikki

Another reader just finding this and hoping for more.

annhig

dudette - not sure I'm following that beautiful male dancer reference but perhaps it's me!

Nikki - I hope to get round to it later this week.

thanks for the encouragement, both of you.

yestravel

and i'm waiting 2 hear about the Opera/flamenco!

annhig

ok, you asked for it!

Day 2.

one of the disadvantages of the fira palace turned out to be an advantage - because of it's position it was VERY quiet. until we opened the curtains and looked at the clock, we had no idea what time it was. so it turned out that any ideas of an early start were scuppered because we didn't wake up til gone 9am.

after a quick shower and running repairs to my feet [ouch] we were up and ready for breakfast. but we weren't ready to pay €19 each for the priviledge of eating it in the hotel, so we wandered slooowly [it helped to let my feet get into gear not to rush things] down to the placa d'espanya to see if there was anything down there before we grappled with buying our metro tickets.

luckily, right next to the metro stop [and yet another police station - fortunately or unfortunately depending on whether you are more afraid of criminals or ETA we seemed to be surounded by them] was what looked like a little bar which might sell breakfast. driven by hunger and undaunted by our almost total lack of ability to ask for what we wanted in catalan OR spanish, we ventured in, and by a combination of our bad spanish, and their english, managed to obtain dos desayunos para €6, which turned out to be good strong coffee with milk, croissants, and large glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice. RESULT. [they also did breakfast for €12 pp but we never found out what it was!]. behind the bar where they did the coffees and had a dislpay of tapas that looked very good, the interior turned out to be much bigger than it looked [a sort of tardis effect] and would probably be agood place for a meal if you wer in the area.

while we were sat there considering what we were going to do, DH decided that he wanted to go back for the camera, so I was deputed to pay [easy bit] and decide what sort of tickets we ought to buy for the metro/buses. [hard bit]. do other people find this as hard as i do? day pass, two day pass, carnet? whichever I choose, it's always wrong and turns out to be the MOST expensive option. anyway, not knowing how many journeys we were going to take, we opted for the 1 day pass, at €5.90 each, and set off to find our way to our first object for the day, the cathedral and the barri gottico.

I suppose that few people who are going to Barcelona have missed those "beware of pickpockets" threads, but that was not uppermost in our minds as we stood to get on the Line 3 metro to diagonale. after all we'd both lived and worked in London and were "streetwise" weren't we? but suddenly as the train came in and we all moved forward to get on, DH looked very perturbed and felt his back trouser pocket [how many times have I told him NOT to put his credit cards in there?], and then looked very suspiciously at a girl who had been standing very close to him but now wasn't, but relieved at the same time. Phew. a close shave.

the cathedral turned to be nothing special [excuse me if it's one of your particular favourites] so we set off to follow a walking tour around the area that I'd found in a guide book. I usually like to follow somethiin like this, not because they are particularly good in themselves, but they do at least stop you wandering round and round in ever decreasing circles. the area is certainly very atmospheric and we had a pleasant hour wandering about, before we stopped for a beer in a little square to consider our next stop. I was very keen to see some gaudi, so we hit on going to the casa mila. but before that DH suggsted that we go to the palau di musica to pick up our tickets so as to save time in the evening. great idea, in theory. However, this turned out to be the ONE thing that was affected by its being the catalan national day, as when we got there, the ticket office was shut and the automatic ticket machines weren't working - typical. but we were suitably impressed by the building, and very much looking forward to the concert in the evening.


by the time we got to diagonale station [taking very great care of DH's back pocket] we had just about recovered and staggered out into the sunshine, which was getting quite warm. Sadly, the queues to get in were far beyond what my limited enthusiasm for Gaudi could tolerate, so after taking a few photos of the outside, we set off to walk around the eixample, walking in the rough direction of the sagradi familia, thinking that we HAD to see at least one Gaudi buidling in full while were we in Barcelona, and friends of our whose taste we usually share had been blown away by it.

our stomachs were beginning to tell us that it was lunchtime, but in three days, it is difficult to adjust to spanish eating times, and at 1pm, it was still rather early for the locals. we came across what seemed to me to be a perfect restaurant near a market, with a menu that offered such delights as pig's trotter, liver, and tripe, as well as some mroe conventional dishes. sadly though, as DH pointed out, we would have been the only people in there, which wasn't much of an advert. so after a bit more wandering around we ended up at a nice outdoor cafe which was offering that well known spanish favourite "osso buco", for a bargain €8 including rice, and salad. so we ordered two and it was excellent; in fact we had to ask for more bread to mop up the gravy. with two beers, it cost us a very reasonable €20 including a tip.

thus fed and watered we set off on foot [probably a mistake] for the sagrada familia, which was not the best signposted monument I've ever come across, but we got there in the end. and proceeded to be considerably underwhelmed. perhaps our friends' enthusiasm had increased our expectations beyond what was reasonable, but both the setting and the building itself were IMHO a let-down. Gaudi seems to have been the sort of designer who when inspired with a number of ideas, instead of selecting a few of the best, just threw them all into the mix. so the outside is a mishmash of any number of conflicting images - people, animals, and I'm sure alot of other stuff that we couldn't recognise.

the inside is the opposite - spare, and possibly inspiring, were it not for the building works which are going on [though not actually taking place when we were there, it being "luuchtime" for the spanish builder, apparently] and are due to finish in 2030, if not later. our verdict - at €9 each, excluding the tower which we were NOT going to pay another €4 to go up, - the biggest rip-off we've come across in a long time. my advice - look but don't touch, ie walk round the outside to your heart's content, which costs you nothing, but don't bother with the interior. how our friends spent half a day in there is a mystery - we had difficulty stretching it out to 1/2 a hour, but we were determined to get our money's worth so went down into the crypt, which took at least 10 minutes.

by this time we had had enough, so we lept [or in my case, tottered painfully] onto the nearby tube, and made our way back to the hotel to have a rest and shower. which is where having a hotel a bit closer at hand would have been better because what with the long underground passages and the walk up to the hotel from placa d'espanya, my feet were pretty well b...ed by the time we got back. so instead of being able to go out dressed in my finery [DH, stop that smirking], i was limited to sensible shoes and trousers, which was a shame.

luckily we were not heading for a high-end dining establishment, but anywhere half-way decent near the palau da musica, as we had still got to collect the tickets. after we got back to the barri gotic area we were able to grab a table outside the cathedral, and after a drink [our first cavas] which wasn't too pricey considering the area, we found a restaurant a few hundred meters from the concert hall, which had a menu del dia for about €15.


.....more later.

annhig

right, I'm back.

I'm a bit hazy about what we got for our €15 - I know that I had a grilled fish with some potatoes, and we both ended with the ubiquitous flan [creme caramel to us]. with wine and coffee it cost about €40. while I was settling up [do you notice a theme here?] DH went off to get the tickets and we were ready to go, with 15 mins or so to spare.

in daylight the palau de la musica is quite difficult to see as it is surrounded by other buildings, in fact the best pics are postcards from a bookshop in the lane opposite. at night it glows both inside and out, and the guide-book that said that it was worth getting concert tickets just to see the interior was dead right. art nouveau? art deco? [I'm never sure of the difference]. whichever, it's glorious - beautiful glass, ceramics and sculptures whereever you turn, all crowned by a stained glass cupola.

as for the music, well, it seemed to be suffering from the same problem as gaudi - not knowing what to miss out. DH had chosen an unusual programme of opera and flamenco, [rather than the guitar soloist which was the choice the next night, and had I been consulted, I would have preferred as it was heavy with da faia and other spanish classics] and it wasn't long before we realised why they are rarely paired together. but the 10 or so strong orchestra of young players were enthusiastic and talented and the flamenco music and dancing was good, insofar as I'm qualified to tell. over the opera [a programme of "favourite" arias, sung by a tenor and soprano] we will draw a veil. which is not to say that they were bad, just pointless.

I suppose that the spanish thing to do would have been to go to a nightclub after the performance ended [at about 10.30] but a day of sightseeing with dodgy feet would not permit, even if I'd wanted to, so we were quickly back on the metro and back to the hotel for another quiet night in the fira palace, and a go at the blisters.

tejana

Sorry to hear that you were underwhelmed by Barca - it is one of DH & my favorite places in the world, and one of the few that we both agree we could happily move to. Of course, hubby is an architectural engineer, so walking anywhere in the Barrio Gothic or the Eixample areas was absolute heaven for him, and don't get him started on the wonders of a Gaudi building. For me, I love the architecture, too, but it is even more the FEEL of the city itself ( I tend to describe it as Paris without Parisians, and on a beach...), as well as the people and the food (perhaps not necessarily in that order). Lunch at Los Caracoles, starting with a big plate of chiperones and a bottle of cava, is at the top of my list for wishes for a last meal.

Nikki

Actually, the Spanish thing to do would have been to go to dinner after the performance ended at 10:30. Nightclubs don't get started until later.

TDudette

I meant to say the dancer my friend saw!

Also sorry you weren't more excited about Barcelona but understand. I always wonder if I'd gone there before Paris, my attitude would have been warmer as well.

SashieZ

How was day 3?

yestravel

sounds a bit like our experience with Opera/flamenco so think we'll opt for the guitar progam when we go this Spring.... Funny about Gaudi, u either love him or hate him. I'm of the former camp. Enjoying reading your report.