R & R in Barcelona
Jul 23rd, 2009, 01:04 PM
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R & R in Barcelona
<b>Some Background Info</b>
We (DH and DS and I) arrived in Barcelona June 9th and left June 12th. It's taken me awhile to get to this report because our stay there was part of a much longer trip. In order to understand why we "did" Barcelona as we did, it helps to know that we went there after eight days in Ireland for our daughter's wedding:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...fodors-gtg.cfm
No, you don't need to read the (very long) trip report! I'm just throwing in the link for anyone who happens to be interested. All you really need to know is that the wedding had a lot to do with the amount of time we had to spend in Barcelona and how we wound up spending it.
As I said in the Ireland report, when I was planning this trip I decided that I'd do a separate report for each destination. Besides being less unwieldy, I think it's more efficient for anyone trying to find info on a particular destination. As I also said in that report, you may need to bear with me! I'm hoping to get this report done fairly quickly. I'm not sure how much longer my memory will hold out! But I've been known to take a while to finish a report. So far I <i>have</i> always finished them though!
Pretty much from the time we knew the wedding was going to be in Ireland, we knew that as long as we were going to be in Europe, we wanted to sneak in a short trip somewhere else. Neither my husband nor my son had ever been on the continent. And who knows how long it'll be before we have another opportunity! Between the economy, the fact that our daughter has only been out of college a year and our son still has two years to go.... Well, you get the picture!
Since I'd been lucky enough to go to Paris while visiting our daughter in Ireland two years previous, I felt the choice of destination should go to DH and DS. When our son asked our SIL for ideas he immediately suggested Barcelona. And the more DS looked into it, the more he liked that idea. While I wouldn't go so far as to call either DS or DH an architecture buff, they both definitely have an interest in it. So, of course, they were intrigued by the Gaudi sites. And DS is a <I>huge</I> sports fanatic. So the opportunity to tour Camp Nou was another draw as far as he was concerned.
By late January we'd decided that Barcelona was the best choice for us and I began doing research here. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the wonderful Barcelona posters here, most notably JulieVikmanis, danon, Maribel and OHandrew. But also to yk and all the other posters whose trip reports I read or who took the time to answer my many questions.
It didn't take me long to realize that nearly everything I read about Barcelona, whether here or in a guidebook, mentioned the crime. And the more I read, the more nervous I got. In fact, at one point, I posted here that had we not already purchased our plane tickets and booked an apartment, I'd try to talk DH and DS into choosing another destination. But now I can say thank goodness it was already too late by that time! We were very cautious. But we had no problems. And we loved Barcelona! It was, without a doubt, the perfect place for us to recover from the wedding. What a shame it would have been if we'd let all the dire warnings keep us from visiting! Not that I'm downplaying the crime. I know that it <i>is</i> a serious problem and visitors definitely need to be aware of it. But there's so much more to Barcelona than pickpockets!
We weren't able to do open jaw tickets. Because we knew we had to be in Ireland at a specific time, when we got emails from Aer Lingus in January advertising good fares for said dates, we jumped on it. And at that point, we didn't yet know where else we wanted to go. But I think it all worked out reasonably well. We had some problems scheduling the trip from Dublin to Barcelona. But flying open jaw wouldn't have made any difference with that part of the trip.
The problems with the trip to BCN were a combination of inconvenient (for us) flight times and the fact that my MIL and her brother were with us in Ireland. They were flying home the same day we were leaving for Spain and their departure time was smack in the middle of our two choices.
So we wound up deciding that DS and I would take the 6:40 AM flight, get to Barcelona and meet with the apartment people, get settled etc. Meanwhile, DH would get his mother and uncle to the airport, return our rental car and do a little sightseeing in Dublin before taking the evening flight to Barcelona.
Oh, and I should probably add that, though we looked into Ryanair, we flew Aer Lingus. Ryanair flies into Girona, about an hour from Barcelona. So we decided we'd rather spend a little more money and save time by going with Aer Lingus, which flies into BCN. When I booked the tickets (I wound up having to call because of the fraud settings with my cc), I was told that the flights to Spain could be linked to our transatlantic flights and we wouldn't have to pay for baggage checking. So we saved a bit there. All in all, we were very happy with the Aer Lingus flights. And I guess I owe a thank you to the credit company as well. If I hadn't had to call Aer Lingus, I wouldn't have found out about linking the flights!
We (DH and DS and I) arrived in Barcelona June 9th and left June 12th. It's taken me awhile to get to this report because our stay there was part of a much longer trip. In order to understand why we "did" Barcelona as we did, it helps to know that we went there after eight days in Ireland for our daughter's wedding:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...fodors-gtg.cfm
No, you don't need to read the (very long) trip report! I'm just throwing in the link for anyone who happens to be interested. All you really need to know is that the wedding had a lot to do with the amount of time we had to spend in Barcelona and how we wound up spending it.
As I said in the Ireland report, when I was planning this trip I decided that I'd do a separate report for each destination. Besides being less unwieldy, I think it's more efficient for anyone trying to find info on a particular destination. As I also said in that report, you may need to bear with me! I'm hoping to get this report done fairly quickly. I'm not sure how much longer my memory will hold out! But I've been known to take a while to finish a report. So far I <i>have</i> always finished them though!
Pretty much from the time we knew the wedding was going to be in Ireland, we knew that as long as we were going to be in Europe, we wanted to sneak in a short trip somewhere else. Neither my husband nor my son had ever been on the continent. And who knows how long it'll be before we have another opportunity! Between the economy, the fact that our daughter has only been out of college a year and our son still has two years to go.... Well, you get the picture!
Since I'd been lucky enough to go to Paris while visiting our daughter in Ireland two years previous, I felt the choice of destination should go to DH and DS. When our son asked our SIL for ideas he immediately suggested Barcelona. And the more DS looked into it, the more he liked that idea. While I wouldn't go so far as to call either DS or DH an architecture buff, they both definitely have an interest in it. So, of course, they were intrigued by the Gaudi sites. And DS is a <I>huge</I> sports fanatic. So the opportunity to tour Camp Nou was another draw as far as he was concerned.
By late January we'd decided that Barcelona was the best choice for us and I began doing research here. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the wonderful Barcelona posters here, most notably JulieVikmanis, danon, Maribel and OHandrew. But also to yk and all the other posters whose trip reports I read or who took the time to answer my many questions.
It didn't take me long to realize that nearly everything I read about Barcelona, whether here or in a guidebook, mentioned the crime. And the more I read, the more nervous I got. In fact, at one point, I posted here that had we not already purchased our plane tickets and booked an apartment, I'd try to talk DH and DS into choosing another destination. But now I can say thank goodness it was already too late by that time! We were very cautious. But we had no problems. And we loved Barcelona! It was, without a doubt, the perfect place for us to recover from the wedding. What a shame it would have been if we'd let all the dire warnings keep us from visiting! Not that I'm downplaying the crime. I know that it <i>is</i> a serious problem and visitors definitely need to be aware of it. But there's so much more to Barcelona than pickpockets!
We weren't able to do open jaw tickets. Because we knew we had to be in Ireland at a specific time, when we got emails from Aer Lingus in January advertising good fares for said dates, we jumped on it. And at that point, we didn't yet know where else we wanted to go. But I think it all worked out reasonably well. We had some problems scheduling the trip from Dublin to Barcelona. But flying open jaw wouldn't have made any difference with that part of the trip.
The problems with the trip to BCN were a combination of inconvenient (for us) flight times and the fact that my MIL and her brother were with us in Ireland. They were flying home the same day we were leaving for Spain and their departure time was smack in the middle of our two choices.
So we wound up deciding that DS and I would take the 6:40 AM flight, get to Barcelona and meet with the apartment people, get settled etc. Meanwhile, DH would get his mother and uncle to the airport, return our rental car and do a little sightseeing in Dublin before taking the evening flight to Barcelona.
Oh, and I should probably add that, though we looked into Ryanair, we flew Aer Lingus. Ryanair flies into Girona, about an hour from Barcelona. So we decided we'd rather spend a little more money and save time by going with Aer Lingus, which flies into BCN. When I booked the tickets (I wound up having to call because of the fraud settings with my cc), I was told that the flights to Spain could be linked to our transatlantic flights and we wouldn't have to pay for baggage checking. So we saved a bit there. All in all, we were very happy with the Aer Lingus flights. And I guess I owe a thank you to the credit company as well. If I hadn't had to call Aer Lingus, I wouldn't have found out about linking the flights!
Jul 24th, 2009, 09:35 AM
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<b>June 9th: We Arrive in Barcelona</b>
When we first decided on Barcelona, I looked into various lodging options. But the more trip reports I read, the more interested I became in the idea of renting an apartment. We've rented a condo in Frisco, CO twice and really enjoyed the experience. But we've never really had the opportunity to do it elsewhere because we don't usually stay in one place long enough. When I found out that we could rent an apartment in Barcelona for just three nights, I knew this was something I wanted to try. And DH and DS liked the idea as well.
We looked at apartments on the websites of three or four rental companies. Thanks to recommendations here, we decided to go with Habitat. http://www.habitatapartments.com/en/ And I think it was a very good choice. Actually, I think both the idea of renting an apartment and the company we went with were good choices!
We chose their Sots 3 Apartment which is on the 3rd floor of a building on Sots Tinent Navarro http://www.habitatapartments.com/en/...view/sots3.htm. It's in the Barri Gotic very near El Born and an easy walk from the port. I know many people see this as an "iffy" area. But, as I said before, we had no problems. We found it to be a very interesting and convenient area. We liked the apartment itself. It was small but definitely gave us more room than we'd have had in a hotel. And we loved having the little terrace! Best of all, the apartment was quiet! Between being on what we in the US would call the 4th floor and the fact that there didn't seem to be much going on in that street in the evenings, noise just wasn't a problem.
Seeing a current poster having trouble finding an apartment for September reminded me that we jumped on this one on a Saturday in early February. We were in Madison, WI visiting our son at school and had gone back to our hotel to look at three apartments we were considering when we realized that one of them had been snatched up for our dates! We made a quick decision and booked immediately.
One of my few negative experiences with Habitat had to do with the time they arranged to meet us. I'd received an e-mail asking for flight info and wanting to arrange a time to meet at the apartment. Since our flight was due in at 10:10, I'd suggested noon but they said 11:00 would be better.
Our flight arrived on time. But we encountered our first experience with having to take a shuttle bus from the plane to the airport! That took a bit of time. As did getting our luggage. Though we didn't have any trouble finding the bus from the airport to Placa de Catalunya, http://www.barcelona-airport.com/eng/transport_eng.htm there was a line. I can't remember exactly how long the trip took but I think it might have been around twenty minutes.
I'd printed out directions for walking from the plaza to our apartment. But I'd also asked here about taking a taxi. And I was glad I had! We were just too tired to deal with pulling our luggage through unfamiliar streets for a distance of nearly a mile! Our taxi driver spoke very little English. And though I really believe that it's courteous to try to learn a few words of the language of the country you're visiting, I am, sadly, one of those people who have no facility with languages. I took three years of Spanish in high school. And I try to pick up a word here and there from the Latino kids with whom I work. But mostly they find my efforts amusing! To be blunt about it, my Spanish sucks! And, as for Catalan, forget it! But, fortunately, our driver was very nice and very patient with us! Because Sots Tinent Navarro is a pedestrian street, he wasn't able to take us all the way. But he got us pretty close and managed to convey directions to us for getting the rest of the way. As for how much the taxi cost, this is one of those times I wish I'd taken notes or gotten the report done sooner! I think, with tip, it was €6, but it may have been €5.
By the time we got to the apartment it was noon! And, of course, there was no one there to meet us. But we called their office and a woman came within a very short time. She was a very friendly woman and spoke English well enough that we had no problems. We paid her €360 cash for the three of us for three nights, no deposit and no cleaning fee (which some of the other companies charge).
I think I forgot to say that, even though we'd only come from Ireland, we may as well have been jet lagged for all the sleep we'd gotten the night before. We'd had a last dinner out with our daughter and SIL, his parents, my MIL and her brother. It was midnight by the time we got to our hotel. And we had a 3:15 wake up call for our very early flight! We were so nervous that we'd oversleep and miss our flight that I don't think either of us got more than half an hour of sleep. So by the time the Habitat woman left and we got settled in a bit, we knew that if we didn't get out and move around, we'd be asleep in no time. And probably sleep the day away!
So we decided to check out the neighborhood. Sots Tinent Navarro is a short street, roughly three blocks. A couple of blocks from our apartment there was a piece of the old Roman wall that had been incorporated into a building. And not far beyond that was the intersection with one of the busy, narrow streets in the Barri Gotic. What an interesting area! Lots of medieval, shop-lined streets that open onto plazas.
Shortly after we'd decided that it was time to get something to eat, we were lucky enough to come across Taller de Tapas. http://www.tallerdetapas.com/cas/joseporiol/index.html I'd read about this Barcelona "chain" here on Fodor's as well as in a couple of guide books. I knew that it was popular among English speaking tourists because of the ease of ordering from their bilingual menu. We were both very much looking forward to trying the wonderful food we'd read about. And, tired as we were, the fact that it would be less intimidating was very appealing!
There were a fair number of people eating in their outdoor seating area. But we'd chosen to eat inside. We were seated at a table for two in the window of a room in which, at times, we were the only diners. We ordered the Galician style braised octopus, Patatas Bravas (thick cut fries served with a spicy paprika sauce and garlic aioli), a salt cod, tomato, onion, red pepper and black olive salad, and a langastino skewer served on garlic bread. My son ordered a coke and I had a small bottle of still water. We finished with the crema catalana. It was all wonderful! But our favorites were the Patatas Bravas (with which we fell in love!) and the octopus. Our bill was €31,46.
We'd originally planned to take the Bus Turistic that afternoon, getting off at Camp Nou for the tour. But we really weren't up to it. The time stamp on our restaurant receipt is 13:37, so it must've been nearly 2:00 by the time we left. I was so beat at that point that we decided to head back to the apartment. And, though my memory is a bit fuzzy, I think we napped for a while.
Late in the afternoon we decided that we'd better head back out and pick up some "provisions". We needed water, juice, wine, etc. And we'd realized there was neither soap in the bathroom nor enough toilet paper to last for three days. So we walked around for a bit and then went to a little grocery store a few blocks from the apartment. I loved looking around in the grocery stores in Barcelona! So many interesting items that we don't have here. And we found the prices to be very good.
We'd decided that we really weren't up to dealing with eating out that evening. And we suspected that my husband wouldn't be either. His plane wasn't due in until after 9:00 so we figured it'd be after 10:00 by the time he arrived at the apartment. It would still be the usual late Spanish dinner! But in the apartment. So we picked up ham and cheese, crackers, some great little sandwich size rolls, olives, some very tasty little individual flans, etc.
We went back to the apartment, munched a bit, I had some wine on the terrace and we waited for DH to arrive. He had no problems with his flight, the bus or the taxi and enjoyed seeing all the activity in the streets at that time of night. We had our late, light dinner and called it an early night!
When we first decided on Barcelona, I looked into various lodging options. But the more trip reports I read, the more interested I became in the idea of renting an apartment. We've rented a condo in Frisco, CO twice and really enjoyed the experience. But we've never really had the opportunity to do it elsewhere because we don't usually stay in one place long enough. When I found out that we could rent an apartment in Barcelona for just three nights, I knew this was something I wanted to try. And DH and DS liked the idea as well.
We looked at apartments on the websites of three or four rental companies. Thanks to recommendations here, we decided to go with Habitat. http://www.habitatapartments.com/en/ And I think it was a very good choice. Actually, I think both the idea of renting an apartment and the company we went with were good choices!
We chose their Sots 3 Apartment which is on the 3rd floor of a building on Sots Tinent Navarro http://www.habitatapartments.com/en/...view/sots3.htm. It's in the Barri Gotic very near El Born and an easy walk from the port. I know many people see this as an "iffy" area. But, as I said before, we had no problems. We found it to be a very interesting and convenient area. We liked the apartment itself. It was small but definitely gave us more room than we'd have had in a hotel. And we loved having the little terrace! Best of all, the apartment was quiet! Between being on what we in the US would call the 4th floor and the fact that there didn't seem to be much going on in that street in the evenings, noise just wasn't a problem.
Seeing a current poster having trouble finding an apartment for September reminded me that we jumped on this one on a Saturday in early February. We were in Madison, WI visiting our son at school and had gone back to our hotel to look at three apartments we were considering when we realized that one of them had been snatched up for our dates! We made a quick decision and booked immediately.
One of my few negative experiences with Habitat had to do with the time they arranged to meet us. I'd received an e-mail asking for flight info and wanting to arrange a time to meet at the apartment. Since our flight was due in at 10:10, I'd suggested noon but they said 11:00 would be better.
Our flight arrived on time. But we encountered our first experience with having to take a shuttle bus from the plane to the airport! That took a bit of time. As did getting our luggage. Though we didn't have any trouble finding the bus from the airport to Placa de Catalunya, http://www.barcelona-airport.com/eng/transport_eng.htm there was a line. I can't remember exactly how long the trip took but I think it might have been around twenty minutes.
I'd printed out directions for walking from the plaza to our apartment. But I'd also asked here about taking a taxi. And I was glad I had! We were just too tired to deal with pulling our luggage through unfamiliar streets for a distance of nearly a mile! Our taxi driver spoke very little English. And though I really believe that it's courteous to try to learn a few words of the language of the country you're visiting, I am, sadly, one of those people who have no facility with languages. I took three years of Spanish in high school. And I try to pick up a word here and there from the Latino kids with whom I work. But mostly they find my efforts amusing! To be blunt about it, my Spanish sucks! And, as for Catalan, forget it! But, fortunately, our driver was very nice and very patient with us! Because Sots Tinent Navarro is a pedestrian street, he wasn't able to take us all the way. But he got us pretty close and managed to convey directions to us for getting the rest of the way. As for how much the taxi cost, this is one of those times I wish I'd taken notes or gotten the report done sooner! I think, with tip, it was €6, but it may have been €5.
By the time we got to the apartment it was noon! And, of course, there was no one there to meet us. But we called their office and a woman came within a very short time. She was a very friendly woman and spoke English well enough that we had no problems. We paid her €360 cash for the three of us for three nights, no deposit and no cleaning fee (which some of the other companies charge).
I think I forgot to say that, even though we'd only come from Ireland, we may as well have been jet lagged for all the sleep we'd gotten the night before. We'd had a last dinner out with our daughter and SIL, his parents, my MIL and her brother. It was midnight by the time we got to our hotel. And we had a 3:15 wake up call for our very early flight! We were so nervous that we'd oversleep and miss our flight that I don't think either of us got more than half an hour of sleep. So by the time the Habitat woman left and we got settled in a bit, we knew that if we didn't get out and move around, we'd be asleep in no time. And probably sleep the day away!
So we decided to check out the neighborhood. Sots Tinent Navarro is a short street, roughly three blocks. A couple of blocks from our apartment there was a piece of the old Roman wall that had been incorporated into a building. And not far beyond that was the intersection with one of the busy, narrow streets in the Barri Gotic. What an interesting area! Lots of medieval, shop-lined streets that open onto plazas.
Shortly after we'd decided that it was time to get something to eat, we were lucky enough to come across Taller de Tapas. http://www.tallerdetapas.com/cas/joseporiol/index.html I'd read about this Barcelona "chain" here on Fodor's as well as in a couple of guide books. I knew that it was popular among English speaking tourists because of the ease of ordering from their bilingual menu. We were both very much looking forward to trying the wonderful food we'd read about. And, tired as we were, the fact that it would be less intimidating was very appealing!
There were a fair number of people eating in their outdoor seating area. But we'd chosen to eat inside. We were seated at a table for two in the window of a room in which, at times, we were the only diners. We ordered the Galician style braised octopus, Patatas Bravas (thick cut fries served with a spicy paprika sauce and garlic aioli), a salt cod, tomato, onion, red pepper and black olive salad, and a langastino skewer served on garlic bread. My son ordered a coke and I had a small bottle of still water. We finished with the crema catalana. It was all wonderful! But our favorites were the Patatas Bravas (with which we fell in love!) and the octopus. Our bill was €31,46.
We'd originally planned to take the Bus Turistic that afternoon, getting off at Camp Nou for the tour. But we really weren't up to it. The time stamp on our restaurant receipt is 13:37, so it must've been nearly 2:00 by the time we left. I was so beat at that point that we decided to head back to the apartment. And, though my memory is a bit fuzzy, I think we napped for a while.
Late in the afternoon we decided that we'd better head back out and pick up some "provisions". We needed water, juice, wine, etc. And we'd realized there was neither soap in the bathroom nor enough toilet paper to last for three days. So we walked around for a bit and then went to a little grocery store a few blocks from the apartment. I loved looking around in the grocery stores in Barcelona! So many interesting items that we don't have here. And we found the prices to be very good.
We'd decided that we really weren't up to dealing with eating out that evening. And we suspected that my husband wouldn't be either. His plane wasn't due in until after 9:00 so we figured it'd be after 10:00 by the time he arrived at the apartment. It would still be the usual late Spanish dinner! But in the apartment. So we picked up ham and cheese, crackers, some great little sandwich size rolls, olives, some very tasty little individual flans, etc.
We went back to the apartment, munched a bit, I had some wine on the terrace and we waited for DH to arrive. He had no problems with his flight, the bus or the taxi and enjoyed seeing all the activity in the streets at that time of night. We had our late, light dinner and called it an early night!
Jul 24th, 2009, 10:01 AM
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Thanks, mms! Spending time in the grocery stores is one of the really nice things about being in an apartment, don't you think? Not that we didn't go in the grocery stores in the UK too. But having a fridge sure makes it easier to try more stuff! 
Jul 25th, 2009, 04:09 PM
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<b>June 10th: Bus Turistic's Blue Route</b>
In her guide, http://www.maribelsguides.com/ Maribel recommends being at Placa de Catalunya when the buses begin boarding in the morning. And we really intended to do that. But it didn't happen! We slept a little later than we'd planned and took our time with a leisurely light breakfast, putting in a load of laundry, etc. So I think it was about 10:00 by the time we left the apartment.
It was a beautiful sunny morning and we had a very pleasant walk to the plaza. We purchased two day tickets for Bus Turistic, €81 for the three of us. And, IMHO, well worth it! I know that there are some Fodorites who don't like hop-on/hop-offs. And I understand their reasons. But Bus Turistic seems to be more highly regarded than the hop-on/hop offs in some cities, most notably London. And, more to the point, it was perfect for us on that particular trip. It was an easy, relaxing way to see much more of the city than we would otherwise have seen in the amount of time we had (not to mention the amount of energy we had).
When you purchase your ticket, they give you a map of Barcelona showing the three Bus Turistic routes - red, blue and green - and a little booklet of coupons for various sites, restaurants, etc.
We'd decided we'd start with the blue buses, which cover a more southern route than the red ones. We also decided we'd start by doing the full circuit to get a good "overview". Even though we'd gotten a later start than we'd wanted, we had no problem getting seats together on the top deck. We even got the very front seats! They were great for seeing the sights, but not so great for taking pictures as many of them had a reflection from the "windshield".
We'd been given earphones when we boarded the bus. There was a taped "spiel" available in several languages. I'm not sure I'd ever had another experience with this type of tour, so I don't have anything with which to compare it. But I thought the English version was pretty good. Obviously, traffic doesn't always move at exactly the same speed, so there were times when it was a little bit ahead or behind where we were. But never to the point where it was annoying. I found the information interesting and pretty thorough though there was a time or two that we passed something I was curious about that they didn't mention. I also liked the music they used as background or filler, it was appropriate for the location and relaxing.
We were soon riding down majestic Passeig de Gracia, passing Gaudi homes and other amazing architecture. But a ways farther along our route I began to wonder whether Barcelona was a city of nothing but stores as we seemed to go through shopping district after shopping district! However, even that was very enjoyable as we passed along wide, palm tree lined streets. Since we're from the midwest, seeing palm trees makes us feel we must be in a vacation destination!
Eventually we came to the Placa de Espanya and headed up toward Montjuic. We were very impressed with that area of Barcelona and decided we wanted to come back later in the day.
During the very pleasant ride through the port area, we realized we were getting hungry. Since DS and I had so enjoyed Taller de Tapas and DH hadn't been with us, we decided we'd get off the bus in the Barri Gotic and hope that we could find the restaurant again.
Fortunately DS has a pretty good sense of direction and, though we might not have taken the most direct route, we did find it! Again we chose to sit inside and were put in the same room as the day before. While still not crowded, there were definitely more other diners this time.
Because we'd enjoyed them so much, we decided to get two orders of the Patatas Bravas! The day before we'd somehow missed ordering the tomato bread (lovely coarse bread rubbed with tomato) that seems to be ubiquitous in Barcelona. But fortunately, on this visit, the waiter asked if we wanted it. We also ordered fried calamari, a (braised?) seafood mixture that included razor clams and regular clams, shrimp with chilies and garlic in a clay pot and a wonderful dish of spinach, chick peas and pancetta. DH and DS each had two cokes and I had a small bottle of water. The bill was €49,59. Once again, a delicious lunch!
After we ate we went back to the apartment to rest a bit and look up the directions to Santa Caterina Market. The ones we found were pretty circuitous! That made for a very interesting walk but resulted in our getting there with not much time to spare before their 3:30 closing. We were awfully glad we did get to see it though. The "wavy" roof is very interesting. And the food! Oh, my! I can't remember whether we'd gone knowing that we wanted to pick up food for dinner in the apartment. Or whether seeing the food made us decide we'd rather eat in!
We bought three or four types of wonderful olives for what would, in Chicago, be a ridiculously low price, just over €3 for all of them! And we picked up two very interesting artisan type pizzas. One was veggie, the other was basically a heart attack on a plate - bacon, lots of cheese and, I think, ham.
On the way to take our purchases back to the apartment, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up lots more goodies. We needed more water, Coke and wine and also got more ham and cheese, as well as some sliced chorizo. DH wanted strawberry jam for breakfast so we picked up a small jar. (And was it ever good, no high fructose corn syrup!) I got a bag of wonderful little dried baguette type of things, somewhere between toast and crackers, that turned out to be excellent with the jam. We also bought more individual flans, this time with whipped cream on the top! Decadent and oh, so good! (And cheap! I think we paid less than a Euro for the 4 pack!)
After dropping our purchases, we headed back out and caught the blue Bus Turistic a ways up Via Laietana (which is a block over from Sots Tinent Navarro). We took it to the stop nearest Casa Batllo, one of the Gaudi houses. After taking pictures of the outside of the house, we used our coupons from Bus Turistic to get 20% off of DH's and my admission, DS used his student ID which got him in for the same price. It was €13,20 each.
The house was crowded. But not to the point that it dimmed our enjoyment. The admission included an audio guide. It was very interesting but not of the best quality. The first one they gave me didn't work at all and the second one cut in and out and, at times, had a lot of static. But, again, it didn't dim my enjoyment! What a fascinating house! You can see from my son's pictures how much he enjoyed it:
http://europeanadventure2009.shutterfly.com/149
We probably spent well over an hour at Casa Batllo and then got back on Bus Turistic to head for Montjuic. We got off at the stop nearest Palau Nacional. It's a neo-baroque palace built for the 1929 International Exhibition and now houses the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. It's very impressive and can be seen for quite a distance. And is a very good location from which to take pictures of the city, as you can also see my my son's photos. We probably spent another hour there, taking pictures from various locations, before heading back to the bus stop.
I remember at some point during the ride to the port area thinking what a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable experience this was. It was a beautiful evening in a beautiful city. We were riding on the top deck of a bus, letting someone else deal with the traffic, directions, etc. What could have been better?!
By the time we took a bit of a walk around the lovely port area it was just beginning to get dark. So we headed back up the Via Laietana to our apartment.
While I'm thinking about it, one other note about the Bus Turistic. During the two days we used it, there were a couple of times when we weren't immediately able to get seats together on the top deck. But only one time, fortunately when we weren't taking it very far anyway, that we couldn't find top seats at all. And there were a few times, like the evening ride to Montjuic and the port area, when it wasn't at all crowded.
Unfortunately, when I got ready to bake the pizzas, I realized that I know absolutely nothing about the settings on a European oven! I was so worried I'd burn the pizza that I wound up not cooking it at a high enough temperature. It took a lot longer than it should have and was a bit on the doughy side. Not horrible, but I'm sure it would have been much better if I'd known what I was doing!
The olives, however, were fantastic!
In her guide, http://www.maribelsguides.com/ Maribel recommends being at Placa de Catalunya when the buses begin boarding in the morning. And we really intended to do that. But it didn't happen! We slept a little later than we'd planned and took our time with a leisurely light breakfast, putting in a load of laundry, etc. So I think it was about 10:00 by the time we left the apartment.
It was a beautiful sunny morning and we had a very pleasant walk to the plaza. We purchased two day tickets for Bus Turistic, €81 for the three of us. And, IMHO, well worth it! I know that there are some Fodorites who don't like hop-on/hop-offs. And I understand their reasons. But Bus Turistic seems to be more highly regarded than the hop-on/hop offs in some cities, most notably London. And, more to the point, it was perfect for us on that particular trip. It was an easy, relaxing way to see much more of the city than we would otherwise have seen in the amount of time we had (not to mention the amount of energy we had
).When you purchase your ticket, they give you a map of Barcelona showing the three Bus Turistic routes - red, blue and green - and a little booklet of coupons for various sites, restaurants, etc.
We'd decided we'd start with the blue buses, which cover a more southern route than the red ones. We also decided we'd start by doing the full circuit to get a good "overview". Even though we'd gotten a later start than we'd wanted, we had no problem getting seats together on the top deck. We even got the very front seats! They were great for seeing the sights, but not so great for taking pictures as many of them had a reflection from the "windshield".
We'd been given earphones when we boarded the bus. There was a taped "spiel" available in several languages. I'm not sure I'd ever had another experience with this type of tour, so I don't have anything with which to compare it. But I thought the English version was pretty good. Obviously, traffic doesn't always move at exactly the same speed, so there were times when it was a little bit ahead or behind where we were. But never to the point where it was annoying. I found the information interesting and pretty thorough though there was a time or two that we passed something I was curious about that they didn't mention. I also liked the music they used as background or filler, it was appropriate for the location and relaxing.
We were soon riding down majestic Passeig de Gracia, passing Gaudi homes and other amazing architecture. But a ways farther along our route I began to wonder whether Barcelona was a city of nothing but stores as we seemed to go through shopping district after shopping district! However, even that was very enjoyable as we passed along wide, palm tree lined streets. Since we're from the midwest, seeing palm trees makes us feel we must be in a vacation destination!
Eventually we came to the Placa de Espanya and headed up toward Montjuic. We were very impressed with that area of Barcelona and decided we wanted to come back later in the day.
During the very pleasant ride through the port area, we realized we were getting hungry. Since DS and I had so enjoyed Taller de Tapas and DH hadn't been with us, we decided we'd get off the bus in the Barri Gotic and hope that we could find the restaurant again.
Fortunately DS has a pretty good sense of direction and, though we might not have taken the most direct route, we did find it! Again we chose to sit inside and were put in the same room as the day before. While still not crowded, there were definitely more other diners this time.
Because we'd enjoyed them so much, we decided to get two orders of the Patatas Bravas! The day before we'd somehow missed ordering the tomato bread (lovely coarse bread rubbed with tomato) that seems to be ubiquitous in Barcelona. But fortunately, on this visit, the waiter asked if we wanted it. We also ordered fried calamari, a (braised?) seafood mixture that included razor clams and regular clams, shrimp with chilies and garlic in a clay pot and a wonderful dish of spinach, chick peas and pancetta. DH and DS each had two cokes and I had a small bottle of water. The bill was €49,59. Once again, a delicious lunch!
After we ate we went back to the apartment to rest a bit and look up the directions to Santa Caterina Market. The ones we found were pretty circuitous! That made for a very interesting walk but resulted in our getting there with not much time to spare before their 3:30 closing. We were awfully glad we did get to see it though. The "wavy" roof is very interesting. And the food! Oh, my! I can't remember whether we'd gone knowing that we wanted to pick up food for dinner in the apartment. Or whether seeing the food made us decide we'd rather eat in!
We bought three or four types of wonderful olives for what would, in Chicago, be a ridiculously low price, just over €3 for all of them! And we picked up two very interesting artisan type pizzas. One was veggie, the other was basically a heart attack on a plate - bacon, lots of cheese and, I think, ham.
On the way to take our purchases back to the apartment, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up lots more goodies. We needed more water, Coke and wine and also got more ham and cheese, as well as some sliced chorizo. DH wanted strawberry jam for breakfast so we picked up a small jar. (And was it ever good, no high fructose corn syrup!) I got a bag of wonderful little dried baguette type of things, somewhere between toast and crackers, that turned out to be excellent with the jam. We also bought more individual flans, this time with whipped cream on the top! Decadent and oh, so good! (And cheap! I think we paid less than a Euro for the 4 pack!)
After dropping our purchases, we headed back out and caught the blue Bus Turistic a ways up Via Laietana (which is a block over from Sots Tinent Navarro). We took it to the stop nearest Casa Batllo, one of the Gaudi houses. After taking pictures of the outside of the house, we used our coupons from Bus Turistic to get 20% off of DH's and my admission, DS used his student ID which got him in for the same price. It was €13,20 each.
The house was crowded. But not to the point that it dimmed our enjoyment. The admission included an audio guide. It was very interesting but not of the best quality. The first one they gave me didn't work at all and the second one cut in and out and, at times, had a lot of static. But, again, it didn't dim my enjoyment! What a fascinating house! You can see from my son's pictures how much he enjoyed it:
http://europeanadventure2009.shutterfly.com/149
We probably spent well over an hour at Casa Batllo and then got back on Bus Turistic to head for Montjuic. We got off at the stop nearest Palau Nacional. It's a neo-baroque palace built for the 1929 International Exhibition and now houses the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. It's very impressive and can be seen for quite a distance. And is a very good location from which to take pictures of the city, as you can also see my my son's photos. We probably spent another hour there, taking pictures from various locations, before heading back to the bus stop.
I remember at some point during the ride to the port area thinking what a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable experience this was. It was a beautiful evening in a beautiful city. We were riding on the top deck of a bus, letting someone else deal with the traffic, directions, etc. What could have been better?!
By the time we took a bit of a walk around the lovely port area it was just beginning to get dark. So we headed back up the Via Laietana to our apartment.
While I'm thinking about it, one other note about the Bus Turistic. During the two days we used it, there were a couple of times when we weren't immediately able to get seats together on the top deck. But only one time, fortunately when we weren't taking it very far anyway, that we couldn't find top seats at all. And there were a few times, like the evening ride to Montjuic and the port area, when it wasn't at all crowded.
Unfortunately, when I got ready to bake the pizzas, I realized that I know absolutely nothing about the settings on a European oven! I was so worried I'd burn the pizza that I wound up not cooking it at a high enough temperature. It took a lot longer than it should have and was a bit on the doughy side. Not horrible, but I'm sure it would have been much better if I'd known what I was doing!
The olives, however, were fantastic!
Jul 25th, 2009, 05:02 PM
#13
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Beautiful pictures and beautiful weather you've got! Was it hot in Barcelona when you were there?
I love Casa Batllo and Gaudi's architecture. I was on the rooftop of Casa Batllo around dusk, and the color of the sky was magical. I can't wait to return to Barcelona with DH.
Regarding strawberry jam, my regular supermarket here carries a couple of French brands and they are made in France, without HFCS. They aren't too expensive (~$4.50 a jar) and infinitely better than anything made in the US of A. I actually find them better (less sweet) than the strawberry jam made by Harrod's (which doesn't have HFCS either).
I love Casa Batllo and Gaudi's architecture. I was on the rooftop of Casa Batllo around dusk, and the color of the sky was magical. I can't wait to return to Barcelona with DH.
Regarding strawberry jam, my regular supermarket here carries a couple of French brands and they are made in France, without HFCS. They aren't too expensive (~$4.50 a jar) and infinitely better than anything made in the US of A. I actually find them better (less sweet) than the strawberry jam made by Harrod's (which doesn't have HFCS either).
Jul 25th, 2009, 05:55 PM
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Thanks, yk!
No, I wouldn't say it was really hot. I think it hovered around 80 most of the time we were there. Compared to our last few days in Ireland, it was definitely warm! And I was glad I'd packed a pair of shorts! But, other than a couple of times when I was walking in the sun, I was never uncomfortable.
That must've been a wonderful time to be on the rooftop! I share your desire to return!
And thanks for the info on the jam! I'll have to look for the French brands.
No, I wouldn't say it was really hot. I think it hovered around 80 most of the time we were there. Compared to our last few days in Ireland, it was definitely warm! And I was glad I'd packed a pair of shorts! But, other than a couple of times when I was walking in the sun, I was never uncomfortable.
That must've been a wonderful time to be on the rooftop! I share your desire to return!
And thanks for the info on the jam! I'll have to look for the French brands.
Jul 27th, 2009, 05:06 AM
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hey caph52 ... quick question - what was the bug situation like in barcelona? specifically, i'm thinking about mosquitos and the like? did you notice any? i swell up terribly and am always cautious when i travel to warmer climates.
