Barcelona
Flying often to Malaysia provided us with enough miles to get a "free" ticket to a european destination of our choice. I put "free" in quotation signs, because in fact you still have to pay quite a few taxes, not even mentioning the hotel and of course the kids' tickets, and also given the very low plane tickets prices in Europe currently, it didn't make that big a difference. So it was really more of an excuse for a weekend abroad coupled with a city's visit. We chose Barcelona, where none of us had ever been before (actually it was Chi Meei's first time in Spain altogether). With a flight of a little more than one hour, and then a taxi ride of 20 minutes to the city centre, it's really next door.So we left on Friday night, spent two great packed days visiting, and came back home on Monday, loaded with sun and colors.
In Barcelona, we stayed in the hotel Comercio in the center (it's 20 seconds from the Rambla, next to the Plaça Reial). While very cheap and quite noisy, the central location is excellent and the staff was friendly. Also, the bad security mentioned in some reviews we read improved tremendously, and we felt very safe the whole time we were there.
The food was great too: The first evening we ate on the Rambla, and had tapas (shared with the kids) and paella for Chi Meei, and beef for me. It was excellent! I couldn't have eaten anything more! On Sunday evening, we ate at the Trobador at Ferran (one of the bigger lanes of the Barri Gotic). Great food and great atmosphere. I had the salt cod, having wanted to taste that for a long time, and it was delicious. And the kids had black rice and seafood, and after an initial surprise (the rice is cooked with squid ink), they ate pretty well.
Around and on La Rambla
La Rambla is really a great place, and always busy with people. It was great to stroll around, to observe the many attractions, or simply the people. Many pets shops too, for the pleasure of our kids.
The Plaça Reial is great, and we had lunch there on Saturday. In fact, we had bought stuff from the market and just sat in the Plaça and ate. There was music, many people around, and some shadow (the weather was warm and sunny the whole time). Also, the lightpoles are by Gaudi.
La Sagrada Familia
A must-see in Barcelona. The church-in-progress is pretty amazing. An exposition inside shows Gaudi's first sketches and ideas. Visiting on a week-end is probably a good idea, because during the week it must be quite noisy. The light inside the church is amazing, and the metal scaffoldings are something to be seen. Also, being in a cathedral in construction is probably a last chance before a looooong time (after this one is completed in 2026 or so, I really don't know when and where a next one will be started...)
Eixample, the golden quarter
Eixample means something like "extension" in Catalan, and is a rather modern district. It is interesting because many houses were built by modern famous architects. Of course Gaudi's work can be seen here too, like pretty much everywhere in Barcelona, but also less famous architects (I am not a specialist myself, so check Wikipedia ;-) It's a great walk from La Sagrada Familia back to the Rambla.
La Boqueria, the market
If you're lucky to be there when it's open (according to my guidebook, every 1st and 3rd weekend of the month), it's a must see. Under a big roof, tons of small shops selling food. All kind of foods, but the most impressive are fruits, fresh or dry, veggies, and of course fish. A great place to buy all kind of fingerfood and then go and picnic somewhere in the old city. However, be careful, it's easy to buy more than one can eat!
Barri Gotic
Just behind our hotel, the old city and its many, many small streets... where amazingly cars are still allowed, by the way! (I was trying to imagine driving my Toyota Previa inside there, not sure it would even fit...) The Barri Gotic is one of the parts, with many many monuments and old houses. It's nice to walk from the Plaça Reial to the old cathedral through those small lanes.
Also very impressive (but no pictures, because the flash is not allowed and it was too dark), the antique roman city found under the historic museum of la Ciutat. It's really impressive and well documented (Laeticia slept through the visit, but it's normal at that time!). The only low point is the security guard who apparently thought I was a terrorist because I left Laeticia's small pram in the courtyard without asking him first, but since I don't speak Spanish, let alone Catalan, could be just a misunderstanding :-)
The Harbour
Ah, the harbour. First I want to say that it's quite impressive from the plane. It's huge! If you land coming from Barcelona, the view is amazing, because you fly just next to it. It's quite special (and kind of nice too) to have such activity near the city.
Of course the harbour you visit by foot is not comparable. But it's nice anyway! There is a cable car (we didn't take it, but it must be something), whereby unlike in Singapore, you don't seem to have individual cars. Also, there is a big commercial centre near the water, and many people go there for a walk (it is open on Sunday too). Oh, and there is a pedestrian bridge which can be opened when a big boat must pass underneath, so everyone has to wait.
On the way to the harbour from the Rambla, impossible to miss the column of Christopher Columbus (which Alise first thought was Christopher Sommer, our upstairs 5 years old neighbour ;-) It's a really nice monument, and the lions and statues around the base alone are worth a look. According to my mobile Wikipedia (again), Columbus doesn't point towards America, like one could expect, but towards Genoa, his birth city. I didn't check.
At the Aquarium
A must see for the kids, so despite the shining and inviting sun, we went inside and saw the fishes! Maybe I saw too many beautiful aquariums lately, I must admit I was not particularly impressed by the one in Barcelona. It is nice, with a reatively big shark tunnel (and a wooden moving pavement!), but it's also quite old and there aren't that many tanks. I expected something bigger, I think. Nonetheless, it is educative and the kids loved it. What totally "saved" it in my eyes is the big tank with many squids inside. It's the first time I saw live squids in an aquarium (my encounters until now were always at sea while diving, and with one at a time ;-) It was fascinating to observe them... and to be observed by them too!
Parc Montjuic
The parc is just as the west of the harbour, and can be reached with a cablecar (from the metro station Paral-lel, the cablecar station is also under the ground, don't spend too much time looking for it at the surface). We walked only a very small portion of the park, and enjoyed the view, the flowers (made it hard to come back to cold Switzerland, though) and the many people strolling around.
Maritime museum
It's a very impressive visit. First the building is HUGE (it's an old ship construction place). Then there are tons of ships and other related objects to see. I went with Alise, and she also had fun. It's very educative too. Too bad the signs and other explanations are in Spanish and Catalan only, English would be nice (you get a free audio guide at the entrance, but I am not a big fan of those). But apart from that the museum is great. The real size war galley gives a good impression of what it must have been to row back then... And as a reward, having a cold fruit juice in the courtyard, under the shade of a tree...
posted by Laurent Bugnion | 23:29
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