Me Encanta Barcelona (I love Barcelona)

Cava Sangria on La Rambla

 We took a high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona. If you’ve never been on a European high speed train, put it on your bucket list!  They take a drive that would be several hours and make it a fraction of the time!  They’re legit, too, with reclining seats, a little pull down table (much like an airplane seat), nice bathrooms, a car on the train usually sells drinks and snacks, and the scenery is breathtaking!  The kids loved it! Ha!  

We were already acclimated to the time difference by this point.  We went straight to our Airbnb and checked in.  It was in a section of the city called Poble Sec.  We had 2 small grocery stores on our block, the metro stop, bus stop, and blocks and blocks of café’s and night life all within very close walking distance to our room. If I ever return to Barcelona again, I’d want to stay right where we stayed!  It was much more of a local area than a tourist area, so prices were reasonable, and food and drinks were delicious.  We were not a far walk from nearly everything.....Las Ramblas, the gothic quarter, the beach, Sagrada Familia, the Barcelona Cathedral, and more.  

We made breakfast in the room every morning with groceries from the small grocery stores on our block, and then set out on our adventures, eating out for lunch and dinner.  The Spanish accent in Barcelona is definitely different. We found that they do speak traditional Spanish, but also have their own dialect called Catalan.  Most restaurants have menus in 3 languages~ English, Spanish, & Catalan.

The first day we arrived, we walked around La Rambla. La Rambla is a long, tree-lined outdoor mall full of cafes, artists, local shops, and more well known stores.  We started eyeing up the artists and their skills. The art we saw was so spectacular that we decided that we wanted a sketch or painting done of our three boys. The food was rather expensive there, but the drinks were HUGE and looked like a lot of fun, so we stopped for a drink. I tried a Cava Sangria (Cava is champagne). It was nice and refreshing after a lot of walking.  While you eat or drink just about anywhere in Barcelona, those less fortunate will come up to you wanting money....some will complete elaborate performances and then put their hat out. Be sure to know your strategy for responding to this, whether it’s a “no gracias,” or if you’d like to have some change on hand.
***Insider tip***For less expensive food and drinks, walk a couple of blocks off of La Rambla, since it’s a tourist trap.  Also, walk through the alleyways, we found some hidden stores that were very reasonably priced!
***One more insider tip: Check out the store Decathlon. It’s an amazing store FULL of sport gear for just about any sport out there. Prices are very reasonable. This store is a true gem in Europe.

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Pincho Toothpicks

​We ate dinner near our room in Poble Sec. In Spain, appetizers or drinks are usually enjoyed between 8:30pm-10:00pm, with dinner between 9:00pm-11:00pm.  We tried the Pinchos (aka pintxos) and were addicted for the rest of our trip!  Each pincho ranges from €1-€2 each.  They’re just small bites, usually with a slice of bread at the bottom and some sort of delicious topping.....sausage, chicken, shrimp, fish, etc and also with a sauce or some sort of cheese or fresh fruit.  They were served cold, artistically presented, and delicious.  Once you arrive to the restaurant and get seated at a table, walk into the restaurant/bar and pick out which pinchos you’d like to eat, and bring them back to the table.  The kids loved picking plates of pinchos and loved all of the different tastes! Each pincho comes with a toothpick through it and the waiter or waitress will leave a small drinking glass or shot glass on the table for you to put your discarded toothpicks into.  I have a picture of this above. When it comes time to pay your bill, they count the toothpicks.

​On our second day, we took a cable car down to the beach. It was beautiful and fun to ride in the cable car to the beach; it also cut down on walking for us! =) We walked along the boardwalk and beach.  The sand is soft and the water is clear. There are restaurants right along the water, shops, and gypsies selling their wares.  We did watch a gypsy stir a mojito he was selling with his finger, so we didn’t buy any drinks from them. However, they had some beautiful blankets for sale, if you don’t have anything to lay on at the beach, those blankets would make a great souvenir....they were very unique and decorative.  The sand castles and art along the water were incredible!  One guy made an entire scene from the Simpsons and had Homer Simpson peeing every few minutes when he would pour water through, another guy had an entire Egyptian scene with a fire in the middle of the pyramids.   We ate at a restaurant called El Pacifico that had fresh seafood Paella, delicious Mojitos, and excellent service. I highly recommend El Pacifico!  It was pricey, but the food, service, and water view were worth it. A truly incredible experience, my foodie heart was in heaven!  I’m not too adventurous when it comes to seafood, but I ate the Seafood Paella. The flavors truly didn’t make the seafood have a ‘fishy taste’ and I was grateful we ordered it.  We also walked to the Catedral de Barcelona (Barcelona Cathedral) and it was, by far, the most impressive church in the city.   Soaring ceilings, old world charm, the quiet peace that comes with old places of worship.

Sandcastle Art on the Beach

On our third day, we purchased metro tickets for our last two days. This is because the places we wanted to go were a bit further than we wanted to walk.  We took the metro to La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family) and walked through Parc Guell to take a look at the famous Catalan architect, Anton Gaudi’s works.  Tickets for La Sagrada Familia were €15 each, which we found to be too expensive for our family of five, so we opted for walking around the outside to admire the architecture. We also ventured to the Acro de Triunfo de Barcelona (The Arch of Triumph of Barcelona). We have seen other Arches and they always impress us. 
We read on a tourist pamphlet that there was a magical water show in front of Montjuic.  We went and the kids had fun, but it wasn’t the most impressive water show I’ve ever seen!  In hindsight, we probably won’t do it again, but it was a fun way to spend the evening and it will be a great way to entertain the kids if you venture to Barcelona.  The top of the steps of the Montjuic Castle certainly did have an amazing view, making it totally worth it! 
On our fourth day, we took the metro and walked to La Boqueria.  La Boqueria is an enormous food market.  It has everything from fresh juices, fresh fish, meat, jamon, nuts, candies, cheese, etc. Seriously, worth it. My oldest son adventurously tried the dragon fruit smoothie....it was gross!!  HAHAHAHA We all tried it and turned up our noses, but we always encourage everyone in our family to try everything once!  The picture below is of my husband after giving it a sip!

La Boqueria

Dragon Fruit Smoothie

​For our last two days, we went back to La Rambla and had the boys sketch completed by a local artist. She truly captured the personality of each of our boys and we felt it was money well spent and a forever memory that we can hang in our home.  It was €20/child, so €60. We later saw a Flamenco show at Flamenco City Hall Theater for €65 for the whole family. We elected not to see a show with dinner, as all of the reviews of the dinner shows did not entice us to those particular shows. This one was in a small theater.  The ticket included a free drink and the show was only about an hour long from start to finish. It was beautiful to see and we were all wrapped up in the song and dance....except for the kids, they fell asleep because the theater was so dark. 

, ​For days, we kept seeing an amusement park and a church on a mountain in the distance. After careful research we decided to check it out. The park was called Tibidabo.  We were able to use our transportation passes to get there....it entailed a metro ride, cable car, and a short walk and was ALL included in the same pass. The park was neat! The church is called The Temple de Sagrat Cor (church of the sacred heart). The view from the parks and the churches are of all of Barcelona.  The park has day passes and tickets for separate rides. We bought tickets for 3 rides for the kids and just stayed at the top level of the park, as the park had at least 2 levels that we could see. The ferris wheel was super cool, but not for those afraid of heights! Everything pretty much hinged off of a cliff, which added an extra level of excitement. We were glad we only bought tickets for three rides because the lines were really long, even though it was early May.  We ate a few standard jamon sandwiches there for a late lunch and then headed back.  The kids had a blast, but were tired of the lines and ready to go! Wrapped into the awesome Spanish mentality, we took a Siesta and then went out for tapas and dinner...refreshed and ready to enjoy every bite! 

Tibidabo Amusement Park

​On our last day, we went to an FC Barcelona Futbol match!!  We had to purchase our tickets from the FB Barcelona Official Store.  This is because we all wanted to be seated together. Finding 5 tickets together for a futbol match is no easy feat.  We couldn’t get tickets until a day or two before the match, when the majority of the futbol tickets are released.  They do not serve alcohol at the match, but do have non-alcoholic beer.  However, there are bars ALL around the stadium serving alcoholic beer before, during, and after the match.  Smoking is not allowed in the stadium, but during half time all of the smokers go right outside of the main part of the stadium and smoke.  They have a jovial, carnival atmosphere before games, with people playing drums, dancing on stilts, and working for the crowd. Messi was truly impressive to see in person. He is a very aggressive player and dominates the field. I highly recommend watching a live futbol match if you never have.  The boys LOVED singing, waving flags, and watching a sport they love.

​We really lived in up in Barcelona!  We ate well, had plenty of adventures, and truly enjoyed every moment of our travels. However, at the end, we were ready to head to our new home.  Off to Napoli and our new life!  Ready to figure out our home for the next few years and experience Italia!!  Adios Espana, Ciao Italia!
 
Next post:  Welcome to Napoli