(C) Barcelona - so much to say - so much still to write. More on the way...
(S): Ahhhh...Barcelona. Probably my favorite of our Spanish tour. But, it was a bit difficult getting there. Namely because when we left Andorra, we were without a map of Spain and were sans guidebook. These facts alone were enough to make this super anal, type-A personality sister go absolutely insane. Couple that with my aversion to setting up the tent in the pitch dark and you have a very happy voyage on your hands.
Luckily, Chad took a shortcut. Down the C1432 ½ B road. I am not even kidding. We should have taken the C1432 A. I think we were going in circles and may have even made it to Austria, but finally found a freeway.
In all actuality, the drive down to Barcelona through the Pyrenees was beautiful. We watched the sun set over Andorra, which I believe is in the photo album.
Arriving in Barcelona without a map of the city proved trying. We did have directions to a sweet Formula 1 motel in our sweet Formula 1 catalog which we picked up in Carcassonne (let me just make a side note about the genius Formula 1 chain here. Granted the rooms are small and you can get a room through a type of vending machine if it's after hours, which is brilliant. And the toilets and showers are down the hall. But really - 29 euros?! Genius. Simply genius. And when you're used to a tent, any bed is to die for). Too bad these directions were in Spanish. We find the hotel and there seems to be some sort of hoodlum reunion going on in the neighborhood. No rooms of course. So off to find the campground - completely on the other side of town. Actually in a town called El Masnou. At 11 at night.
Pulling into the campground, the reception office is dark. We quickly drive to a site, when all of a sudden a man is standing right in front of the car, illuminated by the headlights. I was convinced we were most definitely going to die in Barcelona. Our new friend then starts screaming, and I'm talking screaming, in French to my travel partner. It would seem not stopping at the reception office was punishable by death. This guy was potentially drunk and most definitely high off something. We made it out of that one unscathed and our tent was pitched with limited difficulty. Somehow we found a level spot as we stayed in the same location for 3 nights.
Thus began our stay in Barcelona. The next day we caught the train and without Rick Steves or even Lonely Planet to guide us, we wandered around. The main street in Barcelona is called the Ramblas so we started there. It is pretty much two driving lanes on either side of a giant pedestrian street. Walking down this street we saw the best street performers in Europe and about 100 pet stands. Yup, come to Barcelona, go home with a new baby bunny. Which almost happened. And Chad almost got a new turtle.
Then we did something I usually scoff upon - a tour bus around the city. We even bought a 2 day pass. I will never scoff again. This was tremendously helpful to get the layout of the city and find out there is a Starbucks on every corner in Spain, too. We celebrated that night with dinner in an Irish pub.
The next day was our big tourist day, which started with buying the obligatory Spanish guide book. Good job, Rough Guides. We followed this up by catching the tour bus (remember - 2 day pass!) to Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi. This church was begun in 1882 and is still not finished. Work was going on while we visited. We even waited in line for 45 minutes to take an elevator to the top of one of the spires and walked down. Luckily one of us is deathly afraid of heights and that one is not me. Yes, it was his idea to go to the top.
We followed this stop up with the Parc Guell - again a Gaudi creation and though secular, equally as bizarre as the Sagrada Familia. It seemed to be Take Your Large Movie Camera to the park day, which was a nice addition. And we caught some street performers, a Beatles cover band, who were very good. You don't hear Penny Lane with a Spanish twist very often. I sang along. And gave them 2 euros, which is about $1000.
The next day, we nixed leaving for Madrid early and hit the Barcelona Aquarium, which was probably one of the best I've seen. The entire 3 year old population of Barcelona was also there so Chad had someone to talk to. We followed this up with a trip through an all you can eat buffet. We're pretty classy eaters here.
It was then off in the sweet Kia to Madrid through the likes of Zaragoza and Lleida.
A quick note about my initial thoughts on Spain. I thought after so many years of eating and drinking margaritas in our best Mexican restaurants and of course just general osmosis, I would understand more Spanish. WRONG!! First of all, everyone in Catalunya, which is the area containing Barcelona, has a bit of a lisp when pronouncing the letter "s." Barcelona becomes Barthona. Gracias becomes grathiath pretty much everywhere in Spain. Zaragoza becomes Tharagotha. Cigarettes become thigaretth, which would prove to be pretty funny when confronted with this word by a Spanish border cop coming out of Gibraltar. No, thir, we do not have any thigaretth.
More thumbnails ...
Barcelona Hotels
11 votes 
This is a top pick!
