Our summer vacation happened in a place we always had on our travel bucket list in Europe, and as the time was good to do so, we visited the capital of Catalunia known as Barcelona. Needless to say it’s one of the most famous places to visit in Europe during summer with impressive cultural footprint.
Catalans have a very strong identity due to history, language and economic advance and do not necessarily feel they are appropriately represented in Spain. That led to recent conflicts such as a referendum for souvereignity resulting in declaring independence (2017) and a prime minister being impeached and de facto exiled.
Of course it gets also very full and prices for accomodations are as high as you’d expect it to be. We stayed very central in a side street near La Rambla.
La Boqueria Market is one of the most famous places when it comes to markets and you can see how many tourists rund around and how merchants have adopted their offering to those. It is a mix of bistros and whole foods selling. You can get Iberian Ham, fried seafood, juices, precut fruits and whole meals in the markets, anyway it is fun to see what local food and specialities are offered here. Beyond that, nothing very special to see here.
Font Màgica de Montjuïc is a place a bit outside and it is a famous place to people to hang out in the evening. The fountain will illuminate and sometimes, events might happen here as well.
Miro Museum - Great artist and museum, who took us on a journey through his works and different stages of his works. I liked the mercury installation and the wall carpet a lot. But also the japanism section was insightful, seems like artists were influenced a lot that time (such as Van Gogh)
Casa Battlo
Casa Battlo: The famous building of Gaudí featured an augmented reality tour using smartphones during the visit. This was very cool and added to this special building itself alone. On top of the building there’s a chance to take photos on a balcony (paid), which we did just for fun.
La Sagrada Familia
La Sagrada Familia: This is maybe the most visited place in Barcelona. This giant basilica is not a church you’d expect to be as any other you have seen in Europe. The leadlights, the incompleted build and the signature of Gaudi make it a special place itself.
Construction has not finished and is ongoing since the 1800s, but it is supposed to be coimpleted in 2026.
The interior and ceiling clearly has Gaudis influence.
El Nacional is a food court we visited for lunch housed in a former factory. Really good food with things you can order form the menu but waiters also run around like in Dim Sum places offering you a selection from their batch they just took out from the kitchen. We went to a tapas place.
Parc Güell
An park that is also sculpted by Gaudi. We did not see all of it due to construction, but the view from the top and where you’d find the long bench is fantastic.
On day 3, we wanted to visit Montserrat, but it was raining quite a bit and wihout having proper footwear to walk up slopes and having a poor view, we instead skipped it and stayed in the city. Luckily, the picasso museum gave us free admission so we could spend several hours in understanding more about his works. Bonus, we met a friend by chance who was also in Barcelona for a Eurotrip at that time.
The day after, we went to see the Port area and had some delicious food.
On the way there you’d find the promenade, lots of Yachts, a shopping center but the real highlight were the restaurants serving seafood.
We ended up in Paco Alcalde, finding that Pep Guadiola also said Hi once, but there are many many restaurants in this place worth visiting!
All in all, going to Barcelona is a worthwhile visit.
