{"id":627,"date":"2012-10-04T19:38:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T02:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=627"},"modified":"2012-10-31T14:41:10","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T21:41:10","slug":"city-overview-barcelona-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=627","title":{"rendered":"City Overview: Barcelona, Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

City.<\/strong>\u00a0 Barcelona, Spain<\/p>\n

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When?\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Thursday, September 6 – Sunday, September 9 (3 nights). \u00a0An extra day would have been nice since we spent so much of our time relaxing. \u00a0However, had we not done that, I think three days (actually two and a half) would have been plenty to see the sites we really wanted to visit.<\/p>\n

Where? \u00a0<\/strong>We stayed at the W Barcelona, which was right on the beach, way out past the Barceloneta area. \u00a0The rooms were gorgeous, the staff was friendly, it was very luxurious and had several bars and restaurants. \u00a0Oh, and it has a pool and direct access to the beach, with a private section for hotel guests only. \u00a0We used our starpoints for the entire stay – 20k per night for a total of 60k. \u00a0For the room we stayed in, it probably would have been around 300 euros\/night. \u00a0The real downside is the location, and then also cost if you don’t have starpoints to use for a free stay.\u00a0 If we were to stay in a Starwood hotel the next time we go to Barcelona, we would probably try Le M\u00e9ridien since it’s less starpoints per night and located right on La Rambla. \u00a0However, the Gothic neighborhood was really our favorite, so I would be more likely to find a hotel there.<\/p>\n

Transportation. <\/strong>\u00a0We flew into the Barcelona airport and took a taxi to the hotel (which was not very close). \u00a0There were tons of taxis everywhere, which we took advantage of since our hotel was so far away from everything. \u00a0The metro, like all others we’ve rode in Europe, was efficient, smooth, and easy to use. \u00a0We took the high speed train to Sevilla after our three nights in Barcelona. \u00a0My advice: get to the train station early! \u00a0It was super crowded and it looked more like an airport with check-in lines, security lines, and several boards with departing and arriving trains. \u00a0It was a bit confusing, but luckily we were there about 25-30 minutes before our train was set to depart.<\/p>\n

Food.<\/strong>\u00a0 In Barcelona we were first introduced to tapas – it was good, but not great. \u00a0We did try several amazing tapas our first night in Barcelona (we ate with some friends from California who happened to share just this one night in the same city as us). \u00a0Another great find was a pintxos bar, which I’ll explain in more detail in a future post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Day Trips. \u00a0<\/strong>No day trips and none were considered.<\/p>\n

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Attractions.<\/strong>\u00a0 There is a lot to see in Barcelona. We loved seeing the Roman ruins from 2000 years ago in the City History Museum (pictured right) and thought that Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia was breathtaking. \u00a0I would highly recommend both of these sites! \u00a0We decided not to visit Gaudi’s Casa Mil\u00e0 and Casa Batll\u00f3 (both were expensive and we were wanting to relax) and also skipped Parc G\u00fcell since it was so far away. \u00a0We did, however, decide to stop and see the Picasso Museum, which was interesting, but did not have much of Picasso’s cubism paintings. \u00a0I thought that the most interesting paintings were Picasso’s interpretation paintings of Vel\u00e1zquez’s Las Meninas<\/em>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Language Barrier.<\/strong>\u00a0 Catalan first, Spanish second, English third. \u00a0That being said, almost everyone we encountered spoke English. \u00a0Even if I initiated a conversation in Spanish, the response was in English. \u00a0We were also always given English-only menus at the restaurants. \u00a0It was frustrating because both of us took Spanish in high school and some in college, and then I spent some time before our trip brushing up.\u00a0\u00a0However, my (Latin American) Spanish is no where close to fluent, and it seemed like it was all or nothing in Barcelona. \u00a0As soon as there was a confused face or an English word spoken, the remainder of the interaction was in English.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cost. <\/strong>\u00a0The food could be expensive, especially right around touristy La Rambla.\u00a0 Finding hidden tapas bars off of the main area is your best bet for cheaper tapas.\u00a0 We also felt that the sites were generally a bit more than we wanted to spend (for example, the two Gaudi sites that we skipped, and the Sagrada Familia – all around 15-20 euros).<\/p>\n

Advice. \u00a0<\/strong>Stay in a more central location than we did, unless you are looking to experience a relaxing, beach vacation. \u00a0We loved wondering around the Gothic neighborhood – it was beautiful and tucked away from the crowded and touristy La Rambla (not that there weren’t tourists everywhere in Barcelona). \u00a0Our friends stayed in this area and loved it.<\/p>\n

Closing comments.<\/strong>\u00a0 While we enjoyed Barcelona, it was our least favorite stop on the trip. \u00a0I think this is mostly because we didn’t enjoy the food as much as we were expecting and we didn’t feel a real connection to the city or its people.\u00a0 It was more like Rome – a big city with a lot of personality, but also a but overwhelming at times.<\/p>\n

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City.\u00a0 Barcelona, Spain When?\u00a0\u00a0Thursday, September 6 – Sunday, September 9 (3 nights). \u00a0An extra day would have been nice since we spent so much of our time relaxing. \u00a0However, had we not done that, I think three days (actually two … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,3],"tags":[9,57,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}