A Taste of Barcelona

Of course there is so much more to Barcelona than the hotels where we stayed. Here is some additional commentary on my (post-cruise) 2-day stay in Barcelona. It is truly a fascinating city. If you haven’t been to Barcelona yet, you’re in for a treat.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain in both size and population. It is also the capital of Catalonia (one of the seventeen autonomous communities that make up Spain).  Barcelona holds the title of "Cruise Capital" of Europe, serving some 2 million passengers in 2009. Its history dates back to the second century B.C. There are 2 official languages spoken in Barcelona: Catalan (generally spoken in Catalonia), and Castilian Spanish. Lavanson speaks some Spanish but had a difficult time understanding Catalan.

The city of Barcelona is a collection of multi faceted and diverse cities all in one. The Gothic and Renaissance influence is evident everywhere.  The city is exciting and sophisticated, full of elegant boulevards that are perfect for leisurely walks and SHOPPING!!! One of the most popular areas is Las Ramblas, a boulevard geared for pedestrians which runs through the city. There are many, many shops and hotels located there.

Las Ramblas

After doing a fair amount of exploring on our own, once again we boarded a double decker tour bus (I cannot say enough good things about sightseeing in this manner). I don’t know about similar tours here in San Francisco, but I can say, in Europe, it’s the only way to go. Barcelona offers a double decker bus tour which travels along 3 different lines. As in Paris, you can get off and reboard at any location. I think the cost was about 16€.

La Boqueria

Our first stop was the Sagrada Familia, (a neo gothic church) and Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece.  I was not familiar with Gaudi but I fell in love with the work. Construction was started in 1882 and will continue until at least 2041. We took way too many photos (as usual) and spent a good portion of the day there. After our lengthy stop at the Sagrada we reboarded the bus and decided that if we wanted to see most of the popular sites we should not get off again. So we saw the rest of Barcelona from the upper deck of the bus.

Temple de Segrada Familia

We didn't take this photo. It's very difficult to get the entire church in one shot,however this is what it looks like. I will include a slideshow featuring the church tomorrow

Antoni Gaudi was the son of a coppersmith and was born in Reus, Spain in 1852. He studied at the Escola Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona and designed his first major commission for the Casa Vincens in Barcelona using a Gothic Revival style that set a precedent for his future work.

Over the course of his career, Gaudi developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement. Although his work is categorized as Art Nouveau, Gaudi created an entirely original style. He died in Barcelona in 1926 after being hit by a tram.


Barcelona is a cool city and I really enjoyed our short stay. I would love to return. The people were gracious and the food was excellent (I actually prefer Spanish food to French). Due to the portion sizes I am a big lover of tapas and Barcelona has an abundance of tapas restaurants. When we didn’t want tapas, we checked out the Hard Rock Café. Yes, that’s right. Many of the Hard Rock Cafés around the world have closed but Barcelona’s Hard Rock, located on the Placa Catalunya near La Rambla is still bustling with business. We dropped in for lunch one day around 2:30 (during siesta) and it was packed. We watched the World Cup with many enthusiastic Spanish Soccer fans!

Architectural Photo Pictorial

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