Barcelona! 4 Days in Spain

Written By: Paul

Everyone loves Barcelona. I mean everyone. When I told my family and friends we were heading to Barcelona for a four day road trip we got an avalanche of superlatives thrown our way, and since it was a place that we’ve all wanted to visit for many years, the bar was set high.

When I say “we” I mean me, Angela, and our lifelong friend Shailla, who was visiting from Toronto. We had just spent a week in Nice and Monte Carlo (post to come soon!), and Shailla was really fired up about Barcelona, so we decided to jump on a train and head to Spain for our first international trip since moving to France. Of course, we do recognize that this blog is called Unlocking France – suggesting that we’ll cover things that are French-related. That said, covering our experiences in neighbouring countries makes sense, because living in Europe means we have opportunities to zip into Spain, Italy, Germany, and other nearby countries as a part of the experience of living here. It’s a massive benefit, and one of the reasons why we moved to southern France in the first place.

Our train left Montpellier mid-morning and we had booked a direct route, straight to Barcelona with no changes or layovers along the way. The ride was nice, if uneventful. The terrain shifts from low-lying marshland and views of the Mediterranean in Occitanie to hills, farmland, and wild flowers on the Spanish side of the border. Three hours after boarding in Montpellier we were walking off the train in Barcelona – it’s an easy trip to make.

All of us love to walk so we decided to walk the 3.5 kms to our hotel on La Rambla. It allowed us to stretch our legs and get a bit of a walking tour of the city, passing the Plaça d’Espanya and the Arenas de Barcelona, a shopping centre that used to be a bull fighting stadium. Now instead of bulls racing at matadors the only things that get charged there are credit cards. 🙂

We made it to our hotel but our room wasn’t quite ready yet. Starving, we opted for lunch at one of the touristy places in the middle of La Rambla. Bad choice. Overpriced and super bland, the food was average at best, but thankfully it would be the last time we didn’t love our meals in a city teeming with brilliant restaurants. At the very least we were entertained by people watching – La Rambla is a very busy spot, a wide pedestrian boulevard where people are jammed shoulder to shoulder as they drink, eat, and make their way from one part of the city to another.

After checking in to a fantastic room at Hotel Arc La Ramla (complete with a massive terrace overlooking the city), we ventured out to Plaça de Catalunya where we caught one of the hop-on, hop-off tourist buses. These are double-decker buses that allow you to jump on at one of many stops located around the city and off wherever you like. We bought 48-hour passes and made really good use of them during our first two days. There are many buses a tourist can choose from in Barcelona, but for us it was the Barcelona Bus Turístic, apparently the original and official tourist bus in Barcelona. At €36 for 48 hours of unlimited hop-on, hop-off access it seemed a good deal.

On our first night we used it to go to La Sagrada Familia, one of Barcelona’s most famous sites and Gaudi’s masterpiece that still isn’t finished to this day. I had heard that the epic cathedral was impressive, but until I stood before it I couldn’t really appreciate just how magnificent this creation is. Sadly all tickets to go inside for the day were sold out, so we got a taste of the exterior, snapping pictures and walking around the structure. It was too bad we couldn’t go in, but we would return in a few days so not all was lost.

We jumped back on the bus and took it for a tour around the city. It was nice to see some of the sites we would be visiting later in the week, and both Angela and Shailla really enjoyed the commentary provided by the on-board audio guides. We rode it back to Plaça de Catalunya where the route ends, and went looking for a place to eat. We found happiness at a place called Pai Mei (The Wok’s Sensei!) where we all had tasty noodle dishes and drank Vichy Catalan, a locally produced mineral water that is everywhere in the city. The bottle is cool and is evidently “award winning”.

After dinner we went for a bit of a wander from the Eixample neighbourhood through El Raval and back towards La Rambla. It was a good time window shopping and people watching. Along the way I found the fishnet t-shirt and gas mask leash that I’d been missing all these years…

Exhausted but happy to have found some viable alternative wardrobe options, we shut it down and went back to the hotel. A good start to our time in Barcelona.

The next morning I got up at the crack and snuck out of the room before anyone else was up. When I’m in a new city I like to get up early and go exploring before the hordes descend upon the streets. It allows me to explore at my own pace and see things that I might not be able to otherwise. On this morning I walked down to the water, where I was treated to an insanely gorgeous sunrise over the marina.

It was also nice to see the boulevards free of people, and the sun shining on Columbus as he pointed his way to the new world (he’s not, he’s actually pointing at somewhere in Africa, but that’s a discussion for a later date) was nice to see.

After returning to the hotel we set out and made our way to Plaça de Catalunya where we jumped once again on our trusty Barcelona Bus Turístic. The bus took us out to a stop located ten minutes or so from Parc Güell, the ode to Gaudi and his vision for the perfect community located within a massive green space (one of the largest in Barcelona).

When we originally made the plan to go to Parc Güell we didn’t really have any expectations – I had seen a few pictures from the park and read a bit about it, but none of us appreciated the size and scope of the park. Built over 17 hectares on the side of Carmel Hill, Parc Güell provides some of the best views of Barcelona available. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, and wandering around it’s easy to see why – it’s a gorgeous, huge green space packed full of Gaudi goodness and unique architectural elements.

Even seemingly simple things like bridges and walkways take on Gaudi’s style, making for a park visit that is frequently eye-catching and always interesting.

When we got there the view over the city was pretty hazy, but it allowed the top of one of Gaudi’s constructions to stand out among the crowds and the clouds.

Thankfully the haze did burn off a bit, allowing us this classic look from Parc Güell, the view from the plaza overlooking Barcelona down below, Gaudi’s creations in the foreground.

We spent the better part of the morning at Parc Güell, really enjoying meandering through the attractions and searching for wild parrots in the palm trees. Lunch was calling our name though, so we hiked from the park down to Plaça de Catalunya (a long hike, but like I said, we like to walk). Along the way we stopped at Gaudi’s Casa Batlló – hordes of people were lined up outside and someone said the line would be more than an hour to go in. Man, people love Gaudi stuff in this city, and why wouldn’t you when your balconies look like Phantom of the Opera masks?

The thing about Gaudi’s works that all of us love is that he had this fantastic, whimsical vision that he managed to bring to life and the people of Barcelona embraced it. It’s a very artistic community, one that seems to support unique perspectives and outlooks. I am not sure that Gaudi’s masterpieces would have been backed and constructed in other cities around the world, but they were in Barcelona, and I think that’s at least a small part as to why this city is so beloved.

We grabbed a quick lunch nearby and jumped back on the Barcelona Bus Turístic for a zip around the city, ultimately ending up at the beach where Casino Barcelona meets Playa Mar. Being a holiday (it was actually Easter Sunday) we weren’t sure what to expect, whether people would be heading to the beach or spending time with their families. Well, that was quickly answered when we saw the hordes of sun worshippers packed on the sand for miles. People were everywhere. It might have been April but the weather was amazing, about 20 degrees. Sunbathers, volleyball players, and swimmers were out in force.

We enjoyed strolling along the beach, dodging soccer players, bodybuilders and sun worshippers in various states of undress. For those who haven’t been there, the beaches stretch on forever, and it took us a solid hour to make it from the casino to the W hotel pictured above. There was a festive atmosphere, a vibe that we hadn’t felt in a while thanks to the pandemic…it was both exciting and familiar. After being bottled up behind masks and plastic partitions for two years it was a very nice feeling to participate in something approaching normalcy once again.

We grabbed some gelato and walked back to our hotel on La Rambla, another good trek that took about forty-five minutes. All of us were approaching 30,000 steps on our various fitness trackers, and our feet were definitely starting to feel it. We grabbed dinner and called it a night.

Easter Monday was tennis Monday, or leg two of what we’re affectionately calling “Paul and Angela’s and Occasionally Shailla’s European Clay Court Adventure”. Leg one took place the previous week in Monte Carlo; this week’s tournament, the Barcelona Open (as Shailla clearly points out with the sign below), would be leg two; and then Angela and I would finish up the tour with a few days at Roland Garros in Paris.

The Barcelona Open is an ATP pro tennis event, held at one of the city’s storied old clubs – the Real Club de Tenis, an institution that has helped the city’s wealthy hone their forehands and backhands since 1899. When we first arrived there was a massive line that snaked from the club well out into a local neighbourhood and down the street for about five blocks. We feared we’d be in line for hours but the staff were very efficient at moving everyone through – the whole thing only took about fifteen minutes.

We had a fantastic day watching some great tennis in a beautiful venue. Smaller than the grounds at Monte Carlo and our home tournament in Toronto, it had a different vibe than any other tournament I’d been to, but that’s the great thing about pro tennis – all the venues, the crowds, even the player fields are different. The Barcelona tournament was very well done and the crowd was supportive of all the players, regardless of nationality. The main show court is quite comfortable in a very nice setting and holds about 8,000 seats.

We even ran into and spoke briefly with Toni Nadal (Rafa Nadal’s uncle and long-time coach), and Canadian star Felix Auger-Alliasime. We told him we were there to support him from Canada, and he seemed suitably impressed. He wasn’t playing that day but we did have the opportunity to watch him and Uncle Toni work out on a side practice court for a while.

Our tennis day ended around 5pm, at which time we jumped back on our trusty tourist bus and made our way back to our hotel on La Rambla. After kicking back for a bit we headed out for a nice dinner in the gothic quarter, where Shailla enjoyed some fantastic looking paella and Ange and I shared some tapas. We then strolled through the gothic quarter, in awe of just how pretty this part of the city is. No matter where you go in Barcelona there’s one more quaint square, one more cool alleyway, one more cobblestone street worth exploring. It’s an impossibly picturesque city full of history and character.

We wandered for a couple of hours, in and out of the shops, exploring, talking to people, just taking it all in.

Tuesday morning we were thrilled to make our way back to La Sagrada Familia, this time with tickets in hand to go inside and explore. We had bought tickets for the first admission time slot of the day, which was perfect because we were able to enter the cathedral before any other groups. Having had a taste of what was in store earlier in the week, we were excited – La Sagrada Familia is bigger (much bigger) than we had expected, and the details built into every single corner of this church are awe-inspiring. Everything here is done differently than any other church I’ve ever been to, including the story of Jesus as depicted on the face of the building.

Being there early was a huge benefit. There were no groups in ahead of us, which meant that for the only time that day the cathedral was free of tourists. We were able to take it all in with no crowds…a massive plus in a place like this which is notorious for being beyond packed.

As relatively seasoned travellers, all three of us had been in many churches, temples, and places of worship all over the world. It’s sometimes difficult to get excited about another church when you’ve been in so many; don’t get me wrong, as a history nerd (I actually did my major in history many moons ago) I always appreciate walking into a building hundreds of years old, but the pure thrill of it wears off after a while.

Not here. If you’re not impressed by La Sagrada Familia you just might be dead inside. And you don’t have to be religious at all to appreciate it – it’s just an incredibly wonderful achievement of artistic vision, engineering, and a supportive community that got behind an idea that must have looked insane from the outset.

Here are five La Sagrada Familia facts to give you some context:

• The cathedral is still under construction. They began construction in March 1882, which means they’ve been building for more than 140 years. The projected completion date is sometime in 2026.
• When Gaudi began working on the church he knew he would never live to see it completed. He died in 1926 after being struck by a streetcar. They continued the project using his incredibly detailed architectural drawings and models.
• La Sagrada Familia is a Roman Catholic church, consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
• Amazingly, it wasn’t until 2019 that La Sagrada Familia was granted its first building permit – even though Gaudi first applied for one in 1885!*
• When finished it will be the tallest church on the planet.

The stained glass is unique, with fiery reds, icy blues, and soothing greens filtering through to the main hall of the cathedral. The glass itself features icons, patterns, and words you don’t see in other churches.

We enjoyed the cathedral for most of the morning, marveling both over the enormity of it as well as the intricate small details.

Following the cathedral we just had time to hit the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, usually just referred to as La Boqueria. It was convenient as it’s located smack in the middle of La Rambla and we only had an hour or so before we would have to check out of our hotel.

La Boqueria is the place to hit if you’re looking to get many of your Barcelona food “must dos” covered in one spot. It’s a food paradise, with eye-catching displays of fruit, freshly squeezed juices, Iberico ham, tapas, empanadas, seafood, and so much more stretching out as far as the eye can see.

Actually, you can’t see that far because this is a very busy spot. We were there at lunch on a Wednesday and the place was full to the rafters; hungry tourists and shoppers shuffling about, checking out the stalls while salivating and taking pictures.

Following our time at La Sagrada Familia we were starving, so we all loaded up on some tasty treats. Shailla found some gluten free delicacies while Angela opted for the empanadas…

…and I went for the Iberico ham cone. Iberico ham – or Jamón Ibérico if we’re saying it the Spanish way – is definitely a thing. I was told it was the world’s finest ham, to which I replied, “sure, I’ll try it.” They slice it extremely thin – people train for years to get really good at just slicing it, and the legs of Iberico ham can be seen at fine meat shops all over the city. It’s extremely tender and has a taste a bit like jambon sec in France or prosciutto if you’re more familiar with that, but the texture is quite unique.

We did a final lap through La Boquiera, picking up a few treats for the ride back to Montpellier. With displays like these it’s tough to say no.

Blood sugar raised, we went back to the hotel, packed up our things and said adios to the Hotel Arc La Rambla. We liked it and will definitely consider it for future stays. Angela, Shailla, and I did our last walk through the city, making it to Barcelona Sants station in plenty of time for our train to Montpellier.

Four days was the perfect amount of time to see the highlights of a city we all fell in love with. We really made the most of our time, and since we’re only a three hour train ride away for Angela and I, we’re quite sure we’ll be back many times – even if it’s just for the Vichy Catalan, Iberico ham, and fishnet t-shirts. 🙂

Have you been to Barcelona? What were your impressions? If not, what would you like to see on your first trip? Comment below – cheers!

*According to science.howstuffworks.com