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Published: April 19th 2009
In all honesty, Spain was not on my "must see" list of places to go, nor was it even on my radar, until about nine months prior to our trip. While it was definitely a country I figured I would visit at some point in my lifetime, I had no yearning to visit it so soon. In fact, Mike and I had been planning on visiting Argentina for two weeks in March of 2009 but insanely expensive airfare between the destinations we planned to visit within Argentina pushed the trip out of our budget. I was quite disappointed as I had very much wanted to experience Argentina.
While discussing our dilemma with my sister, she brought up the idea of traveling to Spain as an alternative to Argentina. The two countries had obvious similarities; Spanish language, warm weather, rugged landscapes, and fascinating cultures. On the other hand, there was also glaring dissimilarities; different continents, moderately sized country compared to a massively sized country, and completely different histories, although they were obviously tied together. It was during this conversation with my sister that Spain began to appeal to me for several different reasons; I could taste the churros con chocolate as
she described their delicious crunch to me, I could see the colorful and playful lines of Gaudi's architecture, I could hear the rhythmic sound of Flamenco music dancing through my ears, and I could feel the warm sun warming my body. All of this sounded so fascinating and exciting to me. In addition, the fact that I found relatively decent priced airlines tickets and that accommodations within the country were much less expensive than compared to the rest of Europe really caught my interest.
After adding all of the associated costs together (airfare, lodging, food and sightseeing estimates, car rental, etc) for two weeks in Spain compared to Argentina, the trip to Spain actually came out less, believe it or not. As soon as I could see that it was cheaper to travel to Europe than South America, the choice to travel to Spain became a no-brainer, and Mike jumped right on-board with me. I immediately began planning our two week trip, ultimately deciding on visiting Barcelona, Granada, the white hill towns of Andalusia, Sevilla, Cordoba, Toledo, Segovia, and Madrid. Entries for this trip will be divided into separate entries according to the areas listed above.
Day 1 and 2 (Tuesday, March 24th and Wednesday, March 25th, 2009)
Unfortunately, the direct flight we had managed to snag on Air France from Seattle to Paris left about 20 minutes late, so we left feeling slightly concerned as we had a 45 minute layover in Paris between our flight to Barcelona. However, we were both hopeful that we would make up time during our flight and maybe even arrive a little early. For some reason, we were both unable to sleep well on the flight, which was frustrating as sleeping was a key importance in order to be able to enjoy our first day in Barcelona to the best of our ability. We both watched several movies and enjoyed the good meals, which we have come to expect with Air France.
We finally arrived in Paris at 8:45; considering our next flight to Barcelona was scheduled to depart at 9:35, we were both extremely concerned. We were hoping that we would be able to rush through the airport in order to make our flight, but it didn't help knowing that our departing flight to Barcelona was leaving from a different gate than the one we arrived
in.
Unfortunately, as many of you may or may not know, Charles de Gaulle is an absolute nightmare of an airport. In order to travel from one gate to another, we had to take a bus; why this airport doesn't have an underground train system like so many other airports is beyond me. Once at the proper concourse (after what seemed to be the longest bus ride ever), we then had to go through customs. With our lovely luck, the lines were really long and it ended up taking us nearly 15 minutes to complete. While waiting, we ended up meeting a nice couple our age from Seattle. They were going to be in Europe for about ten days and were planning to visit Amsterdam, Bruges, Brussels and Paris. The thing I found really great about their trip was that the wife had planned it as a complete surprise for her husband’s birthday and had only informed him of the trip just a few days prior. She had done all of the leg work herself, including requesting vacation time from his boss!
As soon as we were finished with customs, we rushed through the airport as we had
only 15-20 minutes until our flight was scheduled to depart. I kept hoping that it was running behind and would leave late so that we would have extra time! Much to our surprise, we were interrupted on our run through the airport by security. We hadn’t expected that we were going to go through security again, so we were quite annoyed and even more worried about missing the connection. To make matters worse, the security officials asked to look at our liquid bag several times and to top it off, all of the items in my liquid bag fell out at one point!
After going through the stress of security, we both ran like crazy in order to reach the gate. We actually managed to arrive at the gate seven minutes before the scheduled departure at 9:35, but the door was already shut and no airline official was at the gate. We were both out of breath, pissed off, and beyond frustrated. We immediately walked over to one of the customer service counters of Air France and were rebooked on a flight three hours later to Barcelona. We felt incredibly irritated with our situation but knew that we had
done everything within our power to make the flight and that it just wasn't meant to be. We decided not to dwell on the situation too much and realized that there could have been far much worse airports to get stuck in instead of Paris. While we waited, we went to eat in a café and ran into the nice couple again from Seattle. We talked together for about 30 minutes until their flight to Amsterdam left.
After sitting around for a few hours, our flight to Barcelona was announced and they indicated that it was running 20 minutes late due to some sort of mechanical problem. We finally started boarding soon after that, only to be rushed and turned around by the pilot as we walked down the breezeway. We began to feel quite nervous as it felt as though things just weren't going our way that day and that we would never make it to Barcelona. Luckily, we only had to wait another five minutes until we boarded again, and this time, we weren't turned around! The flight was quick and only lasted about 1.25 hours, but much to our surprise, included a meal. European airlines are
so much nicer than their American counterparts! We both slept the entire way with the exception of the short time we ate the meal.
As our plane touched down in sunny Barcelona, we were so relieved to finally be there! Like so many other European cities, the airport was connected to the local train system, which took passengers into the central part of the city. Unfortunately, prior to getting on the train, we had a few moments of utter confusion as we attempted to use the ticket machines. For some reason, they had no English language option (which is shocking and not common in Europe). As neither of us had any understanding of the Catalan language, we flagged down a station attendant in order to get some help. After the 30 minute train journey, we transferred onto the metro line, later getting off at the Catalunya stop.
We were able to find our hotel,
Hostal Campi, easily from the metro stop as it was only located one block away. The walk to our room required climbing up four flights of stairs; not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely a lot of work and a great opportunity for exercise. The
room was simple but functional, with a comfortable bed and was a bargain in my opinion at only 63 Euros per night (about $85 per night). Considering we were staying in the central part of one of the most popular cities in Europe, I thought this was an excellent deal! After checking in, we were both starving, so we walked to a nearby grocery store to buy water, bread, and salami. The salami we purchased happened to be some of the best salami I have ever consumed, so I was quite pleased.
After eating, we felt a lot better, but both of us were still absolutely exhausted from our long day of travel. As a result, we wanted to do something really easy and mindless, so we consulted Rick Steves Spain 2009 book and completed the Rick Steves Ramblas walk. This walk began at the top of the Ramblas at Placa de Catalunya and went all the way down the Ramblas, ending at the waterfront. Aside from admiring the beautiful architecture along the walk, we also went inside Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria (more often referred to as La Boqueria) for just a few minutes. La Boqueria
is a large food market with dozens and dozens of fruit, vegetable, meat, and fish stands, along with a few casual places to eat. The structure of the current market was built back in 1853, but a market has stood in the same area for hundreds of years. When we visited, it was insanely crowded with a ton of people going in every which way direction, so we didn't spend too much time inside. We figured we would have time to go back at another less busy time, since the market was located only a few minutes away from our hotel.
As we continued our walk, we were both shocked to see that nearly every square foot of the Ramblas was filled with thousands of people, many of whom were students. As it was only March, and not the height of spring or summer, we were expecting small crowds, so we were quite surprised to see the massive amount of people. We eventually walked all the way down to the waterfront, stopping at the Columbus Monument. We had initially planned to go up inside the monument in order to see a view of the city, but our plans were
derailed as the lift was temporarily closed.
After enjoying views around the waterfront, we walked all the way back up the Ramblas and to the Block of Discord. This block is located in the Eixample District and is famous for several of it's buildings, who were designed by three of Barcelona's most beloved architects; Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Antoni Gaudí and Josep Puig i Cadafalch. All of these buildings were built in the early 1900's and stand out like sore thumbs compared to their neighbors, as their architecture styles are so completely different than everything else. One of the famous buildings on the Block of Discord we saw was Casa Batlló, designed by Gaudí. My sister Kimberly had told us about the building prior to our trip, but since the entrance fee was so steep (16.5 Euros per person, or about $22 USD) we didn't think we would be able to tour it. However, after viewing the facade for myself up close, I knew we would have to go in, especially because I knew that there was many great photographic opportunities up on the roof and inside the house. We decided to wait and tour the building on another
day when we were more coherent and less tired.
At this point, we both began to crash very quickly, so we both agreed to head back to the hotel ASAP to sleep. On our walk back, we stopped in at an eatery called Pita Inn and bought a bocadillo (sandwich) to eat that was made with kebab meat. The sandwich, to my surprise, was actually quite delicious. We finally made our way back to the room and collapsed around 19:30. I ended up waking up a few hours later at 01:30 and was unable to sleep for at least one hour. Jet lag is so frustrating!
Day 3 (Thursday, March 26th, 2009)
We awoke on our first morning in Barcelona at 7:30 to sunny and bright blue skies; although I was still quite tired and out of it, I was so thrilled to see that the sun was shining. After getting ready, we headed out around 8:30 and walked to the
Palau de la Musica Catalana (Palace of Catalan Music), where we had pre-booked spots for the 9:00 English tour. Admission to the music hall is by guided tour only, and the tours are limited to 45 people only, so they sell out
quickly. The Palau de la Musica Catalana was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built between 1905 to 1908, in the Catalan modernista style. Unfortunately, as we sat in the courtyard of the Palau, waiting for our tour to began, the sun slowly began to fade, which made me very sad. When our tour finally began, it started with a ten minute video that explained the construction of the building and the history behind it, including the interesting fact that the music hall was built upon the site of a former monastery. After the video, the guide took us into the main hall, where we were all blown away by the colorful mosaics, playful sculptures, and the amazing light that surrounded us. Although the theater was much smaller than I had imagined it would be, it's beauty far surpassed what I ever expected it to look like. Unfortunately, much to my disappointment, we were unable to take photographs inside the theater. You’ll have to trust my judgment regarding it's beauty or visit the website yourself to understand what I’m talking about!
After touring the Palau de la Musica Catalana, we took the metro to the famous
La Sagrada Família, where
we had also booked tickets ahead of time. We had done so in this case as we had read that the entrance line for tickets to this popular spot sometime took as long as one to two hours, and we definitely didn’t want to waste any of our precious time in Barcelona standing in lines. We bought the tickets through a website called
Telentrada, where they also sell entrance tickets to many other sights within Barcelona. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Sagrada Família it was still cloudy out, although I did have a glimmer of hope as I saw tiny bits of blue sky dispersed within the clouds.
This Roman Catholic Church has been under construction since 1882 and is expected to continue until at least 2026. It was designed by Barcelona's most famous architect, Antoni Gaudí, who worked on the project for nearly 40 years until his death in 1926.
We began our tour of the massive church in the museum, which was located in what will someday be the church’s crypt. The museum features dozens of photos from the construction of the church over the last 125 years and also includes many models of various forms
of the church. In addition to viewing the displays, we also spent 20 minutes watching a movie that explained the history of the building, and featured excerpts from construction that had occurred within the last ten years. Next, we took an elevator (located at the nativity facade) to the top, where we admired views of the two towers and of the construction that was taking place all around and below us. Although the sun was trying it’s best to come out, it was still quite cloudy and gray, so I was not happy with the photos. We eventually made our way into the ridiculously crowded nave, which was a crazy construction zone of dust, drilling, and scaffolding. However, beyond all of the chaos, it was easy to appreciate the architecture of the interior, especially the columns, which branched off into the ceiling like trees. I had read that the church was scheduled to be completely finished in 20 years, around 2030. We’ll see if that actually happens, but whenever it does, I hope I’m still alive and get to see it as it was always intended to appear.
After we were finished at La Sagarada Familia, we took the
metro to Parc de la Ciutadella. Unfortunately, one of the main focal points of the park, the Cascade Fountain, was covered in scaffolding and netting, so we were only able to enjoy views of the lower fountains. Luckily, it was at this time that the sun finally came back out in full force after being unable to make up its mind for several hours, so I was happy, scaffolding or not. Within the park, we also saw a beautiful lake and the Parlament de Catalunya . We continued our walk through the pleasant and un-crowded park until we reached the charming Barri Gotic neighborhood.
We eventually made our way to the
Picasso Museum, after strolling through a few back alleyways and lovely squares in Barri Gotic. The Picasso Museum in Barcelona houses one of the largest collections of works of art completed by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The museum is housed in five adjoining medieval palaces that provide a fascinating architectural backdrop to the art on display. We opted to purchase the Articket Card at the museum, which only cost 20 Euros but included entrance to seven other museums within the city, including three that we would visit the
following day. The museum was well laid-out and easy to follow and not at all overwhelming. Each of the rooms were organized by a time period in Picasso’s life with many of his early works on display. Prior to visiting this museum, when someone mentioned Picasso, I instantly thought of his modern, Cubism art. I had absolutely no idea that Picasso’s early work included many realistic pieces, and a few impressionist ones.
After spending about one hour at the museum, we traveled by metro back to Las Ramblas, where we visited La Boquereia again, as we were only able to devote just a small amount of time the day prior. Although we were visiting at a much earlier time than the day before (15:00 instead of 17:00) many of the market stalls were already beginning to shut down, especially the ones selling meat and fish. We wandered our way through the maze of stalls, before eventually buying two containers of mixed fruit for only one Euro each; what a deal!
After the market, we headed off Las Ramblas to a street called Carme Portaferrissa, where we turned right onto Carrer Petritxol, and hoped to stop in for churros
con chocolate at Granja La Pallaresa. Unfortunately, it wasn’t scheduled to open for at least an hour longer, so we instead walked into a chocolate shop two stores down and bought some delicious cookies. We decided to come back later that night for churros and chocolate.
Afterward, we headed north to
Casa Batlló, another Gaudí creation. The building was initially built in 1877 but was later remodeled by Gaudí between 1905 to 1907. As previously mentioned, I had wavered back and forth as to whether or not we should visit this building due to it’s ridiculously high entrance fee (16.5 Euros per person), but alas, I was called to visit by it’s promises of beautiful and unique architecture, which I am always a sucker for. The entrance fee also included an audio guide. Although most people began the tour on the ground level floor, we opted to start all the way at the rooftop, in order to take advantage of the setting sunlight on the whimsical chimneys. I was able to get several great shots of the chimneys which really thrilled me. We then descended down the stairs to begin touring the rooms, which to my surprise, only covered the
top floor and first two floors. The rest of the floors contained private residences and were therefore obviously closed to the public. My favorite rooms were definitely the attic with it’s incredibly gorgeous arches and one of the rooms on the bottom floor, which faced the street and featured beautiful stained glass walls and an amazing light fixture set in the ceiling in a swirl pattern. Overall, I was happy we had visited Casa Batlló and glad that I had been able to obtain great photos of the rooftop; however, I strongly feel that their entrance fee is too high and quite unnecessary; someone is making a HUGE profit off of this place!
From Casa Batllo, we took the metro once again, this time venturing down to the
Cathedral of Barcelona (also known as the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia). This 14th century church with it’s 19th century facade was undergoing restoration during our visit, and much of it’s exterior was covered in scaffolding. We walked through the interior, which was free to view. It was very dark inside the church, but not in a gloomy way; in fact, it was quite beautiful and much different than any other church we had
visited in the past. Many times, since we visit so many churches while traveling, those not absolutely spectacular tend to blur together and all look the same in our memory, but this cathedral was a different story and very unique.
From the church, we decided to travel back to Granja La Pallaresa, as it was after 17:00 and we knew the eatery would be open. Upon arrival, we were seated immediately and quickly decided to order two chocolate con churros with plenty of whip cream. We were astonished by the massive amount of cream that was added to the top of the thick chocolate. It took us both several dips of our churros before we were even able to see any of the chocolate below the cream. The churros were excellent; crispy and crunchy on the outside, and soft and deliciously sweet on the inside; a perfect combination with the creamy chocolate. The restaurant seemed to serve mostly locals and was quite affordable for a snack; our bill was less than 9 Euros.
Next, we headed back up Las Ramblas again, this time in search of the restaurant we had decided upon for dinner, El Raco, based on
a recommendation by Rick Steves. The restaurant served Mediterranean inspired cuisine for very reasonable prices; main dishes ranged from 7 Euros to 10 Euros. I ended up ordering risotto with wild mushrooms and shrimp while Mike went with a ham and cheese pizza. The food was decent; certainly not the best, but definitely not the worst. The price was right and the service was fast, so we were happy in the end.
From the restaurant, we walked through the busy streets of Barcelona in the evening back to our hotel, where we once again crashed from exhaustion. We had had quite a busy and eventful day!
Day 4 (Friday, March 27th, 2009)
Due to a poor night of sleep, we ended up waking up a little later than planned on our third day in Barcelona. We finally left the room around 9:30, and found a pastry shop near our hotel to buy a quick breakfast.
We then took the metro a few stops up to Casa Milà (also known as La Pedrera). Casa Milà was designed by Antoni Gaudí and built between 1906 to 1910 for the married couple, Rosario Segimon and Pere Milà
We were able to skip the regular entrance line due to the Articket Card that we had purchased the day prior. Once inside, we grabbed the free audio guide, which was included with the ticket price. We then took an elevator up to the attic level, which contained many models, photos, and other relevant facts relating to Antoni Gaudí.
As the morning light (ideal for photography) was quickly waning, we headed straight for the rooftop in order to photograph the many famous chimneys, of which there are 30 in total. Luckily for us, the sun was shining brightly and the sky appeared deep blue against the cream toned chimneys; I was very happy with the end results of my photography. Had we arrived any later, the sun would have been at an angle that would have prevented me from obtaining great shots of the chimneys, so I was very happy! Once back inside Casa Milà, we headed down a few flights of stairs to the private apartments, which were decorated as how they might have appeared when it was first built by Gaudí. Unfortunately, although the apartment was decorated quite beautifully and was extremely interesting to look at,
the rooms were chocked full with way too many visitors, so it was difficult to appreciate what we were seeing.
From Casa Milà, we headed to yet another Gaudi sight, Parc Güell, which was located in the northern area of Barcelona and required us to take a metro and bus ride. After leaving the metro station, we ended up getting on a bus with the correct number, but we soon realized it was going in the wrong direction. Luckily, we realized this quickly enough and got off at the following stop. We then tried to find the stop on the opposite side of the street, but had no luck. We continued walking towards the park as Mike figured we would run into another bus stop; unfortunately we did not, although we did finally reach the park ourselves after a good 20 minutes and several hundred stairs! Our first views upon entering Parc Güell were of the massive amount of people within the grounds of the park; not over exaggerating, but there was definitely thousands of people within our range of view, including hundreds of school children, who appeared to be there with their classmates on a field trip. Prior
to our trip, I had received a request from Mike’s Aunt Sherry to take a photography of the famous Gaudi Lizard at the park. Unfortunately, I was not aware that this lizard was one of the most photographed items in all of the park and literally had dozens of people standing in line waiting to get their shot with the reptile. As a result, I was unable to get a great photo of the object, but did get a few decent ones. I also managed to photograph a few other things, including the Hall of 100 Columns, but I soon tired of the ridiculous crowds, and we quickly left. I can imagine that the park is probably best visited first thing in the morning when it opens.
From the park, we opted to take a taxi back to the metro stop in order to avoid a long and tiring walk. We took the metro back into town and had lunch at Pita Inn once again; it was hard to say no to cheap and delicious sandwiches!
Next, we walked down the Ramblas, and turned right onto a street named Carrer Nou de la Rambla, where we walked to
Palau Güell, which was completed in 1890 by none other than Antoni Gaudí. The building was undergoing a massive restoration during our visit and so we were only able to tour the ground floor and basement; however, there was no entrance fee charged, so we weren’t too upset. There was pamphlets and a video which showed pictures of the rest of the building, including the amazing roof with it’s gorgeous chimneys. I was disappointed that we would be unable to see the rooftop as it looked even more interesting than those we had seen at both Casa Batllo and Casa Milà.
Next, we walked to La Boqueria Market as I was craving some strawberries. When we had visited the day prior, I had seen row after row of fruit stands with beautiful and shiny red strawberries. We got quite a large amount and it only cost about two Euros.
We took our strawberries back to the hostal, and rested up for a bit before we headed out again.
When we finally left, we once again went back to Sagrada Familia so that I could retake the front exterior shots of the church as it was sunny out. We
arrived at the perfect time when the sun was shining brightly on the facade. It was truly amazing to see how much different the church appeared on a sunny day versus a cloudy one; the details were so much more emphasized and pronounced.
After feeling satisfied with my photo retakes, we took a combination of a metro ride and a funicular ride in order to reach Montjuic (Mount of the Jews). This area of Barcelona is situated atop a hill which overlooks all of Barcelona, including it's harbor. We had several sights that we wanted to see in this area of Barcelona including Fundacio Joan Miro, the Catalan Art Museum, and the Magic Fountains.
It was just a short walk from the funicular station to
Fundacio Joan Miro. This museum is filled with many different forms of modern art created by the Spanish artist Joan Miró. Entrance to the museum was included with our Articket card, and though I had not initially planned to visit the museum, I figured we might as well since it wouldn't cost us any extra money. I wasn’t sure if either one of us was going to enjoy the museum, as we are usually not
The famous Lizard at Parc Guell
This was the best shot I managed to attain after attempting for several minuteshuge fans of art, and definitely not modern art. My predictions were right and we only spent about 20 minutes in the museum before we couldn’t stand anymore. I tried very hard to appreciate the art, and to wrap my mind around the symbolism, but I had a very difficult time doing so. In addition, the sun was shining and it sounded much more appealing to sit outside in the sun and enjoy the temperature instead of standing around in a museum that we had no interest in.
We left the museum and walked for a bit, until we reached a park called Jardins de Joan Maragall that looked quite inviting. We walked through it for awhile, enjoying the views of Barcelona, and then found a bench that was situated right in front of the sun. It appeared to be calling our names, so we decided to sit for about half an hour, and just simply relaxed and soaked up the warmth.
With much reluctance, we finally left our spots in the warm sun and continued the walk along to the
National Art Museum of Catalunya. This museum contains various forms of visual art from the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods
and also has collections on 19th and 20th century art. Entrance to the museum was also included in the Articket card, but I had actually planned on visiting this museum prior to buying the card, unlike the Fundacio Joan Miro Museum.
The museum, like so many other sights in Barcelona and around Europe, was undergoing renovation on it’s exterior. It appeared to be quite beautiful, so I was slightly disappointed I couldn’t get a shot without all of the scaffolding and tarps. We first decided to walk through the Romanesque gallery, as that is what the museum is most famous and well-known for. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of the exhibits here; while the frescoes were absolutely gorgeous to look at, I didn’t like the idea that the paintings had all been ripped off the walls of churches. I wondered why they hadn’t just kept the paintings where they belonged? The museum’s brochure indicated that they were preserving the frescoes so that the art could stay within Catalunya, but I wasn’t buying it. Unless the churches were specifically ordered to be demolished, I felt there was no reason why the frescoes shouldn’t have stayed put where they
had been painted hundreds of years before.
After touring the Romanesque gallery, I headed over to the Baroque gallery. For some reason, prior to our visit I had assumed that we would be seeing furniture and possibly other pieces of decorative art, but I saw none of this. Instead, the area I visited was full of unknown paintings by local artists of the region. Soon after this, I had tired of looking at art, and went downstairs to find Mike in the café, where he had ventured to after our visit to the Renaissance galleries. We purchased some pastries and coffees, and sat around for awhile, killing time before the 19:00 Magic Fountains display.
The Magic Fountains were located just directly downhill from the Catalan Art Museum. By the time we ventured outside around 18:50, the steps were lined with hundreds of people, waiting for the spectacle to begin. When it finally did begin, we were both very surprised by the number of fountains that spouted off. The fountains were set to music, so it was quite interesting to watch. The sun was also setting behind a pink sky, so the entire setting was very beautiful. After about
the first ten minutes of the show, the fountains began to light up in different shades of blue, pink, orange, etc, and it appeared even more impressive than before. We didn’t stay too long though as it was quite cold out, we were both exhausted, and my legs were killing me from the massive amount of walking we had completed that day.
We headed to the metro, located just beyond the fountains, and traveled back to Las Ramblas. Because we were so exhausted and since we had an early flight out that next morning to Granada, we did not want to travel far nor wait any amount of time to eat out out on that Friday evening. As a result, we ate dinner at a place called La Poma, which appeared to be a chain restaurant. It was located just a few minutes walk from our hotel, had no line, and was decently priced, so it worked for me. Mike, on the other hand, was quite ashamed to be inside the restaurant, as it was mostly filled with tourists instead of locals and definitely wasn’t his idea of a traditional Spanish restaurant. I felt bad as well, but honestly
didn’t care very much as I was too exhausted to even think straight. The pizza we ordered wasn’t that bad, and with the water our total bill came to 23 Euros.
We eventually made our way back to the hotel, where I collapsed not too much later. In addition to having a jam-packed two and a half days in Barcelona, I was still overwhelmed with jet lag so I was absolutely exhausted and in desperate need of rest.
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AnnaAdventuring
Anna Louise
I really enjoyed your blog on Barcelona. I was there for a month last year and this brought back many happy memories. Nice to revisit Las Ramblas and all that gorgeous Gaudi architecture through your photos. :)