Blogs from Catalonia, Spain, Europe - page 2

A much-needed bit of sleeping in is how the day started. I naturally still woke up at 6:30 but refused to actually get up and after getting Jerry to stop snoring I fell back asleep until 8:30 when Jerry’s alarm went off. Then snoozed for an hour. We went down to breakfast before we started getting ready for the day. Jerry tried the eggs benedict, it was ok, but not enough hollandaise and they serve it basically cold except the poached egg. I had jamon, cheese and mushroom omelet, it was pretty good but paper thin almost more like a crepe instead of an omelet. We of course supplemented with the buffet. I ordered a café con leche, but knew I was going to need more than one cup, so also went to the buffet to ... read more

It’s Friday, must be Barcelona. The alarm went off at 6 am, after 30 minutes of snoozing, I was up and, in the shower, (Jerry gets an extra 30 minutes of sleep). Typical morning routine, shower, pack, breakfast, then off for the activities of the day. At the moment, in the room doing this initial blog entry, then it will be down to breakfast and off to the train station. The trip to Barcelona is about 6 ½ hours by TGV, meaning a nap is in our future. Other than getting to Barcelona and then dinner, this is a light day, so the blog post will be short. Tomorrow, the trip begins in earnest, with sightseeing, wonderful food and wine, including biking around Barcelona. For now, it is just time to finish getting ready to leave. ... read more

While other cities have art interwoven throughout them, Barcelona is truly in a class of its own with artistic elements to be found throughout nearly every street you find. This morning started with a lovely local breakfast of mushrooms, avocado, eggs, and chorizo. It was likely the best omelette I have ever had. Then on to getting a small tattoo souvenir before visiting Gaudi’s Park Guell. Originally designed as a housing complex, the park has become a municipal garden and tourist Mecca. The viaducts throughout are visually interesting and you’ll see in my pictures the lovely lizard at the entrance! You could spend a couple hours at the park - definitely get your tickets beforehand. Heading back, I ran into a large farmer‘s market that appeared to only consist of various honeys, teas, and herbs. After ... read more

I didn’t realize how much I had to research. I went to Barcelona every year between 2009 and 2011. Back then, I was giving suggestions and knew exactly where to go and what to do. Fast forward to 2023, and I had forgotten all the details 😳 Plus, there have been many changes. The biggest one is that Park Guell is no longer free. Also, the Magic Fountain was shut off due to drought, Tranvía Blau wasn’t running due to renovations, and some places closed during Covid. With new knowledge, here we go, Barcelona version 2.0, a family edition! Fri: Bienvenido! The trip was so smooth we even discovered that we don’t have to take the monorail from Bart station if flying out of the international terminal, haha. The flight was quick sleeping for the most ... read more

Today is the last day of our trip, we fly back tomorrow morning. After last night’s wonderful experience with Gaudi’s Park Guell, we were really looking forward to seeing Gaudi’s masterpiece church this afternoon, but first we have a brief excursion just outside of Barcelona to Catalonia to visit Montserrat. Monserrat, the ”Serrated Mountain” is the name of a series of 3 peaks of the Catalan mountain range. It’s highest peak is about 4000 ft. The rock formations are beautiful, and there are three ways to get to the top. There is a cable car, a cog railway, and a couple of roads. Since we have a bus, we naturally took the road. Once at the top, there is a funicular that takes you to the actual peak, but there isn’t really anything at the peak, ... read more