Barcelona

Finally after a long sunny day of beach hoping we made it to the infamous Barcelona. 

The arrival was a bit rough; it was very difficult to find our Airbnb via car since the Gothic area is mostly not accessible by car! So we had to park, walk, check-in and then drive back to the airport to return the vehicle. 

Once we headed back to the apartment from the airport, we got ready and went out for a nice dinner in the Ramblas. Like everywhere else in Spain, it consisted of tapas and wine. The beach hoping was tiring so we called it an “early night” and went to rest after dinner. 

The next day, we got up early and rented some bikes. It is very pleasant to bike in these cities. They are so bike friendly and you get to cover more than walking. We did our touristy things like going to “ La Sagrada Familia” and walked by the Roman walls that still remain today. These are pretty impressive and it is very neat to see how a city has been built around them. Barcelona is often referred to as a city that was built on a city and you see it everywhere in the old city.  If you look closely you can see where the bottom of a building might be a Roman wall, then a little further up a slightly newer building material (still probably hundreds of years old), then even higher up is a modern building.  The marks of the past can be seen all over this city. 

In the afternoon, we stumble upon an AMAZING little bar with tapas. The place is called “Zona d’Ombra,” they have a great selection of wines plus Torrija, the most delicious Spanish dessert you can ever have. Sunday night was a big day for the Spaniards. They celebrate the summer solstices and there were parties EVERYWHERE. The night went on until very late and it helped that next day was a holiday so most places were closed. We headed to a place called “La Republica” where we got to watch Colombian soccer game against Poland. From there we started bar hopping and went to a Brazilian bar where we dance the night away Samba style until we couldn’t anymore and returned to our Airbnb. 

So, as you can imagine after an intense night out our Monday turned into hangover recovery day plus work since in the USA it was not a holiday! We took it slow to recover from our hard Sunday night! J

On Tuesday, we headed to the market because how can we not go to one of the most famous markets in Europe. The market is called “La Boqueria” and it was very cool to experience. After, we headed to the famous Barcelona beaches. There was NO SHADE ANYWHERE!!!! The beaches are not sandy beaches. They are mostly rocks/pebbles.  We stop at a nice little bar called “PetitBar” which had the best sangria we had so far in Spain. After a whole morning of sun and sand, we headed back to get some work done. In the evening, we went for a late night drink to a place that had live music and was recommended by our host. The bar is called “Guzzo”. We have seen better live music, so we took off after a few drinks. The drinks were amazing, though. 

On Wednesday, we took it slow to regain some energy. From the market, we got some groceries so we could make lunch at our Airbnb. It came out great. We had a yummy cheese sandwich with a fresh salad. This was a very refreshing and needed meal. We started work early because we wanted to take off early in order to head to the magical fountains. What an amazing area to go to in the evening. The views, lighting, music, and water fountain show made it a very romantic area and just pleasant to hang out in. 

Since this was our last night and we wanted some tapas and drinks, we stopped at a little restaurant where we had very tasty eggplant with honey and a steak and a couple of glasses of Cava. Last, we stopped once again at Guzzo for a quick glass of wine and off to bed since the next morning we were heading out early on a flight to Nice, France. 

The Airbnb we stayed at was comfortable but not very clean but not as bad as the one in Madrid!!! What is it with these main cities and their lack of cleaning at homes! 

Our stay in Barcelona was wonderful, we partied, we drank, we worked and well we definitely enjoyed ourselves. 

Thanks for reading!!!

L & H