We just spent another weekend away, this time exploring Barcelona and getting the final bit of sunshine out of the year.
What a fantastic city. From the moment we arrived we wanted to live there - the weather, the food, the Spanishness - but I guess being on holiday always puts a place in the best light and real life's a bit different.
Barcelona's a really small city, so very easy to get around and see plenty, but even so we will have to go back to fit in everything we want to do there.
We stayed at a really cheap hostel, Hostal Neutral, right in the centre of town. The place was really basic, but perfect for two nights, and cheap to boot. We arrived late on Friday night and took a midnight wander down Las Ramblas, stopping for a beer en route. We enjoyed this introduction to the city, one of all night partying and entertainment. As it was October there weren't too many tourists which made wandering along much easier.
Saturday was meant to start with a bike tour of the city, but as we'd both been really busy the week before the trip we'd forgotten to note down details of where the tour began. So instead we explored Mercat de la Boqueria, enjoying some delicious fresh juice (mmm strawberry and coconut), some seafood treats and some pastries and fruit. From there we took the metro (very simple and cheap) to Sagrada Familia, stood in the queue and paid 12 euros to get in (boy inflation goes up quickly in Spain, our guide book from 2007 had the price at 8 euros so that's a 50% increase in just three years). Gaudi's masterpiece has been in construction mode for more than 100 years and still has a long way to go. The exterior's amazing, and we both enjoyed most the more modern side of the building, designed by Josep Maria Subirachs. There's an excellent museum under the church itself and it was well worth a visit.
We finally figured out the starting point for our cycling tour and joined it at 4pm. What a brilliant way to see a city! Our tour was with Fat Tyre Bike Tours. In about 4 hours we saw various Piaza, Arc de Triomf, Palau de la Musica Catalana, Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona Cathedral, the outside of Sagrada Familia, and finally a drink on the beach. We will definitely look for bike tours in future, and highly recommend Fat Tyre Tours.
The following day we kicked off with an excellent breakfast sitting at the bar of Ciudad Condal and wished we'd found it for dinner the night before. After that we visited the Cathedral, took in some Catalan dancing outside, and braved the crowds to queue for Museu Picasso (the first Sunday of each month is free so it was a bigger queue than normal we expect). Well worth waiting as the museum has hundreds of pieces from Picasso's early life.
