It was the first time that we met, how can I forget, the moment that I stepped off the plane you took my breath awaaaaaay .. you can’t beat a bit of Freddy starting off your blog post (ok some artistic licences have been taken). But in all honesty we both fell in love with this amazing city with a beach.
I bought the flights back in the autumn, it was a surprise Christmas pressie for Mr W (obvs with perks for me too), as we had both talked about visiting so I thought instead of just talking .. lets do it. We booked the hotel in the new year (Hotel Catalonia Segrada Familia) which was reasonably priced and perfect for what we needed and also about 2 minutes walk to the nearest metro station of Clot.
The evening we arrived it was absolutely pouring down, but that didn’t stop us having a quick wander round the area .. although we weren’t as quick we had hoped as we lost our bearings and couldn’t find the hotel for a while, we arrived back looking like we’d just stepped out of the shower .. I think the hotel staff thought we were utterly mad! But come the next you would never have known it was pouring the evening before as the sky was a gorgeous blue, not a cloud was in the sky (well maybe a few pretty fluffy ones) and the sun was shining and so so warm .. we were so happy.
The first port of call was to find a fabulous cafe that sold even more fabulous coffee .. we had quite to a few to chose from. As for seeing the sights we had only booked to see a couple of venues, Saturday was a day of exploring and seeing where our feet & eyes took us .. every corner we got to were thin streets filled with so much to see (& photograph), we covered quite a distant, from the Sagrada Familia to the Arco de Triomf .. (no I didn’t know there one in Barcelona as well) which leads though to the Parc de la Ciutadella and then on to the beach, it was a scorcher of day so we had a couple of cervezas looking out to the sea .. you really couldn’t get a better view. We then headed to the Gothic Quarter, a maze of truly beautiful streets, buskers, shops & fabulous restaurants.
Once we couldn’t walk anymore we grabbed the metro back to the hotel to freshen up & tend our slightly red shoulders / face / neck! We had decided that dinner that evening was to be on the harbour in one of the many seafood restaurants .. honestly you are spoilt for choice .. we were not disappointed, so much so we returned on our last night and ordered a huge amount of seafood .. we left with clean plates .. it was delicious.
Sunday was the day Mr W was really looking forward to, we had booked to have a tour of Camp Nou home to Barcelona FC .. I’m not the biggest football fan (well actually I’m not a fan at all), but I have to say it was actually rather good & interesting, of course I had no idea who any of the team were & Mr W gave up in the end trying to explain who was who and what cup was for which game .. the stadium itself is quite breathtakingly huge .. apparently it can hold up to 99 thousand people. We had booked a tour where we took ourselves round at our own pace but there are other tours where you can get shown around. It was seriously good value for the money as we were there for just over 2 hours and could’ve stayed longer had we have chosen to. Not only did we see the stadium from the terraces but we also went down to the pitch (though of course not actually on it) ..after this it was up to see where the likes of John Motson do the commentary and then to the away sides changing rooms .. Mr W had a big beaming smile on his face .. this was his version of how I am on insta-meets and/or press days!
On our last day we went to Park Güell, part of this is free and has the most spectacular views of the city, with lots of nooks and paths to explore, we had also booked tickets to see the mosaic walls, sculptures and gardens .. such a stunning place to visit and full of colour.
We went for three days but it felt like so much longer .. Barcelona is such a beautiful city, and one we would definitely like to go back to again .. it has a a wonderful relaxed feel to it, the architecture is stunning and the food is utterly amazing.
We had the best time.
I hope you enjoyed my memoirs of Barcelona .. Cheers …
Niki xx
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