Four Days in Barcelona

Things To Do:

Visit the various public markets. Spain, by far, offers the best of food choices compared to other countries we have visited in Europe. Thus, the first order of business is to eat. I love the tapa style as we get to pick several choices on small portions. We also tried various versions of the paella and everything is great. It is also customary to have a wine, sangria or wine in every meal and it complements well with the tapas.

We visited Mercat de Sant Antoni. A mercado (market) across the street from our AirBnb. It is a public market and a foodie heaven. We tried their arepas/empanadas and they are muy delicioso! We also visited Mercat St. Josep (La Boqueria). This is one of the best food markets in the whole world, in my opinion. The market is very colorful and they have a wide array of food choices that will satisfy even the most discriminating taste.

Park Guell. Park Guell is Antoni Gaudi’s park in Barcelona. This is definitely one of the most impressive public parks in the world, a must-do while you’re in Barcelona. We spent the afternoon walking around the park. We did not have a reservation inside the main park so we bought our tickets when we arrived there. We have an hour wait before our entry time so we spent time walking around the outer portion of the park which is free. It is quite an uphill walk and it is well worth it to see not only Gaudi’s building design but also a great view of the city at the top. We enjoyed the relaxing stroll in this park as we fought our jet lag from the long trip. There is a restricted area in the park that required a ticket. The ticket is well worth it. You’ll get to see where Gaudi lived called the Gaudi House Museum and a mosaic lizard, known as El Drac that seemed to be guarding the entrance.

La Sagrada Familia. The highlight of our trip to Barcelona. You just can not come to Barcelona without visiting this place. La Sagrada Familia is another one of Antoni Gaudi’s work – a large unfinished Roman Catholic cathedral. The architecture of La Sagrada Familia is likened to Spanish gothic and Art Nouveau. The spires, facades and geometric details in the interior certainly show these architecture styles. There is a ticket to get in but money from the ticket sales pay for the work towards completion. It is advisable to get the tickets way in advance and you need to be here at a certain time so plan your day or time accordingly. Early morning is the best time to beat the crowd as it builds up throughout the day. It was such a pleasure to visit this wonder creation of Gaudi. We love the intricacy of the outer facade as it tells the story from Jesus birth to his crucifixion in the cross. Gaudi is indeed one of the best evangelists by proclaiming the life of Jesus through his arts from when he designed this masterpiece until it is continuously completed after he is long gone. The inside is huge open space with various sizes of columns from floor to ceiling each carrying a weight of the beautiful structure and aggregately depict a feel of a peaceful forest. Each wall is decorated with stained glass depicting its own spiritual theme and yet the colors radiate the light from the sun inside the massive structure producing a different feel and look of the basilica throughout the day.

Montserrat Monastery. Montserrat Monastery is nestled in a serrated mountain range in Catalonia and is Catalonia’s most important religious retreat. This Benedictine monastery sits atop the mountain range and inside it, you can find the statue of the Virgin of Montserrat – one of the few black madonnas of Europe. You can get here via car or train from Barcelona. We used the latter. We visited the place in the afternoon to avoid the morning crowd of tourists. A lot of tourist buses visit the place in the morning. We got our roundtrip tickets from Placa Espanya in Barcelona and took the R5 line to Monistrol de Montserrat. The trip took around an hour and a half. After we got off, we took another train (Cremallera) that runs to the top of the mountain. Another option is to take the cable car. We took the Cremallera because we wanted to make sure we are seated on the train going back to Barcelona. The train departs from the Monistrol de Montserrat and I heard from people on the forums that the train can get pretty packed before it even reached the Aeri de Montserrat station where the cable cars are at. True enough, there were some people that got in at the Aeri de Montserrat that had to stand all the way to Barcelona. That is the last thing we wanted to do after a lot of walking. Anyway, our tickets also included rides to two furniculars – Santa Cova and Sant Joan. Unfortunately, the Santa Cova furnicular wasn’t running that day and we only got to ride the Sant Joan. This took us to a very high observation point. From here, you can hike to Sant Jeroni which is the highest peak on Montserrat. It is supposed to be a 3 hour return hike so we didn’t do it. We are very tired at this point and we just enjoyed the views from the observation point. We spent the whole afternoon here enjoying the mountain air and just walking around.

Montjuic Castle. This is an old military fortress and now a museum at the top of the hill. This is one of the higher elevated places in Barcelona where you can see the coast on one side and the city on the other side. Thus, we plan to come here late in the afternoon to see the sun set. We had a nice stroll around the castle garden and surroundings as the sun sets. It was a stunning view to see Barcelona transition from daylight to its city night light. After dark we followed pedestrians downhill and arrived at the Magic Fountain for the nightly light show. Such a great crowd to see people converged to see the magnificent water work, lights and music that come alive for an hour or so.

Visit all or most of Gaudi’s buildings. One of Barcelona’s greatest treasure are Gaudi’s creations all over the city. Admire their very distinct architecture of the designs. We admired most the frontage due to time constraints but we checked and enjoyed the interior and the rooftop of Casa Batllo. It amazed me to learn the details of each corner and wall that are intricately designed with practical considerations of the light and air flow within the property. We just passed by Casa Mila and Casa Vicens.