And then there was Barcelona.
We took a 7 hour train ride from Seville to Barcelona on ____. Planning our Barcelona stay was a conundrum. We got LOTS of advice from friends, but each person’s advice conflicted the other. So we decided to go with the flow and see what surprised us.
Hotel Majestic & Spa Barcelona.
We stayed at the Majestic Hotel, which was highly rated and said to be situated on one of the most central streets in the area. It was nice, for sure. Central? Not so much. We had to take a cab or the train to most of the places we wanted to see. While that’s not a big deal, we do prefer walking. (We’re New Yorkers!)
Gaudi
At the cultural heart of Barcelona is the artist Gaudi. Gaudi designed so many sights, it was hard to keep up with them all. We toured one of Gaudi’s homes, went to the Park Gruell, and spent a few hours touring the manificent Sagrada Familia. It was like a church designed while Gaudi was on an acid trip. We wanted to spend all day in it!
Walking the City and Taking Tours
We took a big bus tour of all of Barcelona and ate and several of the famed and highly rated restaurants. We walked around the area called ______ with all it’s restaurants, squares and shops. We ventured far out to Park Gruell. We hung out in the famous squares with performers and musicians and quirky shops.
Yet, after all those sites, Barcelona just seemed gritty and too touristy. Monica wanted to see a Barcelona like the one she read about in James Michers’ book The Drifters. However, it’s been 50 years since that book was written, and the influx of tourists has changed the scene a lot. The Barcelona we saw was a tourist town, with a Sephora and H&M all over the place, big hotels, and most activities catered to tourists, selfie-takers and Instagramers. It didn’t have the edge we saw in Madrid and Spain. We wanted to see historical Barcelona, not one that wanted to make tourists happy. Maybe we just looked in the wrong places.
With that said, we did stumble across a very goo Banksy exhibit. We are both very interested in the mysterious Banksy’s art and story. It’s funny that one of the best things we saw in Barcelona (outside of the Sagrada Familia) was an exhibit about a New York based artist.
The Spain trip (Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona) helped us determine preferences for our future vacations, especially our coming two-month European Vacation:
- Stays should be longer than three nights, so we don’t feel rushed.
- Stay at local, boutique hotels instead of big chain, luxury hotels.
- Take a tour of each city on our first day.
- Eat at local restaurants that locals like.
- Go to places that spark our curiosity over those that may be the most popular.
- See some type of performance (opera, music, stage) to make a city memorable.
- Write about what we do so we don’t forget.