Recommendations for Barcelona

veronese68

A bit further afield I know. Has anyone got any good suggestions for places to go in Barcelona? Food, museums or anything.
I'm taking the Mrs there for a weekend for her birthday soon. I've booked a hotel that's reasonably central, unfortunately on a posh shopping street.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

rick_chasey

Veronese68 wrote:

A bit further afield I know. Has anyone got any good suggestions for places to go in Barcelona? Food, museums or anything.
I'm taking the Mrs there for a weekend for her birthday soon. I've booked a hotel that's reasonably central, unfortunately on a posh shopping street.
Any suggestions gratefully received.

Was there only 4 months ago.

Let me know (roughly)where you're staying.

In short, as touristy as they are, the Gaudi stuff is really quite special and worth doing. Worth leaving plenty of time to really explore those. If you can only do one, please do the Sagrada Familia. It is genuinely really special.

The Rookie

Been a few times....
Gaudi's 'Familia' Cathedral - modern Cathedral, still not finished after 150+ years but interesting none the less
Las Ramblas on a Sunday when you get the best street artists out
The indoor market over the wooden bridge at the sea front from the end of Las Ramblas, just fun!
The three crosses high on the hill overlooking the city - great views but a bit of a hike from the nearest road up a steep hill.
Nou Camp for your Lionel Messi Barca shirt of course (tours are meant to be good)

If you like Roman stuff head down the coast to Tarrgona and see the old Amphitheatre, also the town square is half the old chariot racing oval and above it up the steep hill (the old terracing) is a Pizza shop using a Roman (originally) Oven - great Pizza's, you can also gain access in certain places to the rear of the terracing.

Head towards France along the coast and you come to the old Roman arch that was the entrance to Romanic Spain, Parts of Spain were still Roman even after Rome fell.

Simon

Simon

rjsterry

Go right to the top of the Sagrada Familia towers - unless you don't like heights.
Parc Guell is well worth a visit, as is Casa Mila, for more Gaudi madness.

The Santa Caterina market is worth a look too - by the same architect who designed the Scottish Parliament.

If you like the art of Joan Miro, there is a good museum on top of Montjuic.

veronese68

Excellent, good stuff. We are there from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. we are staying on Paseo de Gracia in this place:
http://www.condesdebarcelona.com/en/localizacion/map-47/
I'm told it's reasonably central, but not right in the thick of the old town. I found a cheap deal on line and a customer's wife recommended it.

il_principe

Several!

Cuines de santa caterina http://www.cuinessantacaterina.com/ Good, inexpensive food.

Dulcinea for Churros and hot chocolate http://www.yelp.co.uk/map/dulcinea-barcelona

El Xampanyet for the best Tapas. Amazing place and when I went we were the only non-Spaniards there. Buy a carafe of their house Cava. It's a bit tricky to find but well worth a visit:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187497-d697571-Reviews-Ca_L_Esteve_El_Xampanyet-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

Pay a visit to La Boqueria - great food market, and well worth eating here. http://www.boqueria.info/

Pay a visit to Parc Guell as well, and head up to Montjuic - David Millar nearly won here in 09. Great views from the top.

Plaça de la Virreina is nice for an evening drink.

That's about all I can remember - was only really interested in eating and drinking!

DrLex

The Picasso museum is worth a visit.

Oh, and since it's not been mentioned yet, be vigilent and careful with valuables - plenty of pickpockets/scam artists in the city.

rick_chasey

There's a great place nearby for breakfast and tapas on the road next door (passage de Catalunya - a pedestrianised road parallel to Gracia) called Mauri.

They do miniature everything, (pastries, sandwiches etc), and it's always busy/popular.

meanredspider

Like Rome, be very careful of pickpockets. A friend found themselves in the queue at the police station with everyone else who'd lost their purse/wallet. I believe Las Ramblas is bad.

*edit* Dr Lex beat me to it - but confirming the point

Gaudi cathedral is great

Mr Sworld

Don't bother with a taxi from the airport. You will get ripped off!

Get the train in and then use the subway system, it's really cheap and reliable. Get a subway ticket deal.

The Old Town is great to wander about but full of thieves so be careful and don't put anything down.

Oh, yeah. As soon as anyone realizes you are from the UK they will speak English to you and tell you they used to live in London...

veronese68

Thanks for all of the suggestions to date. I'm also going to buy a guidebook to give her on the day and put a print out of the tickets inside.
This could be shameless bumping masquerading as thanks

rolf_f

meanredspider wrote:

Like Rome, be very careful of pickpockets. A friend found themselves in the queue at the police station with everyone else who'd lost their purse/wallet. I believe Las Ramblas is bad.

*edit* Dr Lex beat me to it - but confirming the point

I'm careful to the point of paranoia and have never been the victim of theft til I went to Barcelona and got done twice in one day. Once I had my cash taken from a zipped money belt with the zips facing inwards that couldn't be seen from anywhere. I have my ideas about what happened but still don't really know.

The second occasion was on the tube - I had a phone in a shorts pocket low on my leg. A gang of rough looking North Africans borded the train and started pushing everyone around -we all knew something was wrong but there was nothing we could really do about it. One of our group got hemmed in by them but escaped unscathed. I got jostled twice by a short girl - presumably once to open the pocket, once to empty it. Anyone of normal height would have had to stoop for it.

TBH, it puts me off the place. The locals actively change behaviour in certain places and certain times but probably the only way to minimise risk in crowds is to look local and keep your mouth shut so as not to spoil the illusion.

The Police can't be bothered to do anything and don't care about the illegal non tax paying crooked hawkers of illegal tat on The Rambla or the harbour front.

It could be a lovely place...... Personally, I prefer somewhere less stressful.

And plus another for Sagrada Familia. It's fantastic.

Allez Mark

I was there a few years ago. I can recommend La Fonda Restaurant. Beautiful food. Sagrada Familia is impressive. Make sure you climb up to the top. We also enjoyed the Casa Mila and Park Guell. We bought an all day ticket for one of those open top sightseeing buses. Hop on and off wherever you like. I've just remembered the dancing fountains at night. Get there early for a good spot.

rick_chasey

Ah depends when you go re the pickpocketing.

I went in October (still had 30 degree heat. Was a shock when I got off the plane in the UK!) and I barely worried about my cash at all. Just had it in my rapha bonk bag > no problems.

Maybe I just look poor.

I was very disappointed with the gothic quarter. It was just a lot of tacky shops and a few narrow streets. The Ramblas was definitely a low point too, but that was almost to be expected.

Barcelona for me was at its best when it was either enormous, stunning buildings / any gaudi stuff (Sagrada familia, Plas espagne etc) or inside a well chosen food/bar place (not always easy to chose).

For me it wasn't like most bits in Italy where you can sit on a terrace somewhere and just soak it up. You need a bit more direction and careful choices.

rick_chasey

The fort in Montjuic was also an unexpected highlight (though you need clear weather for that).

bromyG

Been a couple of times now and would recommend the tour buses - Bus Turistic
You purchase a one or two day ticket and there are three circular routes round the city which cover practically all the well known places of interest. You can hop on and off wherever you like for as long as your ticket lasts!

http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/web/guest/home

for further details!

beverick

Don't forget to wear your Real Madrid shirt......

Bob

veronese68

beverick wrote:

Don't forget to wear your Real Madrid shirt......

Bob

Thankfully I own no football shirts of any flavour.

meanredspider

beverick wrote:

Don't forget to wear your Real Madrid shirt......

Bob

Don't. I was once given a hire car in Barcelona with Madrid number plates. The very first night, in a "secure" hotel garage, it was vandalised with graffiti scratched into the paintwork. No-one (not the hotel, my Spanish colleagues, or even the hire car company (who apologised)) were in the least bit surprised!

rolf_f

Rick Chasey wrote:

Ah depends when you go re the pickpocketing.

I went in October (still had 30 degree heat. Was a shock when I got off the plane in the UK!) and I barely worried about my cash at all. Just had it in my rapha bonk bag > no problems.

Maybe I just look poor.

October is when I went - you were lucky

xscreamsuk

Look up Fat Tyre Bike Tours, wife and daughter loved it.
Born district is a little less touristy, nice food etc.
Tourist bus thing and the metro get you around well.

mtb-idle

another vote for the bus tour here.

Get off at the cable car stop at the top of the mountain and take the cable car back down to the harbour.

rolf_f

You can tell where the EU money has been going - ie to Barcelona. The amount of new public transport they have is mad - including one tram line that just goes from the outskirts of the city centre to a bit further outside the city centre and a new metro to the airport to go with the two that already go there!

I wish Leeds had 10% of the money that is being spent there.......

The Rookie

On pickpocketing, another one to watch out for is the hawkers of 'lucky heather' type stuff, they only want one euro cent but 'help' you go through your money to find one...a chap I was with nearly lost 40E however he'd recently seen a program about it and the women had hid it tucked under her bra strap through her sleeveless t-shirt arm hole.....she seemed very blase about being caught stealing, didn't really care, seemed to be just a hazard of the job.

Simon

veronese68

Thanks for all the tips, already tried a couple of places. Going for the tourist bus and the Segrada Familia tomorrow. Then see where we end up.