Barcelona
Having read so many articles
online about peoples trips to Barcelona I
thought I’d add mine to the mix. It might not impress some people, but what it
will be is an honest account of the trip we took.
Day 1
We arrived at Leeds Bradford Airport on a
cold and typically British late autumn morning (cold and overcast). The welcome
we received from the Jet2 ground staff was
nothing but warm and welcoming. As I have come to expect from Jet2 at all but
the busiest times, there was hardly a queue for check in.
Security was completed and we
headed for the Premier
Lounge. Now I have to say that for £17 I don’t think you could get more.
Everything but the premium wines were available. The lounge itself was warm and
quiet with nice music playing in the background.
Boarding shortly followed which
was also made much nicer by the fact that LBA has built a wonderful new covered
walkway to the aircraft. As I said it was a little windy and the walkway kept
the worst away from us.
Our flight was good and before we
knew it we had landed in Barcelona where the temperature was a lovely 20
degrees! Bags were on the belt before we got there and then it was straight
onto the Aerobus (9.95 Euros return) for the 30 min drive into
town.
The Aerobus drops you off in Plaça Catalunya which is centrally placed to
go pretty much anywhere in the city. We made the short (10min) walk up the road
to our Hotel Claris Barcelona
which is a fabulous 5 Star hotel. Check in was easy and they gave us a vouch
for 2 glasses of Cava either in the bar or (In Summer) on the roof terrace.
The rest of day 1 was spend doing a little walking but mainly spent
settling in to this lovely city.
Day 2
Day 2 started with a wonderful continental breakfast in the hotel. There
was a fine selection of pastries, meats, cheeses and warm items as well as made
to order items such as pancakes and tortilla.
Then the real fun started. A 20 minute walk from the hotel is the Sagrada
Família which is nothing short of awesome. It’s basically
a cathedral that Gaudi designed and
started building over 100 years ago and it still isn’t finished. It cost us
16.50 Euros each and that allowed entry into the building as well as access to
one of the towers. Now I’m not the best with heights but I do suggest you do
take the 85 meter trip up to see the views!!
From there we walked back down towards La Rambla, which is extremely
busy but amazing to walk down. Here is a side of Barcelona that id didn’t like.
You will see about halfway down that there are a number of open air
restaurants. They all have signs up advertising Tapas and either Pizza, Pasta
or Paella for around 9 Euros. The food is good but there is something that leaves
a bad taste in your mouth. We asked for two beers with the food. Nothing wrong
with that other than they then bring you basically a 2.5 pint glass and proceed
to charge you 11 Euros per drink. So your cheap and cheerful lunch has now cost
you over 40 Euros. The soft drinks also come in these glasses so be warned.
The other thing to look out for on La Rambla are the Romanians. They basically
play a game similar to the ball and cup trick with matchboxes. Now it looks
like they are betting with random people, but when you watch them for a while
you realise it’s a con. There is actually around 6 or seven of them who work together
to con 1 or 2 tourists by betting which box the coin is under. Don’t get
involved with these people because not only will you not win, you are at risk
of being pick pocketed. I was also advised by one local that the latest trick
is to cut your bag open with a Stanley knife and steal your belongings!
At the bottom of La Rambla, past the Columbus monument is a shopping centre
in the harbour called MareMagnum. It doesn’t
have the most shops in the world but it does have some nice restaurants, cinema
and (the best thing for me) open seating looking into the harbour. There are
plenty of police down there too so you do feel nice and safe.
We seemed to walk for miles that day and we did see an awful lot but
generally it was much of the same. Just be careful at night going off the
beaten track because the back streets are quiet and dark. I’m not saying
anything will happen but you are much more likely to have problems around there
than in public places.
Walking back up to the hotel we stopped at a restaurant called Divinus. You can eat outside in
the terrace where the temperatures are ok if you wear a light fleece. The food
is ok but the appeal for us was a nice bottle of wine and a bit of people
watching. Be warned though, they do charge a 15% supplement to eat outside
which is never mentioned unless you notice the very small print in the menu.
Day 3
Day 3 was not so great with the weather. It had rained most of the night
leaving a pretty fresh morning. This was the day we did the bus tour. There are
two tours in Barcelona. There is the official and the unofficial ones. The unofficial
cut their routes a lot in winter so we decided to go with the Barcelona Tourist Official Tour.
It cost us 24 Euro each but what you need to remember is that whilst it may
seem quite expensive, you see an awful lot of the city, it has audio to listen
to and you can get on and off as often as you like. We pretty much saw the
whole city in one day so I would definitely recommend it.
We did both route before getting off in the Gothic area of the city,
before making our way slowly back to La Rambla and back to the hotel.
Last Day
After another wonderful breakfast we checked out of the hotel and stored
our bags. We then once again took a walk down La Rambla, stopping in the market
about half way down. This market puts every other market I have ever been too
to shame. The food looked stunning, fresh fish, meats, cheeses and fruit all
looked amazing! We made our way back down to the harbour where there was an
international rowing race on, so we sat in the sun (22 degrees) and chilled
out.
Before long it was time to head back to the hotel to collect our bags
and get the bus back to the airport. Check in and security was easy enough but
the rest of the airport felt deserted. The boarding gate area for our flight
only had our flight in it. The cafe staff weren’t the most friendly, and weren’t
particularly impressed at my only buying a bottle of water!
Back onto the aircraft where we landed back in LBA where it was 2
degrees! Although a quick bus ride followed and once again the bags were on the
belt before we arrived! The thing I love about LBA is that we landed at 2000
and we were in the car on our way home by 2020! Now that’s fast for an airport.
Would I go to Barcelona again? Well maybe, but I don’t like the way
tourists seem to be ripped off. Maybe in their eyes they’re not and maybe it’s
just me being a tight Yorkshireman. Either was it was a lovely break, with
lovely weather and lovely company. So yes, I probably would go again and I would
definitely recommend it!!
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