Med Cruise Vacation III: Barcelona Redux

Barcelona Redux

We stayed Friday and Saturday nights post cruise at the Hotel Barcelona Palacete on The Rambla de Catallunya, which is located north of the first hotel (the Regina) we lodged at pre-cruise. Our room was located on the first floor just down from the reception desk, kitchen servery and guest lounge. It was extremely roomy (large seating area with a fireplace) and grand (15 feet high with gold gilded ceilings, a huge and a giant chandelier in the centre) but the bed was wedged into a small adjoining room and the bathroom was rather awkwardly configured in a corner. Our room had a porch that faces out the front onto the main street.and a fireplace with a huge mirror hanging above the mantle and a second mirror on the opposing wall.

We purchased two day guest passes on the Barcelona “hop on, hop off” bus touristic early on Friday morning. The fare for the two consecutive day adult pass cost 26 Euros. Initially we rode the whole red line (southern route) circuit (there are three lines in operation during peak season (red, blue and green, but the green line closes after September) around to get a sense of the city (and its famous modernisme architecture) and then continued on a second circuit to hop off at the sites that intrigued us most. We noticed after completing our first circuit that the queues to board the bus had grown significantly longer.

On our 2nd loop around the route, our first hop off stop was the (still under construction) Temple de la Sagria Famillia church. Admission was 8 Euros. We waited an hour in line to catch the lift to the top (an extra 2.5 Euros) and walked down down the spiral staircase. This is a “must do” experience as there are several balconies and opening off the staircase that permit excellent vistas of the city and more “up close” views of façade details. Construction on this Gaudi masterpiece got underway at the turn of the century and parts of the church (one facade) date to that period.

Next we hopped off at Parc Guille (a failed housing development that was a commission of Gaudi by his patron Guille that was gifted to the city and became a public park. You can see many characteristic Gaudi installations here and the landscaping of the park is quite beautiful. We enjoyed some local beer on an outdoor terrace café in a park garden.
Our final “hop off” of the day was at the Royal Palace, which now houses two museums of ceramic and decorative art .

After returning to our hotel for a rest we ventured out and had Tapas at around 11 PM at an eatery (recommended by our hotel concierge) called Cutat Comtal. We had to wait about 20 minutes for an outdoor table but it was well worth the wait. Among the items we enjoyed were a pitcher of sangria, ham and cheese croquettes, Spanish omelet, mushrooms, some potatoes with sauce and mayonnaise

On Saturday we set out to explore on the blue (southern line) Touriste bus route. This route initially headed north duplicating the red line route until it veered south off Av Diagonal passed the train and soccer stadiums before reaching the Place d’Espanya, Fira de Barcelona, MNAC museum and the Olympic Stadium, Parc de Montjeic and Miramar Jardins. Finally we emerged down at the port front passing by the Columbus monument, the old port and the Olympic village before heading back up north thru the Gothic Quarter to Place de Catalunya. We had lunch in that area and returned briefly to our hotel to rest before heading out for our afternoon excursion.

In the afternoon, rather than ride the loop around a second time, we decided to venture out on our own (via the Metro Subway) system back to Parc de Montjuic. This involved a rather short ride (three stops on the green underground train) to the Para-lel stop before transferring to the fincular to reach the station where the Telefiric cable car departs. The subway is clean, quiet and well signed. The one way fare is 1.3 Euros. We rode the cable car to the top of the hill to explore the old fort and grounds at the summit before taking it back down and walking along to the Miramar hotel with the intention of catching the second cable car system that descends from that point down to the old port. Fortunately it was not running due to high winds. We were able to enjoy a local ale on an outdoor patio atop the station tho.

In the evening we ventured out (again by subway) to Fira grounds at Placa Espana to watch the “magic” dancing water fountains. I consider this a must see / don’t miss attraction. The fountain water ballet is co-ordinated with recorded music and floodlit with multi-coloured lights. It’s a true spectacle to behold! After leaving the fountain we made our way back to Place du Catalunya and had more taps for dinner at an eatery named (appropriately) Tapas Tapas. It was good but was not as tasty or as inexpensive as the meal we enjoyed the prior evening. After that we retired for the evening.

We arose early the following morning to fly out of Barcelona back to Toronto (by way of Munich). We flew Lufthansa to Munich and Air Canada the rest of the way. We made our tight connection (despite a 20 minute delay, due to fog in Munich in leaving Barcelona). The flights were uneventful, although the seatback VOD system on Air Canada failed (not a first, in my experience) midflight and baggage was slow in arriving on the carousel after landing at Pearson.