Barcelona
Barcelona – What a Great City!
Not just famous for it’s incredible shopping, night clubs, picturesque squares, streets and beautiful architecture Barcelona also offers something else not a lot of cities in Europe do. What is it, you may wonder? Well, beaches of course! One afternoon my husband and I took a bicycle taxi ($10) from the city center (where many people were dancing in the streets) to Barcelona Beach.
Our taxi peddler took us through the beautiful back streets of Barcelona and explained some of the cities history to us in a very humorous manner and before we knew it we were surrounded by bikinis and budgie smugglers, something you would not expect. Like I said not many cities in Europe have something like a beach in the middle or edge of the city in this scale.
On the boulevard there are many restaurants you can choose from - most of them with a nice view. Keep in mind that if you visit a country like Spain you have to eat tapas (little bite size snacks from the local kitchen ranging from $1 to $5 and up). We had our tapas on the end of the boulevard and enjoyed our fantastic view. The best way of knowing if you are at a good tapas bar is to look at the floor, if it ismessy with napkins on the floor, then walk in and have a seat and enjoy your food. Another thing we found is that you do not always have to pay the jackpot for good quality food. When you go off the main strips (where all the tourists are) and walk into the sidestreets or backstreets you will be amazed by the diversity of good restaurants with prices half of what you would expect to pay anywhere else. We enjoyed our time in Barcelona and other cities in Spain, but Barcelona was a real highlight in this trip.
Some things you really have to do when visiting Barcelona are renting a cycle taxi for a few bucks and have them take you around the city, also visit the Gaudi park and house (a early 20th century designer/architect who did not use straight lines). Go on a hop on hop off bus (4 day pass $100) and see the city's highlights (open deck on top of the bus). And last but not least enjoy the architecture this great city has to offer. Don't forget to take your camera because you would like to see it again when you get back home and make your friends jealous. Who would not like to visit Spain after this? There are many more stories I can tell you but that would mean you have to read it all so if you would love to hear more about Spain please give me a call or send me an e-mail.