Dec. 18-20, 2014

We arrived in Barcelona on time in the afternoon. We grabbed a cab to our 'luxury' hostel Casa Gracia. Hostels have changed quite a bit since I last backpacked throughout Europe. There are more of them and there are some called 'luxury hostels'. They not only offer clean, comfortable rooms, but they provide services including breakfast, free-walking tours, drinks, meals and entertainment. We were also able to book private four person dorms with our own bathrooms. The bathrooms here would rival any four-star hotel. To top it off, we were in a great neighborhood in a fabulous old building.

The view from our window, complete with holiday lights

Even though it was sunny and 60˚, people were bundled in parkas, scarfs and gloves, after all, it is winter. It was cooler in the shade, but still, the weather was beautiful. We loved this neighborhood. There were a ton a shops, not as many restaurants right here, but it was a lively spot still. We walked down the street a bit toward Las Ramblas. This is a famous one kilometer stretch of shops and food. It was crowded with people, I can't imagine it in the summer, but the guy in drag doing his best Marilyn Monroe imitation off his balcony was definitely attracting attention.

Along Las Ramblas, we found a huge open air market. On the perimeter there were a few restaurants. We found one for lunch. The tapas were amazing! Maeve and I ordered a salad with somely lovely local cheese. The waitress brought a plant over to cut some of the greens onto our plate! Now that's fresh. The potatoes and egg stew (that's what it was catagorized as) were delicious. Michael had some fish too. We made plans to return.

The spicy potatoes and super fresh salad

Barcelona is gorgeous and it has a lot to offer. There are many World Heritage Sites, delicious tapas, a fabulous beach, many parks and more. It is also quite big with 1.6 million people in the city limits. This is the only city where there were actually two double decker bus routes to cover the city tour. It was probably the best way to see all of the city.

The business district. This bulding also has different colored lighting at night.

Unfortunately, many iconic sites in Barcelona were under construction. The famous church in Familia Songrada was partially covered. It will look stunning when it is all completed. The lines to enter the church were wrapped around the corner. We didn't exit the bus to get in line.

Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous church. Lots of restorative work being done

Fountains in front of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia

We LOVED Barcelona. Liam especially loved the food. We only had two full days here, so we made plans to return and explore more on our way back from our house sit in France.