Barcelona


I am going to be totally honest; Barcelona was not a destination I had any particular interest to travel to, that was until I actually travelled there.  Wow, what a City! It was fantastic!!


Me stood at the Harbour & at the foot of Las Ramblas 

Barcelona is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in the Kingdom of Spain, as well as the country's second most populous municipality, with a population of 1.6 million within city limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres high.





We did have a pretty rubbish start to our journey, as we due to fly from Birmingham International Airport with Ryanair, but unfortunately, there were Air Traffic strikes across France.  This meant that Ryainair cancelled our flights.  Lucky for us, there were still seats available on Monarch Airlines, so we swiftly applied for our full refund from Ryanair (although this did take the industry standard of 28 days to be complete), and booked for the next day to travel with Monarch.  But I have to say that they were very professional and kept us informed along the way.  











Top tip: Aerobus collects from both T1 & T2.  You can pre-book your tickets online, or you can do this at the terminus at the Airport.


Our hotel was at the top of Las Ramblas, which is a great location to be as you have full access to all of the city from here.  

We used the City Sightseeing Bus Tours to get us around Barcelona as it is quite a vast City. We visited the Olympic Stadium that was used for the 1992 Summer Olympics. This today is used for concerts & events.

A must when visiting Barcelona is the Sagrada Família.  It is a large unfinished Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí's work on the building is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The architecture is amazing, so prepared to be utterly blown away with how modern it is, considering it was designed many years ago!  

Top tip: Pre-book entrance into the Sagrada Familia before you go, to guarantee you entry.  With some ticket types you may be able to fast track the queue's!



Another top tip is to check out the food market, located half way down Las Ramblas.  This place is amazing! We ventured in here one lunch time; picked up some baguettes, fruit & pastries. We then took these down to the harbour to sit & watch the world go by - it was a perfect spot for lunch and didn't cost the earth either. 







The beauty of Barcelona is that you have both the City & beach rolled into one.  You will definitely not run out of things to do here, the list is endless! 
Want more information?  
Contact me on 0121 314 6650 

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