Barcelona

Suggestions

Bryant: cool buildings designed by Gaudi, cool cathedral (sagrada familia), go to Toledo

More Info

wikitravel page, wikipedia page, couchsurfing info

Hotels

easytobook.com, 

Definitely

Sagrada Familia: Oct-Mar daily 9am-6pm; Sagrada Familia Metro, €8; concessions €5; lift €2, The most impressive thing is to see Sagrada Família at night with lights on, this is the time when you understand why people say that it is built of bones. Entrance costs €10. Get the audio commentary €4 it's well worth it. Entrance from Carrer de Sardenya OR Carrer de la Marina.

Airport to City: The train is fast and comfortable. Line C10 Barcelona Airport Train (RENFE) takes you into Barcelona Sants in around 20 minutes at 20-30 minute intervals and costs €2.75. but an under-advertised fact is that you can use the T-10 ticket (€7.30 for ten trips, including all bus and metro transfers made within 75 minutes) instead. You can buy a T-10 from the ticket vending machine at the airport station.

Maybe

Labyrinth Park, Montbau

Tascón - Funky footwear, M-Sa 10am-2pm & 5pm-8pm, Diagonal Metro

La Boquería Food Market - Gourmet delight - Through the vast lattice iron gates off Las Ramblas, La Boquería Food Market's endless stalls offer delicious hanging chorizo, olives, cheese, fruit, fish, cured ham and more. Stop at the seafood bar for garlicky prawns and a cold beer. Liceu Metro. near Carrer del Carme. M-Sa 8am-8pm

Museu d'Història de Catalunya (MHC) - In Catalan and English. A must in order to understand the troubled (and sad) history of the Catalans

 The Museum of the City of Barcelona includes access to underground Roman ruins and a complex of historic buildings in the centre of the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter), as well as being a reasonably good historical museum.

 Caixa Fòrum, Plaça Espanya, [43]. This place hosts great exhibitions (at the time of writing: Dalí - Culture for the masses). Free entrance.

Art Montfalcon, Boters 4 (Final Portaferrisa), ☎ 93 301 13 25 (art@montfalcom.com), [67]. Probably the largest souvenir shop in the city at 1000 sq. m. Almost no ordinary souvenir-shop trivialities (Souvenirs)

Cosmocaixa is a science museum that received the European Museum of the Year Award in 2006.

The Barcelona Modernisme Route is an itinerary that takes you through the Barcelona of Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch, the architects who, together with others, made Barcelona the world capital of Modernisme. This Route enables you to get to know thoroughly impressive palatial residences, amazing houses, the temple that has become a symbol of the city and a huge hospital, but it also includes humbler and more everyday buildings and items such as chemists’, shops, lampposts and benches - 115 works in all which show that Art Nouveau put down strong roots in Barcelona and today Modernisme is still an art that is alive and part of life in the city.

You can follow the route with the aid of signs on the ground that are part of the very urban landscape of the city. These are small red paving stones set into the pavement that mark out the main sections of the Route’s and go past the Modernista works on the rest of the itinerary.

Funicular to the fountains at Montjuic. OR go to top of Tibidabo for a panoramic view of the city and the harbor. OR ride to top of the Columbus Monument for a panoramic view of the harborfront..

Food

along the Rambles - Cafe Viena, La Rambla del Estudis 115. Flauta d'iberic jabugo = salt-cured ham sandwich €5.60

Bubo & Bubo Bar - best chocolate cake in the world (2005), other pastries, tapas bar. Caputxes 10. Metro: Maria del Mar

Xocoa - Chocolates for daredevils, Daily 9am-9pm, Girona metro, 11, Calle Petritxol,

Cacao Sampaka - chef=spain's most famous chocoholic. M-Sa 9am-9:30pm. (Eixample) Conseil de Cent 292, Metro: Passeig de Gracia (Gotic) C/Ferran 43-45 (also in Valencia)

Dulcinea, Via Petrixol 2 = most famous in city. Hot chocolate. 9am-1pm, 4:30-9pm. Metro: Liceu

Day Trips

• Figueres - Home of the impressive Salvador Dalí museum. From Barcelona, take a train from estacio sants (central station). Return journey costs about €18 and takes roughly an hour and a half each way (take the CE-Catalunya Express trains; regular trains can take up to two hours). The train station is located 12 min. away from the museum.
• Montserrat - Visit the monastery nestled high in the mountains to see the Black Madonna or hike to the peak to earn a fantastic view of the surroundings.
• Sitges - A traditional beach side destination for the locals.
• Girona - A quiet town with an ancient Jewish section, narrow streets, imposing walls and plenty of cafes. See directions to the north airport above.
• Pyrenees - A mountain range around 150 km north from the city.

Places to avoid

• The souvenir shopping scattered throughout the Barri Gotic (the old city) and all along La Rambla are tourist traps, none of them sell Catalan or Spanish products but the typical array of Chinese general souvenirs, they should be avoided.