June in Barcelona

This June, we embarked on a 10 night round trip Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona, stopping at Marseille, Cannes, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, Palma De Mallorca, and Ibiza, aboard the beautiful NCL Epic. More on that in our next post. We spent 3 days in Barcelona on the front end, and 2 days post-cruise, which gave us a great glimpse of this beautiful city.

Where To Stay

When we started researching about Barcelona, we quickly realized the following:

1. Pickpocketing in touristy area is a real threat. Especially in the areas of La Rambla, a popular street for tourists.
2. The airport and the cruise port and the most popular touristy areas are all pretty close to one another. It’s not difficult to stay between the airport and the cruise port and be accessible to everything.
3. The public transit is very convenient and walking is easy and common.
4. There are hotels for every budget and every type of traveler. Most accommodations are small with small bathrooms, typical of European cities.

After reading lots and lots of reviews, we settled on Hotel Sixtytwo for our pre-cruise stay, and Via Sants Hotel by Hilton for our post-cruise stay.

Hotel Sixtytwo

Hotel Sixtytwo is a boutique 4 star hotel conveniently located between Casa Batlló and Casa Milà (La Pedrera), two masterpieces by famous Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudí. It’s also centrally located for upscale shopping and dining. Our room, which was an Interior Double room, but the hotel upgraded it to a Superior Double room, was surprisingly spacious, and the bathroom was modern and bright. Our reservation came with Wi-Fi and breakfast. The breakfast was ample and delicious. The service was amazing throughout. The only complaint we have for this hotel is that the Wi-Fi was spotty. The hotel also had a lounge area which served breakfast in the morning (with unlimited Cava), with tea, sangria and water available all day long (this service is called tentempié, which is Spanish for merienda). The hotel will also bring you one bottle of Cava served in an ice bucket during your stay.

If we didn’t have to work, this would have been the perfect hotel. The location was so convenient and felt very safe. The front desk spoke good English, and the service was top notch. Everywhere was super clean and spacious. However, since the Wi-Fi signal was spotty, we decided to look for an American hotel post-cruise in hopes of better Wi-Fi experience.

Via Sants Hotel Barcelona, Tapestry Collection by Hilton

For post-cruise, we booked the Via Sants Hotel, and stayed at a King Deluxe Room with Balcony. The location of this hotel is not quite as central as the last, but it’s still very close to public transportation with many things to see or do nearby. This worked out for us because we had already covered the earlier area, so this gives us a new area to explore, without being too far from the cruise port or the airport. The hotel is very new, everything was very clean and the room was spacious. The Wi-Fi was super fast and strong, made even more so after 10 grueling days of slow internet on the ship. As Hilton Gold members, we were given free breakfast, which was a nice treat (their breakfast includes unlimited Cava as well!). The hotel has a bar next to check-in, and they make a killer homemade sangria, which has a semi-permanent Buy One Get One Free “Happy Hour” special.

Getting Around

We found it easy to get around in Barcelona using Google Maps’ and Apple Maps’ walking and transit functions. If something is within 20 minutes, we mostly walked. The weather was warm but not unbearable. It never seriously rained during our entire stay (no wonder the fountains aren’t on due to drought). The terrain is mostly flat, with some gentle hills, nothing major. We did end up buying bus passes twice – they are very affordable and comes in many options. You can buy them in any subway or metro station. The machine gives you an option for many languages. Choose English first and it’ll make everything very easy. We initially bought a 10-journey pass for each individual, it was 13€ each. When that ran out, we bought one family pass that’s good for 8 journeys. Each pass is good for 30 days. These passes are for Zone 1 only, which covered all of the areas of Barcelona we visited. Zone 1 includes the cruise port and the airport, however, if you are riding the transit to or from the airport, you will have to pay a surcharge. This surcharge is applied the same way whether you are using the public transit or taxi service.

We also occasionally took taxis, which was mostly during the time we had luggage with us. The taxis are metered, which means you don’t know how much it’ll be until it’s time to get out. There is a surcharge for departing or arriving the airport or the cruise port, I think it was €4.50. If you want to know the price before getting in the car, you can use one of the apps that services the area, like Uber, Freenow or Cabify to book your taxi. However, we could not get Cabify to validate our phone number so it wouldn’t work for us. Be aware that all three apps go to the local taxi service, so there’s no real difference between one or the other. Also, in highly populated areas (like the airport or cruise port), none of the apps will work because the taxi drivers are all busy grabbing customers right there.

Places to See

There are many many places to see and things to do in Barcelona. You can stay in Barcelona for a month and never run out of things to do. For example, when we stayed at Hotel Sixtytwo, you can visit any of the following within a 10 minute walk:

1. Fundació Antoni Tàpies Art Museum, a contemporary museum in a modernist building offering works by painter Antoni Tàpies & other artists.
2. Casa Amatller, a colorful modernista house fusing Catalan & Flemish styles, decorated with quirky animal sculptures.
3. La Pedrera-Casa Milà, Gaudi’s Catalan art nouveau period building with quarrylike façade, hosting exhibitions & concerts.
4. Plaça de Catalunya, an iconic and beautiful landmark plaza with sculptures, shops and cafes.
5. Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, a beautiful neighborhood church with a small and peaceful garden.
6. Museu Egipci de Barcelona, a museum of ancient Egyptian culture.
7. Casa Batlló, dragon-roofed apartment building created by famous architect Antoni Gaudi.
8. Museu del Modernisme de Barcelona, a museum with a collection of Catalan modernist paintings, sculptures, furniture & decorative arts.

This is not a list of where you should visit. This is just to show you how easy it is to find something to do or somewhere to go, if your hotel is centrally located – and our hotel wasn’t even in the most touristy part of town (that would have been the La Rambla area). Since there was a big list of places we were interested in, we had to be selective. The following are the places we ended up visiting during our time in Barcelona.

Plaça de Catalunya

We walked to Plaza de Catalunya during sunset from our hotel. The plaza is home to many shops, cafes, and hotels. There are lots of sculptures as well as fountains, however, due to the drought, none of the fountains are running water currently. This is also the beginning of La Rambla, the famous pedestrian street known for cafes, souvenirs, and pickpockets.

Casa Vicens

Casa Vicens is the first major project by Antoni Gaudí. This place was recommended to us by the hotel front desk, and it did not disappoint. It’s a lot cheaper than most of the other works by Antoni Gaudí around town, but it was very pretty and not as crowded. Casa Vicens was absolutely beautiful and so much more vibrant than the nearby La Pedrera.

La Pedrera-Casa Milà

La Pedrera was originally named Casa Milà, because it was a home designed for the Milà family. However, it’s been called La Pedrera, which means Stone Quarry, because the way the house looked from the outside. La Pedrera was a nickname that was not a compliment in any means – it was making fun of the way it looked. When we walked through La Pedrera, we could see some major differences between this home and Casa Vicens. Instead of the vibrant colors, we were greeted with very bland, white walls. Instead of straight or circular shapes, we were presented with irregular, wavy like exteriors. While the interior of the home may have seemed boring, the rooftop and attic area were quite unique and astounding, with natural ventilation built-in everywhere and Gaudi’s ingenuity shining through.

Parc de la Ciutadella

Parc de la Ciutadella is a free urban park that has many attractions inside. The entrance to the park is the Arc de Triomf, a classical archway built as the main trance to the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. Inside the park, there’s the Barcelona Zoo, Palau del Parlament de Catalunya (the assembly hall of the Parliament of Catalonia), Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona, and Castle of the Three Dragons. The park has sculptures, fountains, lakes and lots of trails. Inside the park, there’s also an armored concrete sculpture of a life-sized mammoth, built in 1907. It’s fun to take a picture with an extinct animal. This was a beautiful park that’s centrally located, convenient to both metro and buses, not overly touristy, free to walk around, and lots of history behind it too. Like the other fountains in Barcelona, the Font de la cascada with Quadriga de l’Aurora on the top is not running the water.

La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia, the church that is undisputedly the greatest piece of architecture Gaudi ever created. Interestingly, la Sagrada Familia, whose construction began in 1882, is still unfinished and ongoing to this day. There is great attention to detail ever direction you turn. The visit comes with an audio guide which helps you appreciate just how much of a masterpiece this is. If you are only going to do one thing in Barcelona, I would recommend La Sagrada Familia.

Plaça de Gaudí

When visiting La Sagrada Familia, don’t miss the small park next to it called Plaça de Gaudí. It’s a small square park with gardens and a reflection pond, creating Instagram worthy moments with La Sagrada Familia as the backdrop.

Hospital de Sant Pau

If attractions could have a sleeper hit, then this is the sleeper hit of Barcelona. This was another recommendation we got from the front desk of Hotel Sixtytwo. We were a little suspicious at first. Why would we want to visit a building that used to be a hospital? Furthermore, it’s designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, someone we’ve never heard of. But the buildings turned out to be quite interesting, designs quite beautiful, and the history is rich. Also, the entrance tickets were cheap and it was not crowded at all. There were several buildings to walk through, and some others that were not open to public. This was definitely a hidden gem.

Arenas de Barcelona

Arenas de Barcelona used to be a bullring, but has now become a shopping mall with a theater inside, and some awesome restaurants on the top level. For a small fee, you can ride a glass elevator that lets you enjoy a 360 degree view of Barcelona and see Plaça d’Espanya from a higher vantage point. Near the Arenas de Barcelona, is the Parc de Joan Miró, a local dog park that celebrates the life of Spanish Painter Joan Miró, which features the sculpture, Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird), set in an artificial lake.

Montjuïc

Montjuïc is a hill in Barcelona with many attractions. It’s free to walk around and it’s rich in history. It takes about 30 minutes to walk from one side of the hill to the other side of the hill. When we came to Montjuïc, we came to the Magic Fountain and did not explore further. The Magic Fountain was not running due to the drought, so when we come back to Barcelona, we’ll have to come back to Montjuïc anyway, which is why we didn’t explore further. (The Magic Fountain is a must-do for Barcelona in my opinion, so it was a real bummer that none of the fountains were running during our trip.) Montjuïc is also the home of Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Montjuïc Castle, Joan Miro Foundation (an art museum), Museu Olímpic i de l’Esport Joan Antoni Samaranch (Museum of Olympic History), Poble Espanyol (an open air architecture museum), and the Olympic Complex.

Barcelona Night Tour Bus

One of the things we did when in Barcelona was taking a ride in the Barcelona Night Tour Bus with Bus Turístic. We wanted to see Barcelona at night, but we didn’t really want to roam the street at night, so this felt like the best option. Unlike their daytime hop-on/hop-off buses, the night tour bus does not let you hop on or off. The bus runs on a set schedule and the tour guide explains each attraction as the bus stops at each one. Unfortunately, we were not able to get tickets on the English bus, so we had to sit on the Spanish bus, which means we didn’t understand anything from the guide. I do recommend this tour however, just make sure you book in advance so you are able to get tickets for the English bus if that’s what you want. The Night Tour is only available in the summer and stops long enough for photos at many major attractions, like:

• Casa Batlló
• La Pedrera
• Basílica de la Sagrada Família
• Arc de Triomf
• Columbus Monument
• Torre Glòries
• Sant Pau Art Noveau Site
• Plaça d’Espanya

Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a church located on the top of a mountain with the statue of Jesus on the top of the church. It was not easy to get here – we had to take a combination of metro, buses, and funiculars but this was a highlight of our trip. The church was free to visit, but it cost about 5 euros to ride the elevator to get to the top – which is a must do. I’m really surprised this is not listed higher on people’s to-do lists! We discovered it when we flew over it on our way in – I was shocked to see a statue of Jesus beneath our wings! Next to the church is a small amusement park that actually looked really fun! The park is called Parc d’Atraccions Tibidabo and the price seemed pretty fair. This would make your journey more worthwhile if the park is something you are interested in!

Parc del Laberint d’Horta

Parc del Laberint d’Horta is a beautiful park with lots of greenery, hiking trails, and a beautiful maze. The many gardens and fountains made the hikes very romantic and the maze was CHALLENGING (for us) which made it very fun.

Food We Ate

Most restaurants in Spain are smaller but the choices are abundant. I don’t think we could eat at all of the restaurants in a year. Here are some restaurants we dined at.

Taller de Tapas

Since we are in Spain, we must try some tapas. Taller de Tapas is a chain restaurant serving Catalan and Spanish cuisine. The restaurant had an outdoor and indoor area. The hostess was friendly and eager to help, and the menu looked interesting, so this became our first meal in Spain. The waiter helped us with choosing what to order and the food was delicious. Maybe a little pricy, but delicious. It is customary to order a drink with your meal in Spain, for any meal of the day. Drink prices are very reasonable (except for water, which isn’t cheap compare to US at all). We ordered a bottle of Parato Xarello.

Moments

Moments is an upscale restaurant located inside Mandarin Oriental Hotel just minutes from our Hotel Sixtytwo. Moments has 2 Michelin stars and you would need a reservation to dine there. The menu changes periodically. When we dined, there was two menus to choose from, the standard menu of 13 courses plus a cheese course and mignardises at the end, for €215, or the petite menu of 10 courses plus mignardises for €175. We chose the longer menu and let them know that I could not eat cheese, so they graciously exchanged my cheese course for an extra dessert. Aside from the dinner menu, they also have an impressive wine list and even water was quite expensive. We were given the option of house filtered water or Acqua Panna. We chose house filtered water, thinking it would be cheaper, but it still cost us €20 (€10 per person).

Our menu was inspired by the famous cookbook written by the famous artist Salvador Dalí, named Les Diners De Gala. Salvador Dalí could cook? I didn’t know that before. Interesting. The menu even gives the recipe number for each course, should you wish to purchase the book and try to make it yourself. Of course, the actual creation by the restaurant is different than the cookbook – the book only served as an inspiration.

Course 1 – 4:

Course 1 through 4 were served together. We were each given a small cup of Prawn Royal (course 4), then in the middle of the table were two servings of Surprise Mussels (course 1), Eels with Beer (course 2), and Stuffed potatoes “a la charcutière” (course 3). Everything was DELICIOUS.

Course 5: Quail Eggs with Caviar

I loved the flowers in this. It tasted light and went well with the heavy taste of caviar.

Course 6: Marinated Pork Loin

This was probably the least impressive course of all but it was still very good. The pork loin was tender. However, I was a little annoyed that they used the flowers again, since I just ate those flowers in my last course, but I do like the taste of it.

Course 7: Crayfish Mousse

This course is a homemade crayfish mousse on the right, with 3 popular seafood choices on the left to go with the mousse. Your 3 seafood offerings are king crab, lobster, and puffer fish. Dipping each one into the delicious crayfish mousse lets you decide for yourself what your favorite seafood may be. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the fish, since I would have guessed lobster and king crab would have won the contest hands down.

Course 8: Asparagus with Walnuts

This was a very interesting dish. It came in a little cup, then the server poured a liquid on top. By the time he finished pouring, the liquid had become a gelatin, and the cup was removed (apparently the cup had no bottom, it was just a ring). The taste was good but nothing crazy. I think the presentation was the more impressive part here.

Course 9: Seabass with Fennel

I’m starting to really like the taste of fennel. I remember as a kid, I kind of hated it. I thought it tasted strong. Nowadays it doesn’t bother me at all. I find it refreshing. This was very good.

Course 10: Larded Meat à la Mode w/Alexandre Dumas Style Salad

Didn’t care for this one whatsoever. The thin sheet laid on top of the meat was interesting, but the meat was salty to me. The beans helped offset the saltiness a little bit but there was only 4 beans. The dish tried to represent the famous painting by Dali, The Persistence of Memory, using the 4 beans to represent the 4 corners of a clock. I appreciated the creativeness but just didn’t care for the taste of the meat.

Cheese Course (Mango Pudding w/Chia Seeds)

For the cheese course, Teddy was asked how much room he had left and how much cheese he wanted. He wasn’t given much because he was getting pretty stuffed. Since I couldn’t eat cheese, they gave me a personalized dessert of mango pudding with lemoncello ice cream and chia seeds. I think I got lucky with this one. It was SO GOOD.

Course 11: Sorbet with “vieuxchampagne”

This is the official start of desserts. We were given a glass with sorbet in it, then some fake champagne was poured in. It was so refreshing and delicious.

Course 12: Tomato Pie

The name is not appetizing whatsoever, but the tomato ice cream was surprisingly good. The separate pie was OK. I’m a little over all the gelatin by this point.

Course 13: Soufflé Kocisky

This was like a chocolate soufflé. I’m glad it was so good because we were getting pretty full by this point and if it was anything less, I probably wouldn’t have touched it. The “mustache” representing Dali was also a fun addition, and tasted good too.

Les mignardises de Dalí

For the final mignardises, we were given some different selections of candy choices. We didn’t eat them all, but everything we tasted was good.

I’m glad we got to try a very special meal at a beautiful restaurant. Everything was good and we enjoyed the experience. However, be aware that the whole experience is over 3 hours long, which is a really long time when you are still tired from traveling and jetlag, and also consider the fact when you are in a city as a tourist for only a few days, time is limited. I definitely don’t regret going there, but we couldn’t squeeze in another Michelin meal while in town because we didn’t want to spend the kind of time it might take.

Sun – Coffee & Bakery

Sun – Coffee & Bakery is a corner coffeeshop near La Sagrada Familia. We had done a lot of walking at this point so we wanted a break before entering La Sagrada, and stopped here. The baked goods looked really good and the coffees smelled good too. We weren’t hungry, so we each got a cup of matcha tea. One with turmeric, one standard. Both were delicious. The Wi-Fi was very good here as well.

Thai Bistro 10

Have you ever heard of The Fork? The Fork is an online restaurant reservation system that is owned by Tripadvisor. Similar to OpenTable, The Fork gives you easy reservations, and often times it comes with discounts. We discovered Thai Bistro 10 by perusing The Fork for restaurants near our hotel. (The Fork is only available in Europe and Australia at this time.) The restaurant is pretty new, and the service was excellent. With the discounts (30% off), this was a great deal. We ordered some Fresh Rolls with Shrimp for appetizer, Soft Green Curry with Duck Magret, Curry Khao Soi with Chicken and Noodles for entrees, and False White Chocolate Coulant with Mango for dessert. Everything was so delicious, although their “spicy” really wasn’t spicy to me. For drinks, we ordered a bottle of Bachellery Pinot Noir.

Abrassame

Abrassame is an upscale Mediterranean restaurant located on the top floor of Arenas de Barcelona. We enjoyed their “Height Paellas” menu, which includes an appetizer, entrée and dessert. The service was great and the food was overall pretty good, but I felt the paella was overcooked. I’m not an expert on paella though.

Places I’d Probably Visit Next Time in Barcelona

Casa Batlló

I have a little love hate relationship with Casa Batllo. Casa Batllo was right across the street from our pre-cruise hotel, Hotel Sixtytwo. The house looked really cool from the outside and we had every intention to visit it, but in the end, it didn’t happen for two reasons. 1. The price. It’s roughly $38 a person to visit, which is a lot higher than any of the other Gaudi houses. 2. The crowd. We walked by it many times during our stay, and it was always VERY crowded. A few times we tried to book tickets online, and it was already sold out for the day. However, this is a very symbolic piece of architecture for Gaudi, and if I’m ever back in Barcelona, it seems like it’s a good place to visit.

Torre Glòries

On our way walking to La Sagrada Familia, we saw an interesting bullet shaped building in a distance. It is the Torre Glòries, a skyscraper that is a symbol of Barcelona. One can visit this interesting architecture with many nicknames (due to its phallic shape), and enjoy the panoramic view at the top. The building lights up at night on weekends.

Spotify Camp Nou Barça Immersive Tour 

During our stay in Barcelona, the Barcelona soccer field, Spotify Camp Nou was under construction, so it wasn’t possible to tour the inside. They did have an immersive tour and museum which looked really cool but it wasn’t cheap. We actually walked the grounds (which is free) and visited their store. Next to the soccer field is the basketball stadium, Palau Blaugrana. Next time we go, we hope the inside will be open for touring and the immersive tour would be something I’d be interested in.

Cathedral of Barcelona

Barcelona has so many churches, cathedrals, basilicas. Even now, we feel like we don’t want to see another church ever again, but I know that feeling may change one day. The churches in Barcelona are absolutely beautiful and there’s nothing like it in the US. The Cathedral of Barcelona is one of the top churches to visit. Besides the beautiful inside, there’s also a rooftop area for a closeup view of the spires and the city. If you enjoy churches, this is the second best church to visit in Barcelona, after La Sagrada Familia.