Barcelona was a wonderful city, and is now on our list of top 5 cities in the world. Many of the attractions are the buildings designed by famous archictect/artist Antoni Gaudi, which are just so amazing. You have to see them at some stage in your life. (Start planning now!) We also enjoyed the Gothic quarter which had all of the really old buildings including the cathedral with the massive outdoor area, and the waterfront. We were surprised to find that it was no more expensive to eat in a flash waterfront restaurant than any other old Spanish restaurant. (They even give you complimentary champagne at the waterfront restaurants.) We went to the beach, which was really nothing special, but the city definitely made up for it. The metro system was excellent, better than any other underground we have used, and the people friendly. We stayed in a flash apartment, which was nicer even than we had expected so it was a nice end to our Europe 06 trip. We had many a Sangria and Paella, always yum. Walking down the main street Las Ramblas was always interesting, and always different. We saw many street artists, a break dancing show, magic shows, art, something was always happening on Las Ramblas. We also found this very clean market below, which sold everything, fish, meat (loads of meat hanging up everywhere, and all so fresh or perfectly cured that it didn’t smell at all), salads, fruit, every kind of food you can think of was at this giant market, and it was all so clean and well presented, a far cry from any other markets we have seen in our travels. It was so busy, it seemed like this was the place all the locals buy everything, as everyone spoke Spanish and there didn’t seem to be many tourists around. Barcelona was definitely well worth a visit!
