By: KARI

Barcelona City Council presents the city this way on their official website: “Mediterranean. Two thousand years of history. Open to every innovation. Welcoming, plural, diverse. A city to live and share”
This may all be true, but the most striking feature of Barcelona is left out: The beauty of it!

We (my partner and I) spent three days in Barcelona in the beginning of November. This time of the year is a nice time to leave Norway (the “push-effect”) because it is cold, dark and still not enough snow to go skiing. It is a nice time to visit Barcelona (the “pull-effect”) because it is quite mild, low season, and therefore possible to get a hotel room and a table at a restaurant without much trouble/waiting.

We stayed at Hotel Raco del Pi (http://www.h10hotels.com/eng/detalle_hotel.php), a hotel with friendly staff, nice rooms (although quite small) and above all – a fantastic location. The hotel is situated in the heart of the old part of the city, and most attractions are in walking distance from the hotel. And we surely walked a lot.

Some of the attractions that were well worth visiting:
• The Sagrada Familia (keep building the cathedral, Spanish people, I would love to see it finished!)
• Gaudi’s Park Güell (really beautiful and colorful, and with a great view of the city and its surroundings)
• Montjuïc – a peaceful green oasis, also with a great view. There are several ways to get there. We caught the Transboardador Aeri cable car from the harbor. Fun, but if you are not too interested in waiting 60-90 minutes (did I mention we were there during low season…I would not want to go on that adventure in mid-July!), I would recommend one of the other ways (bus, taxi, walk, funicular railway) to get there.
• Shops – what an excellent city for shopping! (Just remember that most shops are closed on Sundays. Also remember that even though you are very proud of your new cool high-heeled Camper shoes, it is not necessarily a great idea to break them in on your first night in Barcelona…)

However, the memories we cherish the most were those from walking the streets of Barcelona. The old city and Raval were the areas we found most charming. We also ate at some great restaurants in these areas, and I can recommend them:
• Taller de Tapas (http://www.tallerdetapas.com) is situated in Placa Sant Josep Oriol in the old city, and apparently also another place in Barcelona. Good tapas, good wine, good service…try it!
• Biblioteca (C/Junta de Comerc, Raval) is a place that takes food seriously. It is a minimalist-style restaurant where they sell cooking books. I wonder where they got the buffalo mozzarella that I had as a starter…I am considering buying a buffalo so that I can try to make my own and hope that it is as good as the one I got at Biblioteca. The beef fillet main course was also great.
• Las Fernàndez (C/Carretes 11, Raval) was the least memorable dining experience, but it was still fairly good. Fortunately one of the guests was able to (kind of…) translate the menu from Spanish to English for us. If not, we would have been pretty lost.

There are also a lot of nice little cafes where you can get breakfast/lunch, a snack or simply a coffee. Lots of nice pastries…

There is a reason why “everybody” we know visits Barcelona these days – Barcelona is impossible to dislike and very, very easy to enjoy immensely. Some places in this world need to be visited before it is too late, but Barcelona is a city that will be enjoyable for all eternity. And I am definitely going back once they finish building that cathedral. Or…nevermind the cathedral: I am going back anyway!

Kari

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