What an amazing, absolutely incredible city! If you haven’t visited, you definitely need to put Barcelona on your ‘must see’ or bucket list! We’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Barcelona is like a speeding train – you just need to jump & hold on as best you can! It’s a very vibrant city - moves rapidly – extremely clean – bustling with thousands of people and heavy traffic wherever you go, but the conjestion & hectic pace is wonderful to experience. The architecture is breathtaking – we saw the old buildings with the creative balconies & steeples, the new structures, the 1992 Olympic Stadium and most of the related event venues. The weather was great both days - we toured every possible corner of the city via Barcelona Bus Turistic - a new system I'll elaborate on momentarily. This was our second visit, and we wouldn't hesitate to schedule a third.
We left home at 5:30am the morning of Thursday September 1st. Our cab to the airport was on time and our driver very personable. Our only challenge was trying to deal with four large suitcases and our carry-ons. We’re somewhat spoiled, as on past voyages, Holland America arranged for FedEx luggage pick-up at the house a few days ahead of our trip and delivered them straight to the ship. Since this trip isn’t classified as a Holland America ‘Grand Voyage’, we were on our own. Not fun wrestling with a lot of baggage, but really no other options.
Our flight left Phoenix on time at 8am, and 4+ hours later arrived in Miami. The incoming tropical storm over Florida made for a challenging time during our last hour of flight, but we enjoy a little excitement in the air, so all was good. Some of our neighboring passengers didn’t appreciate the turbulence!
We left Miami at 7:30pm on one of American Airlines new 777-200 wide-body dreamliners. We typically travel coach domestically, but anything longer than 5 hours becomes just too uncomfortable. These newer planes have done an exceptional job with their First/Business class cabins – after a very good dinner we were able to go completely horizontal with a soft pillow & blanket, and were awakened several hours later with a call for breakfast. With the time change and after 9+ hours in the air, we landed in Barcelona at 10:15am local time. Navigating through customs took the better part of an hour – the lines moved quickly enough as they had adequate staffing, there were just a number of international flights landing at about the same time. Overall, a very good operation and clean facility.
Barcelona has a large airport. It took us awhile to retrieve luggage, grab a cart, and get in the taxi que. Once loaded, it took about 30 minutes to reach our hotel – the Grand Marina – a property Cheryl chose because of its close proximity to the cruise ship terminal and also the city bus routes…both literally right out the front door. She did a great job! With our late morning arrival, we were told our room wouldn’t be ready until 3pm, so we stored the suitcases and headed for a tour bus. Although we slept on the plane, we were still tired but knew the last thing we should do was sleep, so we pressed on.
Nearly every major city in the world has a Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour system, and we’ve used this service almost exclusively on our world voyages. They’re cheap, clean, reliable, have flexible schedules, open air busses, and have audio headphones in several languages. The service was here in Barcelona during our last visit, but they have since been purchased by Bus Turistic, at least here locally. Highly recommended, my friends. Our cab fare from the airport to the hotel was just north of $50 Euros, and for a total of $60, we were able to tour the entire city at our leisure on these busses for TWO days. They offer three routes here, and offer stops every few blocks at all the attractions – so you get off when you want to spend time at a particular location, and in a matter of a few minutes, hop on another of their busses and continue the route. They run from 9am – 9pm, seven days a week. Great bargain, and truly the very best way to explore the city. The only other option is a private tour with guide, and that would cost hundreds. I wouldn’t recommend renting a car – traffic is fast, furious, and many streets are extremely narrow.
We toured for roughly 5 hours, returned to the hotel, had a couple cold beers, a light dinner, a few more drinks, and were in bed by 7pm. Twelve hours later and first thing Saturday morning, we were up and having a nice buffet breakfast. We caught the Bus Turistic at 9am and returned to the hotel around 5:30.
The highlight of our stay was THE basilica - Sagrada Familia, by Gaudi. Some advice if you plan to visit - purchase your tickets on-line. We arrived at 10am, and there were already several thousand folks in line to tour the church. The soonest we could get in was 1:30. As well, for a little extra, you can take an elevator to the top of one of the towers several hundred feet up, and descend via a spiral staircase. The views are phenominal, and in fact most of the aireal photos you see here were taken on our climb down - and it WAS a climb!
We left Miami at 7:30pm on one of American Airlines new 777-200 wide-body dreamliners. We typically travel coach domestically, but anything longer than 5 hours becomes just too uncomfortable. These newer planes have done an exceptional job with their First/Business class cabins – after a very good dinner we were able to go completely horizontal with a soft pillow & blanket, and were awakened several hours later with a call for breakfast. With the time change and after 9+ hours in the air, we landed in Barcelona at 10:15am local time. Navigating through customs took the better part of an hour – the lines moved quickly enough as they had adequate staffing, there were just a number of international flights landing at about the same time. Overall, a very good operation and clean facility.
Barcelona has a large airport. It took us awhile to retrieve luggage, grab a cart, and get in the taxi que. Once loaded, it took about 30 minutes to reach our hotel – the Grand Marina – a property Cheryl chose because of its close proximity to the cruise ship terminal and also the city bus routes…both literally right out the front door. She did a great job! With our late morning arrival, we were told our room wouldn’t be ready until 3pm, so we stored the suitcases and headed for a tour bus. Although we slept on the plane, we were still tired but knew the last thing we should do was sleep, so we pressed on.
Nearly every major city in the world has a Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour system, and we’ve used this service almost exclusively on our world voyages. They’re cheap, clean, reliable, have flexible schedules, open air busses, and have audio headphones in several languages. The service was here in Barcelona during our last visit, but they have since been purchased by Bus Turistic, at least here locally. Highly recommended, my friends. Our cab fare from the airport to the hotel was just north of $50 Euros, and for a total of $60, we were able to tour the entire city at our leisure on these busses for TWO days. They offer three routes here, and offer stops every few blocks at all the attractions – so you get off when you want to spend time at a particular location, and in a matter of a few minutes, hop on another of their busses and continue the route. They run from 9am – 9pm, seven days a week. Great bargain, and truly the very best way to explore the city. The only other option is a private tour with guide, and that would cost hundreds. I wouldn’t recommend renting a car – traffic is fast, furious, and many streets are extremely narrow.
We toured for roughly 5 hours, returned to the hotel, had a couple cold beers, a light dinner, a few more drinks, and were in bed by 7pm. Twelve hours later and first thing Saturday morning, we were up and having a nice buffet breakfast. We caught the Bus Turistic at 9am and returned to the hotel around 5:30.
The highlight of our stay was THE basilica - Sagrada Familia, by Gaudi. Some advice if you plan to visit - purchase your tickets on-line. We arrived at 10am, and there were already several thousand folks in line to tour the church. The soonest we could get in was 1:30. As well, for a little extra, you can take an elevator to the top of one of the towers several hundred feet up, and descend via a spiral staircase. The views are phenominal, and in fact most of the aireal photos you see here were taken on our climb down - and it WAS a climb!
To digress a moment, Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, and the second largest city in the country, with a population of about 1.7M within its administrative limits. The urban area of Barcelona extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.5 million - the 6th most populous urban area in Europe. Barcelona is today one of the world's leading tourist, economic, trade fair/exhibitions and cultural-sports centers, and its influence in commerce, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. In Barcelona, you discover the charming streetscapes, sidewalk cafes and squares bustling with people. Our journey took us to the Passeig Gracia - the best known Boulevard in town. This amazing city also features the world's largest collection of modernist architecture among its many buildings (Casa Batllo) and churches. Architect Antonio Gaudi has ensured Barcelona's place on the map with the Sagrada Familia Basilica (the holy family church) mentioned earlier. The impressive height of the ceiling, the play of light and color make this quite unique on the world scale. Continuing our return stroll down the La Rambla our last stop was the harbor side before returning to our hotel. The weather has been perfect both days.
Wow...What a City!
3 comments:
That's mind boggling. So many pictures! I have to go back and look, again!
Hi Bob,
Just a note to thank you for taking the time to post your Blog of Barcelona. We’ve been there a couple times but you took us to places we haven’t yet been.
Glad your cruise is off to a good start.
Cheers,
Orlin
Great to get your blog we als loved Barcelona. Blue devils second this year John and barb boland
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