Last week I had a few days on a city break in Barcelona. I booked it just before Christmas – I was looking online at various city breaks, and saw that the price of hotels were much cheaper at the beginning of January than any other time, so I went for it! It’s a place I’ve been keen to visit… I’ve been there once before for work back in 2018 (for less than 24 hours!), but didn’t really see any of the city because we were filming in the marina on the evening, and then we left on a road-trip early the next morning.

Anyway, I flew out from Manchester early last Sunday, and after taking the metro from the airport, was in central Barcelona for just after noon!

I was staying in the Born district of the city, right next to the Arc de Triomf and Ciutadella Park, so that was the first touristy landmark I got to see on my way to my hotel. I was staying at the Catalonia Born, which is a 4-star hotel in a really good location for getting around the city. It was really nice, and luckily they let me check in a couple of hours early so I could dump my bags and go exploring on the afternoon.

I walked down past the Arc de Triomf and had a quick look around the park, and then decided to take a bit of a tour around the city on the metro, taking in a few of the touristy areas I wouldn’t have a chance to visit during the rest of my week. The underground system in Barcelona is really good, and gets you pretty close to where-ever you want to go. I’d bought a 4 day ticket which allowed me to use all public transport, so it was so easy to get around.

As well as checking out some more general areas, I went and had a look at a couple of the famous buildings designed by Antoni Gaudí – Casa Milà and Casa Batlló. I didn’t have time to go into either of them, but they looked pretty cool from the outside, especially Casa Batlló.

I got back to the hotel around sunset, and nipped up onto the roof terrace (where there was a pool, but no-one was using it in January!) to get a nice view of the Barcelona rooftops as the sun faded away. I went to my room and just crashed – I was incredibly tired after getting up so early, and then doing quite a bit of walking around the city, that I didn’t even bother going out to get anything to eat!

Next morning I headed out and took a metro ride over to the base of Montjuïc (a flat-topped hill to the west of the city) and then took a funicular train up to the Telefèric de Montjuïc, which is a cable car that takes you up to a castle on the top of the hill. It’s been quite a while since I’d been in a regular cable car – I’d been in one of those big ones that go up the mountain when I went skiing back in 2004, but this was obviously a lot smaller, but was pretty high up. I was taking photos as soon as it started moving, but when I stopped to take in the view properly, I was suddenly aware of the rocking of the car, and I started enjoying it a lot less! The worst thing was knowing I’d need to do it again for the return journey back down!

At the top, I visited Montjuïc Castle, which was originally built in the 17th century, and gives some amazing views of the city from its roof. There’s a big courtyard in the middle of the main building, and I was pleased to see a small cafe since I’d not had any breakfast! I ended up having a coffee and a cookie, whilst sitting in the bright sunshine! It had been pretty chilly whilst walking around the outside, but when sheltered from the wind, it was actually quite warm!

After taking the cable car back down, I took the metro to the north-west of the city to visit Park Güell. You had to book to enter at a particular time, so I had a bit of time to kill so was able to get lunch in a small nearby cafe. I’ve been doing DuoLingo since just before my holiday in Spain last year, and whilst I can’t really speak fluently or anything, I was able to just about order it using some very basic Spanish!

Lunch done, I walked up the hill to the main entrance, where you’re greeted by some stone walls and a couple of fancy buildings, all really showing the architectural style of Gaudí. I arrived a little bit earlier than my booked slot, but as it wasn’t too busy they let me in right away. I spent the afternoon doing lots of walking around the park (it was pretty hilly!), taking in the architecture and the fantastic views of the city.

I stayed to see the sun go down over Barcelona, and then made my way back to my hotel, before heading out for food at a steak restaurant in the Gothic Quarter. It was a pretty decent walk to get there, finding my way through some of the windy, narrow streets, but it was really nicely themed, and it wasn’t too busy – probably because I was eating earlier than most locals would do. The steak tasted really good, and I even tried some sangria – although from what I’ve read, it’s only really tourists that drink it!

On the Tuesday morning, I started the day with some breakfast at the hotel, and then took a stroll first through the Born District, and then around the Gothic Quarter. It’s a fascinating area – lots of really narrow streets that go off in all directions, and then might suddenly open up to a wider area, so it’s quite easy to get lost!

So after spending the morning exploring, I made my way over to the Sagrada Família. It’s such a stunning building, and it’s crazy to think they’ve been working on it for over 140 years – and it’s still going to be a few more years until everything’s been completed! I discovered that it’s actually not a cathedral, although its scale would certainly make you think it is.

The design is so intricate and totally unique – the Sagrada Família was Goudi’s main architectural project in Barcelona, and even though he died in the 1920s, his design aesthetic has continued to be a prominent feature across the whole of it. And once you’re inside, it’s just as impressive as the outside! There’s so much detail to be seen in everything, and also the way in which the light comes through the stained glass windows and is projected onto various sections of the building is really beautiful.

I’d booked to go up the tower on the Nativity Tower facade, but when I went to it at my allotted time, I was told that there was a maintenance issue with the lift, so it’d been closed and that I’d get that part of my ticket refunded. I asked about whether the booking could be transferred to the other tower, but was told it was fully booked until the evening time. I was really disappointed, and was resigned to the fact that I’d have to miss out, when I heard someone say that there were a few slots still available for the Passion Facade tower.

So I went online and saw that there were still a couple of tickets available with tower entry in about an hour’s time, so I went to a customer services booth to see if I could buy a ticket for it, and I was able to! It meant I had to spend another hour looking around (although I discovered they had a whole section underneath I’d missed so looked around that in the meantime, and so eventually took a lift up the Philip Tower – the fourth tower on the Passion Facade. Once you get out of the lift, which goes up to a height of 60m, you then go up a spiral staircase until you eventually reach an enclosed observation platform near the top. You see out through really narrow windows, like you get in castle walls, but you still get a really decent view of the city.

From here, you go up over a short bridge to the Thomas Tower – it’s obviously totally safe, but it did feel a bit open, and I didn’t want to hang around on it too long! Apparently at this point you’re about 90m high, and it does feel very high! From here, you start to go down the spiral staircase of this, the third tower of the facade, and for the majority of it, it’s not too bad because even though it’s quite narrow, you have stone walls either side of you with decent sized windows on both sides along the way – you can also see into the inner core of the tower through the inside windows which is pretty cool.

Part way down, you come to another bridge to one of the inner towers – you can’t actually go into the other tower, but it’s a much bigger bridge than the one at the top, so I was able to stay on here for a while to take in the views (and to take lots of photos!)

Then you carry on down the staircase, until it changes quite dramatically for the last section. Basically, looking down on it, it kind of looks like the spiral of a snail’s shell, and there’s no central column or barrier to keep you away from the central hole, which is a bit scary! This part I really didn’t like – it seemed to go on forever and you have a small rail on the outer wall you can hold onto, but it still felt sketchy! When I eventually got to the bottom, my legs felt like jelly!

To wrap up my day’s exploring, I took the metro to Barceloneta station, which is about 1km away from the sea. It was really quite cold, and whilst walking down to the beach was making me cough quite a lot which wasn’t great! Because of this, the walk was a bit of a slog because I was feeling a bit worn out!

I had a walk along the beach – it was generally pretty quiet, there were a few people sitting on the beach, but definitely no-one in the sea! I spotted a couple of cable car towers which lets you travel over the port area toward Montjuïc, but I decided I’d already done the whole cable-car thing on this trip! It was nice to see the sun setting from down here, and I bet it’s really great when the weather’s a lot warmer.

I took a bus back to the hotel, then went out to eat in the evening at Pura Brasa, which is on La Rambla (and I know people say to avoid places on there, but I wanted to go to a grill restaurant, and it was the closest!) I ordered pork ribs and they were amazing – there was so much meat, and having missed out on lunch, I enjoyed every bit of it!

For my final full day in Barcelona, the weather forecast wasn’t so great so I made plans to do things that could mostly be indoors! As it turned out, whilst there wasn’t the sun and blue skies of the previous days, it managed to stay dry until late afternoon, so it turned out alright!

In the morning I visited Hospital Sant Pau, which is a former hospital complex originally built in the early 1900s, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s actually a really interesting place. They have various displays and exhibitions, and it’s cool to see how a hospital would have looked like at that time, and some of the machines and instruments they used to have.

There are quite a few buildings on the site, with many of them connected by underground passageways (some of which you can walk through), with multiple pavilions and gardens spread over the entire space. It was a pretty cold day considering it was the second week of January, but I’d imagine it’d be really nice to sit out there on a warm summer’s day.

After spending the morning there, I made my way down to the Mercado de La Boqueria, which is a market just off La Rambla. It reminded me a lot of the markets I visited in Santander with Ali and her kids last year, and was very busy in there. They had lots of great fresh produce on display, but not really the kind of stuff you’d buy when staying at a hotel!

After looking around, I made my way back through the Gothic Quarter in the direction of my hotel, because I needed to dump my small rucksack before going to the Picasso museum later, and as I was working my way through the maze of narrow streets, I came across a restaurant that was advertising churros and chocolate. Now, before I went to Barcelona, Ali had said I needed to try churros and chocolate sauce whilst there, but up until this point, I’d not been able to find anywhere that did it! I remember on our holiday last year that she was trying to find them for the kids to try, but I’m pretty sure we struggled to find them then too!

I went in and ordered – it felt odd just ordering a desert, but I’d just had a sandwich in a nearby cafe! The staff didn’t speak any English, so I had to use Google Translate to tell the lady serving that I’d been looking for churros and chocolate for the last 3 days and had pretty much given up hope! I had to wait a while, but they tasted great. I think I might have had one a long time ago at Disney World, but I think these were more authentic, and the accompaniment of the chocolate sauce works perfectly.

I got back to the hotel just as it started to rain, which was ideal timing, and had a bit of a rest in my room before leaving to go to the Picasso museum which was just a short walk away. By now, it was raining quite heavily, so I was glad my next activity was going to be indoors!

It was actually really interesting – he had a much wider range of styles than I’d realised, and it’s a pretty big collection. There was also an temporary exhibition of Barcelona artist Joan Miró, demonstrating the complementary nature of their work. I stayed there for about an hour and a half, and by the time I got out, the rain had become more of a drizzle, so I thought I’d go and take a look at a Spanish shopping mall!

Technically, I visited the Bull Ring Shopping Centre(!) – which was a bit of a throwback to my university days in Birmingham! But this shopping centre really was a Spanish bullring – well the outer shell of it anyway!

To be honest, once inside, the Arenas de Barcelona is very much like any shopping mall you find in the UK! I grabbed a coffee and some cake in one of the cafes, before having a brief look around the centre. You can take a glass lift up to the very top, and on the roof there are multiple restaurants and bars, with a walkway all around the edge, giving you a full 360° view of the city. After checking out the various menus on their windows, I chose to eat at a restaurant called Mussol, and went for a slightly lighter meal than the previous night – Lamb with ‘al caliu’ potato and salad.

Al caliu means that the potato is baked in embers, so was quite charred but tasted really nice. I also tried to be a bit sophisticated by having a glass of red wine with it, but that was probably undermined by me asking for their cheapest one because I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference!

I didn’t stay out too late because I needed to check out around eight thirty on the Thursday morning. I managed to get to the airport in plenty of time, and was back in Manchester by 1.20pm (although a bit later by the time public transport had got me home!)

I’d definitely visit Barcelona again – I know there are places I didn’t get to see, and it’d be nice to go there when it’s a bit warmer(!), but the advantage of this time of year is that it’s so much cheaper and there’s a lot less people around!