Barcelona Roundup – January 2012

The last time I was abroad was Cannes for MIPCOM in September 2011. It feels ages ago and while the UK’s been having a ridiculously mild winter, I’m still craving the feeling of sun. As mentioned a while ago, 2012 is a bit of a beast for travelling. I’ve been cutting back on drinking and games/DVDs spending to divert more funds towards fulfilling my travel dreams.

Friday 27^th January 2012 – 1.32PM, Standsted Airport

Anyway, Barcelona. Ever since The Japan Travel Diary, I’ve been keen to write about my experiences around the world. I wish I’d done a travel diary for America (or kept the site I’d created in 09). I have the photos, but a day by day account would have been interesting.

It’s particularly helpful for when you’re asked by friends what to see when they visit the same places as you. A friend of mine is visiting Japan in March and I just directed her towards my diary – there’s tons in there and while Lonely Planet helps a lot, there’s various things I’d recommend in the East that Lonely Planet misses.

Tracking back to the point at hand, Catalonia’s jewel Barcelona. I’ve been four times before, but never in a non-family capacity. It’s always been for christenings and weddings, and as a result, I’ve never really done the main sights. For example, Sagrada Familia – Gaudi’s famous unfinished church.

That’s top of my list for my sightseeing day tomorrow.

Sunday will be a bit more family orientated (considering my Uncle and Aunt are kindly putting me up for the weekend), but Saturday will be a lot of photography and walking. I’ve got a bit of a cold, which is bad timing especially with the wonderful food, but there are a lot worse things that can happen.

Anyway, I’ll love and leave you at this point. I have a plane to catch.

9.14PM, Sant Cugat

Aside from some sinus issues on the plane and deafness in one ear, the journey was pretty smooth. The bus was easy to find, as was the train – I had a little malfunction with the final stage of the journey but my sense of direction prevailed once again.

My Uncle and Aunt’s new flat is lovely – it’s a real suburban dream. I’ve planned my route for tomorrow using some iPhone tour guide which actually works offline. I used a similar one for Tokyo, but its GPS location features didn’t work. I prefer iPhone travel guides for actual navigation because you can look at your phone without drawing attention to yourself. Lonely Planet guides are good for planning a trip, but they don’t half scream tourist.

I’ve still got a book guide, a DK Top 10 to Barcelona in my bag, but it’ll stay there unless I run out of things to do.

Saturday 28^th January 2012 – 4.30PM, Sant Cugat

I’ll keep this brief. Annoyingly it rained the entire day, bar a small respite for Parc Güell. As days go, it was very productive. I got to Sagrada Familia early, avoiding the crowds and getting plenty of photography done. I paid for the audio tour, something I’d really recommend if you’re visiting the church. It was only four Euros more and well worth the money.

After that I caught the Metro to Parc Güell, Gaudi’s famous park. I’d personally not pay for his house – it was fairly expensive for what’s a tiny museum. You could be done in 10 minutes and it’s fairly dear for you actually get. Anyway, it was interesting and provided some context. The sculptures and the architecture in the park are very impressive, and it’s certainly worth walking around for an hour (an experience which would have been nice with a blue sky.

After that I walked through the streets of Barcelona to Casa Mila. Again it was raining, but there were plenty of opportunities for street photography. Case Mila, or more commonly known as La Pedrera, is wonderful. It was my favourite place of the day and it rounded off the sightseeing nicely.

There’s not much else to tell – the rest was family orientated, minus a small walk in Sant Cugat to its monastery and a stunning Cirque du Soleil performance before getting the EasyJet red-eye home. I’ll be going back soon.

Tagged: 2012, Barcelona, marco fiori, Spain, travel guide