Out last night in Barcelona, and our last night in Spain after three whole weeks.  And what better place to spend it than that musical happening, the Magic Fountain of Montjuic, the Mount of the Jews. I’m not sure what any of us was thinking, they might have known more than we discussed.  But I was totally unprepared for the 100,000 or so people thronging the streets in the park.  As you can see from the top picture, the whole experience had a sort of pagan feel to it. Very …

After years and years of travel, I have come to realize that one of my favorite things in life is people watching. So sitting at an outdoor cafe like this one, as long as it has foot traffic, is heaven. This one is just steps from the Jaume 1 metro stop, into Placa del Angels, on the edge of the Barri Gothic in Barcelona. Got that?
I’m not that opinionated about the specifics of the traffic, just that there’s a parade of people and this particular one is at the crossroads …

Spent the better part of six hours in this turn-of-the-last-century amusement park on the highest peak overlooking Barcelona. Beautiful place filled with antique rides cheek-by-jowl with a state-of-the-art roller coaster. I think my kids went on six times.
Took trains, automobiles, trams, and a 100-year-old funicular to get here and it was worth it. More tomorrow…
Got to take a moment and give Kate credit for copy-editing these blog entries. As you may know, a dyslexic childhood has left me devoid of any spelling or editing skills, and she has …

This is the mighty Panorama, perched high up over Barcelona at the Tibidabo Amusement Park. Take your kids here. Mine loved it.
And this is the fearless Tibidabo Flyer. As you can see from the tail markings, this plane was pressed into amusement park service in 1928, and is still going strong.
Just to show that Tibidabo is not all old-fashioned rides, this one is a state-of-the-art roller coaster, set right into the mountainside trees. My kids said this totally crushed it (and crushed them too, after about 5 trips.)
Here’s the …

La Rambla is the best known street in Barcelona. Don’t come here if you don’t like crowds. I do, so I’m happy here. I was feeling a bit over-protective of my family when we came here last night, however. (That’s why I didn’t manage any photos.) In the day, it is much more friendly. Anyway, it’s a “don’t miss” location, a spot one must walk to say you’ve been to Barcelona. Last night we watched a spray-paint artist whip up panels and clocks (!) of all things …

Instead of renting hotel rooms or suites everywhere, we did something different on this trip. In the places we stayed more than 2 days – Madrid, San Sebastian, and Barcelona, we rented apartments. More work, more variability, but definitely more room. In Barcelona we have a 110 square meter (almost 1200 sqft) 3-bedroom palace. It’s nicely furnished and has everything we needed for a lovely stay. Except for the wifi connection. Access and bandwidth seem to change at random with the hotspots moving around the place …

Got to Barcelona on Saturday evening. Sunday, we hopped on the hop-on-hop-off bus, which is something of a ritual we’ve adopted. While a little touristy-tacky, it’s a neat and easy way to get an overview of a city.  Some people actually use it to get around and stop at each of the designated sites; we tend to ride the loop in its entirety to get a feel for where we want to stroll later.  I’ve made the mistake of taking these bus tours in the middle of the day …

Growing up in Brooklyn, we called places like this “pork stores” although the official Italian name for them is “Salumeria.”  I may have said it before, but Spain is big on pig, and you can’t turn around without someone selling you something made from pork.  I thought this store was quite nice looking, even if it did remind me of the climax sequence in Clint Eastwood’s “High Plains Drifter.”

Ken Follett’s novel, Pillars of the Earth, is the story of vision and devotion, and the construction of a great cathedral over the course of about 200 years.  Throughout Spain there are examples of these great works of faith.  In Barcelona there is actually one in progress: Antonio Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia.  This incredible cathedral has been under construction since 1882. It is scheduled to be finished around 2025.  Of course, you can never tell about these things.  I sat this morning in a cafe across the way from the great …

After two weeks of gallivanting around Spain, we decided to chill for a few days before heading off to a week in Barcelona.  Problem was we needed a hotel room soon (like the next day) and weren’t sure where to go that would be easy and low-stress.  Rick Steve’s guidebook said something good about Sitges – that it was the best beach within a day of Barcelona.  Since that was to be our next destination we decided to try there.  Of course, then there’s the laborious google, expedia, booking.com, trip-advisor, …