We land in Barcelona around noon on October 4th. We have until the morning of the 10th before we fly to Palermo to join the Rick Steve's Sicily tour. We have never been to Spain, but we travel to Europe every year, so we are well acquainted with jet lag. I am optimistic because the timing of when we leave the US and arrive in Spain we should be close to the right timing if we can sleep on the plane (we're flying business class so we can lay down all the way).
Anyway, my question: with this amount of time would you spend it all in Catalonia or would you split it between Barcelona and somewhere south like Valencia? Our priorities are scenery, relaxation, and food. I know that one must appreciate all of Barcelona's architecture so I would say that is a passive interest that we could take in on our way to an incredible tapas location. I had thought of Girona and Cadaques to the north if we go that direction.
We are pretty open to suggestions and I look forward to hearing peoples comments and experiences.
Thanks in advance!