Please Critique/Comment on My Barcelona Itinerary

Enric's the expert, so I hope he spots this thread and responds.

I don't see any red flags, and I think your pacing looks fine.

I took a look at the Gold Priority Ticket for Casa Batllo. I see that it gives you access to a hallway not covered by the least expensive ticket. I haven't seen that area. I don't know that the free cancellation part of the deal will do anything for you. And the photo? I guess skip-the-line means you enter in front of other people who have purchased tickets for the same time slot. I wouldn't think that would matter a great deal, but they hold people at the door until others exit (safety regulations?), so it seems there might be some advantage. I love the modernista sites, but you're talking about spending over $40 (US) for about a 1-1/2 hour visit, so you might like to know that Casa Batllo was packed to the gills the day I was there. It would have been impossible to take photos indoors when I was there because of the crowding (assuming that is allowed--I don't remember). And they're now renovating part of the building; how much will that negatively affect the visit? If I was willing to spend extra money to maximize my enjoyment, I would consider the early visit (8:30 AM), which should be less crowded. But that's even more costly.

I think paying extra for the ability to go to the head of the line at Casa Mila is probably worthwhile when that's not your first stop of the day and you have limited time in the city. They do meter people in and out, as far as I could tell.

The Gaudi Exhibition Center is new, so I haven't been there. I don't know how much information you'll get there, beyond what's available at the other places you're visiting, including the small museum at La Sagrada Familia.

I really liked the Barri Gotic walking tour offered by the tourist office. I think it may have started at 10 AM. I don't remember whether it's offered every day. I felt like we saw things I wouldn't have been able to find easily myself, even if I had decent directions to them.

I don't find the Ramblas worth any special effort to see and don't understand why Rick still highlights it. You'll see at least part of it when you go to La Boqueria.

I didn't think Barceloneta was all that interesting, either; it seemed to be full of Airbnbs and their clients. I much preferred walking around the Eixample, hunting for modernista buildings. But I am obsessed.

The MNAC (on Montjuic) has a nice modernism collection (furniture and decorative arts) if your interest extends beyond architecture. The medieval frescoes rescued from churches in the Pyrenees are extremely impressive. Plus there's traditional art, of course.

There's also a small modernism museum not far from the Block of Discord. It's a bit pricey for its size, but it is worth seeing. I had about 15 minutes there as part of the Tourist Office's modernism tour. I would have liked a bit more time, but I opted not to return and pay the entry fee.
If you like jazz, keep your eyes open for posters announcing concerts. I always crashed too early to take advantage, but there were jazz concerts taking place at two churches during my August 2016 visit. I think one of the churches was on or near Carrer de Santa Anna, just one block from the SE side of Placa de Catalunya.

Thanks so much for your reply!

As for Casa Batllo, I was debating between the Early Entrance ticket that gets you in at 8:30am (1/2 before opening) and the Gold Priority ticket that allows skip the line entrance. Don’t really care about the photo opportunity. I know it will be crowded regardless, but I’m just trying to get in when there is the least amount of people. With the Gold Priority, it seems you still have to make a timed reservation. So not sure it’s worth it after all. With the Early Entrance, I’m not sure how many of these they sell. We bought an early entrance for the Vatican Museum and that was quite pricey. Once we were inside, we realized that every tour guide in Rome was in there with other “early entrance” visitors. It was a zoo!

As for the renovations, I had read about this as well and am somewhat concerned that much of the building will not be visible. This would be troubling, especially since it is a pricey entrance fee and you have to pay in advance. There have been numerous comments about visitors not realizing this was going to be the case when they made their reservations. But I also read an article that it was anticipated the work would be completed or mostly complete by mid-April. Not sure if this is the case or where to find out more about this.

Thank you for the information about the Barri Gotic walking tour! I will look into it. Also appreciate your perspective on the Barceloneta. I live near the beach, so visiting beaches is not my priority. I tend to want to see the historical areas first. So I will reconsider that.

I also don’t need to see the Ramblas and if we are not going to the beach, I might skip making a purposeful visit down that boulevard.

We definitely like Jazz and will check for concerts!

Hahaha, thanks for your praise Ann :). I don't see any red flags either.

Some comments:

Casa Batlló

Indeed they're renovating but it's a matter of weeks thus, I believe, not affecting @gg96 in June. Gotta take my hat to the Marketing team though... what could have been an 'inconvenience' for the revenue stream, the renovation of part of the monument, has been turned into an opportunity for a continuous flow of income and a new product has been launched for "visitors to experience a historic moment: the restoration of the façade and the Nobel Floor". Not in vain Casa Batlló is the most lucrative (privately-owned) monument in Barcelona, just last year received over 1 million visitors that yielded a net profit of 13MM euros to its owners, the Bernat family, a wealthy industrialist saga in the city. One of their main successes was the famous Chupa Chups lollipops, sold in over 150 countries around the world so maybe some of you might be familiar with them. In any case, for those art lovers, this is indeed an opportunity to see how masterpieces are renovated, after all, this is not "just another building", and you'll get to see bits that are otherwise concealed to visitors.

I am not familiar with the Gold thing, but again, marketing is very fluid these days and new products and services are constantly being launched so I can't really help with that. In any case, as Ann mentioned, the place is very busy so being "alone" is nearly impossible. There is, of course, a maximum legal capacity and for safety reasons crowds are "managed". Still, to me, it's far too packed during summer months for a proper visit. To my knowledge, for safety regulations indeed, the amount of people allowed in at every turn is the same, therefore, assuming all turns (in June) being equally demanded, the number of people you'll encounter inside should be about the same regardless.

La Barceloneta

To be frank, all the hype is just among uninformed visitors because most people living in the city wouldn't consider La Barceloneta a "must", other than to go to the beach. The history of the neighbourhood is rather a sad one: when the Spanish defeated the Catalan armies in 1714 and invaded the city and took control of the whole Principality of Catalonia, they ordered the demolition of most of La Ribera neighbourhood to build a fortress "to submit the city forever". In fact, the biggest citadel (military post) in Europe at the time was built and ruthlessly controlled the city until it was finally demolished in the second half of the 1800s. Then, that citadel gave way to today's Parc de la Ciutadella. In the meantime, several thousand neighbours of La Ribera were expelled to build the citadel, and they were forcefully moved to the area of La Barceloneta. At the time it was merely a sandy land with no constructions. The first stone was set in 1753 -and can be seen in Casa Barceloneta 1761, in Carrer de Sant Carles 6, a city archive open to the public where one can find out about the history of the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood was mainly inhabited by humble families, mostly fishermen. The area is a one square mile holding 15,000 inhabitants in narrow streets designed in a grid pattern. Most buildings are under 5 storeys and apartments/flats are very small, many not reaching more than 40m2/430sqft.

The area is/was famous for its restaurants serving fresh seafood. They're however rather expensive these days. For those interested, precisely in the oldest building of the neighbourhood, one has also one of the most famous restaurants, Cal Ramonet, which albeit it was established as such just in 1956, it inherited its tradition for serving food way back as it had been a bodega for over a hundred years. Historical restaurants in Barcelona

Les Rambles

Totally agree with Ann... HOWEVER, I can perfectly understand why it's listed as a must: for hundreds of years, it had been a main artery in the city with lots of very important events happening there, many of which left their mark in the form of buildings, fountains, facades... Ignoring the more "touristy stuff" that populates long stretches of Les Rambles nowadays (tacky souvenir shops, expensive tourist traps serving awful food, etc.), one can still see interesting vestiges of the History of the city in that boulevard.

Les Rambles are the border that separates the neighbourhood of El Gòtic from El Raval.

WHAT TO SEE IN EL RAVAL

At El Raval, there's much more that meets the eye.

The origin of El Raval neighbourhood must be placed in the middle of the fourteenth century. The Black Plague had killed one-third of Barcelona's population, from 30,000 to 20,000. King Pere III ordered the construction of a new belt of walls on the other side of La Rambla, which was a stream in those times, to protect an area that began to urbanize. In fact there were two basic objectives: to create a new neighbourhood with a large garden area in case of epidemics or siege that would allow sufficient food supply for the citizens; and to establish an area surrounded by nature and clean air to locate fragile health services such as hospitals, orphanages and leper colonies in a safe zone away from the population density of the El Gòtic and La Ribera.

The main reason because both neighbourhoods are so different it's because El Raval (from the Arabic word 'rabad') was where the poorest strata of medieval society lived. The buildings of the rich and powerful as well as the Church and the Royalty were located within the walled city (especially in El Gòtic neighbourhood).

Does anyone remember Sean Connery's The Name of the Rose (1986)?... in that movie you can perfectly understand what a 'raval' was.

You might want to see, among other things:

The Old Hospital of Sant Pau, initially built there in 1401
Catalonia's National Library
MACBA
CCCB
The church of Sant Pau del Camp
The Boqueria Market -in Les Rambles
The Virreina Palace -in Les Rambles
The church of Betlem -in Les Rambles
The Drassanes (Royal Shipyards) -in Les Rambles
Palau Güell
Centre d'Art Santa Mònica -in Les Rambles
Maritime Museum -in Les Rambles
Gran Teatre del Liceu (opera house)

... and I'm sure I'm forgetting something :)

Btw, an important clarification: LA RAMBLA vs LES RAMBLES, its plural form, see post #13 here.

The metro pass is called "a T-10 card for zone 1", that's what you want.
Get acquainted with how it works and with the metro map.

Thank you, Enric! You are a wealth of information! All your comments will definitely be taken into consideration!

I certainly think the experts here are acraven and enric. It looks like you have a well thought out itinerary. I will just say that we spent a bit of time (about an hour) in Barceloneta and enjoyed it. I would only go if you have a bit of extra time and happen to be close to the area. We got into the neighborhood a bit and loved the edgy feel. I see you are from San Diego so you've seen a few beaches! The sand on the Barceloneta is grainy, but we collected a lot of sea glass which was fun and makes a nice souvenir. We thought it was pretty along the marina, but we were there at "golden hour" which improves any view. Just to make me look even worse in the eyes of acraven and enric, we walked down the Ramblas. We loved the Bouqueria and went there a couple times. It was a God send for my vegetarian daughter, who is hungry pretty much all the time. One of the times we took about 20-30 minutes to walk the length of the Ramblas. There are some interesting buildings and it was fun to see all the activity. As one of my girls said, "we did it, it was interesting, don't need to do it again."

Oh, I've been down the Ramblas many times, and La Boqueria is very convenient for food at non-local hours. I just don't understand the recommendation to make a special effort to walk down the street itself. But that may be because I remember it way back when, before the tourism onslaught.

Agreed! Now, Block of Discard, yes!

For curious eyes only...

• a small aeroplane crashed in Les Rambles, in 1934.
• Les Rambles was nicknamed "the flowers boulevard" in the past due to the abundant presence of flower stalls
• Les Rambles is not a really a single street, but five consecutive small streets/boulevards: Rambla de Canaletes - the site of the Font de Canaletes fountain, Rambla dels Estudis - the site of the former Jesuit University, whose only remainder is the Church of Bethlehem, Rambla de Sant Josep (or de les Flors) - the site of an open-air flower market, Rambla dels Caputxins - the site of a former Capuchin monastery, now dominated by the Liceu opera-house and Rambla de Santa Mònica - named after the convent of St. Monica, now an arts centre.
• at the top of Les Rambles, where the famous fountain of Canaletes is located, there used to be a very peculiar kiosk in the past.
• photos of Les Rambles at the turn of the 20th century: foto1, foto2
• ... and this one is not Les Rambles, but the journey starts at Passeig de Gràcia, just north of Les Rambles, but I thought it's curious enough for those that have been in Barcelona: A journey in a tramway in 1908... in winter (no much foliage in the trees!)

Enjoy!