A few years ago, the wife and I got tired of trips where we gogogo, check things off a list, and come home exhausted. We decided that seeing one thing slowly is much better than seeing 5 things quickly. We don't like lugging our suitcases on and off trains, and spending all sorts of time just moving from one place to another. We're getting too old for that. So what we started doing was, renting an apartment in one place for at least two weeks and building relaxation into our schedule. We’ve done that in Florence, and Venice, and now, Barcelona.
We just got back from Barcelona. I really loved that place. It has the kind of vibe that makes me want to live there for a lot longer than two weeks. The Eixample is such a beautiful piece of urban planning. The blocks have cut off corners, and wide sidewalks, and tree-lined streets. The buildings are beautiful works of art.
We rented an apartment in the Eixample neighborhood, on Passieg de Gracia, a block and a half from Placa de Cataluna. Our apartment was on the 6th floor, with an elevator, very quiet and full of natural light. Two blocks up the street was the Block of Discord. Two and a half blocks down the street was the Gothic Quarter. The bus stop for the #24 bus, which goes to Park Guell, was right across the street. And there was a Metro stop right in front of our apartment. It’s a beautiful neighborhood, with very wide sidewalks that are great for just slowly strolling around.
Here's what I recommend. Don’t bother with “La Rambla.” The people on La Rambla are tourists, people who are trying to sell stuff to tourists, and of course the pickpockets. And don’t eat there. Don’t ever eat at a place where they have people standing on the sidewalk waving a menu at you.
If you want a street that is great for strolling, looking at beautiful buildings, eating great tapas, and sitting on a bench watching the world go by, go to Rambla de Catalunya, or Passieg de Gracia. I did not like “La Rambla.” I loved Rambla de Catalunya and Passieg de Gracia. We would go out the front door of our building, get some tapas and some Cava or Vermouth, and then slowly walk 5 blocks up Passieg de Gracia, one block over to Rambla de Catalunya, and walk slowly down Rambla de Catalunya, stopping to sit on various benches to watch the world go by. And I kept thinking, "I'd love to live here because then I could do this every day."
Most impressive thing I saw in the two weeks- the inside of La Sagrada Familia Basilica. The outside doesn’t move me that much. It’s okay. But the inside- I was absolutely floored by the originality, the scale, and most of all, the overwhelming beauty of the inside of that place. Wow. The inside of La Sagrada Familia was worth the whole trip.
I like cathedrals, so we also went to the Cathedral of Barcelona, which was really nice, and Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar. Those were both nice quiet places where you could sit and contemplate life, and how lucky you are to be sitting there in that moment.
We took the train to Mont Serrat, which we really enjoyed. We got in line to see the wooden sculpture of the Virgin Mary, which is reportedly the most venerated religious icon in Catalunya. We went through the line and touched the orb. Afterwards, as we made our way down the stairs, we were supposed to exit the basilica, but we got sneaky and merged in with a group of old ladies as they were ushered into the basilica, which, for some reason then unknown to us, was completely full, every seat taken, except for the front row, which apparently had been reserved for these old ladies. We sat in the front row. Then we found out why all the people were in there, because the boys’ choir, which goes back to the 14th century, came in and sang beautifully for about 15 or 20 minutes. What a stroke of luck that was for us.