Barcelona Trip Report: March 12—19, 2022
Who we are: Group of 5, ages 47 (that’s me), 22, 21, 19 and 18. It was me, my two kids plus they each brought a friend. First trip to Europe for me and my 2 kids. The other 2 had been to Europe several times. First time to Barcelona for all of us!
Flights: We flew ATL to Frankfurt to Barcelona on Lufthansa. Flights were great and check in was smooth. Frankfurt was a bit of a cluster going through passport control but all in all it was not a big deal. It was 7 am local time when we landed in Frankfurt so that may have affected their efficiency—I don’t know since this was my first time in Europe and I have nothing to compare it to. Our return flight was Barcelona to Newark to ATL via United. The check in was smooth and the first flight was great. Second flight out of Newark we had a 2 hour delay due to weather (that couldn’t be helped) but we had to sit on the plane for the 2 hours. Not fun to say the least, especially at the end of the trip when we are all exhausted and just ready to get home, but these things happen. Interestingly to me we had far more leg room on the United flight than the Lufthansa flight. We flew economy but even I was cramped on the Lufthansa flight (for reference I’m 5’2”) and the guys (one is over 6’) were really cramped on the Lufthansa flight.
COVID/Spanish Health Form: I was really antsy about all these requirements and nervous that we would not be able to get home. I worried for nothing! We had no issues getting our Spanish Health Form QR code before we left. We stored it in our apple wallets, showed it when we checked in at ATL and again once we landed in Barcelona. That was all they required us to show in the Barcelona airport. We were not asked for it again on the trip. For our return we packed the Abbot Binax proctored home test. They were easy to use, and we had results send to our phones within 5 minuets of them reading our test. We all used our phones for the tests. I had to preform a second test because I lost my connection during the 15-minute wait time but even that wasn’t a big deal—thankfully we had brought an extra test. United checked our test results on our phone when we checked in at the airport and we were on our way.
Accommodations: We rented an AirBNB in the Eixample area and it was perfect. We had plenty of room and the apartment was very centrally located to most attractions and to 2 metro stations that allowed us to easily navigate the city. There were several restaurants very nearby, as well as grocery stores and a pharmacy.
Attractions: We visited all the main attractions on our itinerary. They only thing we skipped was Mt. Tibidabo and Sagrat Cor and we all wished we had just pushed through that day and went ahead and visited it. But we were tired just opted not to that day. We went to a soccer match and if they are playing at home when you are there, I highly recommend this!! We are not huge soccer fans, but it was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed it. Skip the Chocolate Museum, the kids wanted to visit so we did but it was a bit of a letdown. The cable cars and Funicular that take you up to Montjuic Hill were closed for maintenance while we were there, so we took the bus from the Parrel station—I was a little bummed about not being able to take the cable cars, but it was out of our control. We did the Casa Mila night experience, and it was a little bit of a letdown. Our original intention was to do the Casa Batllo night experience with is a night tour of the house finished up by a roof top concert with a glass of cava. However, they had not started that up for the season yet so we opted for the Casa Mila night experience and while we did enjoy it, I think we would have enjoyed seeing the house during the day tour just as much.