Barcelona

Welcome back everyone! 

In the June of last year I went away for a girly holiday to the Costa Brava with my friend. Luckily for me, Barcelona is only an hour or so away by bus so I decided to take a trip and visit one of my all-time favourite places (and restaurants) for the third year in a row! 

Beautiful Barcelona

I remember the first time I visited Barcelona in June 2014, I absolutely fell in love with it. It's got everything you could possibly want on a holiday, a fantastic beach, incredible architecture, great nightlife, wonderful scenery, mountains.. you name it! 

The food was also a huge highlight, I am a big foodie and an even bigger fan of picky food so tapas was an instant hit. We found this amazing tapas restaurant, opposite the Palau de la Musica, called Tosca. It's great because it does all the traditional Spanish dishes such as the Patatas Bravas and also some less traditional dishes such as vegetarian lasagne (both of which are tried and tested and are fab!). We visited this restaurant several times on my first and second visit to Barcelona and I made sure we had a lunchtime feast there last year! 

Tapas at Tosca
Placa de Catalunya




















After said feast we decided to do the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour, this is such a good way to see the city and get your bearings. There are 3 different routes, all stopping at different attractions including Park Guell, Barri Gotic and the home of the infamous Barcelona football team Camp Nou. Barcelona is also home to Barceloneta Beach, only a 15 minute walk from Las Ramblas, the beach is over 1000km long and is the perfect place to spend an afternoon relaxing after a busy morning exploring the city. 

Another highlight was of course the Sagrada Familia, the unfinished Gaudi Masterpiece truly is breathtaking. Construction on the monumental church started in 1882 and work is expected to be finished in 2026 for the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. The queues may be long, but the interior is just as jaw-dropping as the exterior, with fantastic use of colours and impressive stonework. Skip the line tickets can be brought online before you visit- something I'd highly recommend! 

Sagrada Familia

The second time I visited Barcelona in 2015, it was so unbelievably hot we decided to get out of the sun for an afternoon and go to the aquarium. It is the largest mediterranean aquarium in Europe so a few hours can easily be spent here, the shark tunnel is an absolute must! It was totally mesmerising watching those enormous animals swimming all around you. We ended the day taking a walk from the aquarium along the seafront all the way to Barceloneta, stopping en route for sangria and ice cream! 

Sharks at the aquarium

Barcelona is a city I would happily return to again and again, there's still so much I haven't seen or would like to see again. I can't think of a better holiday destination, with a beach and city break combined, there's something for everyone.

☡↬ 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iceland

Image
It’s been almost a month now since my trip to Iceland in January and I’m still suffering with the holiday blues. I think overall Iceland has easily become one of my favourite holiday destinations, the scenery truly is something else; it almost feels as though you’re in another world. We flew from London Gatwick at midday on the Thursday with Iceland Air which was very comfortable. We arrived just after 3pm and we were not prepared for what hit us on exiting the plane. The winds were gale-force; the rain was horizontal as we had to walk the short distance from the aeroplane to terminal. Slightly bemused and more than just a little bit windswept we got ourselves together and headed to the bus terminal. The journey from the airport to Reykjvaik is around 45 minutes, we booked with Grayline and they took us to our hotel – the Fosshotel Reykjavik. On entering the hotel we were very impressed, it looked very well-kept. The receptionists were friendly and accommodating and the room sizes...
Read more

Dubrovnik

Image
Dubrovnik In the July of 2017 my friend and I were trying to decide on a holiday destination that offered heat, excursions and something a little bit different, and so, we chose Dubrovnik. A wonderful, walled city in the south of Croatia, known for its distinctive old town and dubbed ‘The Pearl of the Adriatic’. We decided on a 4 night, 5 day trip and although it was enough time to do everything that we had planned, a couple of days extra for relaxation would have been perfect. On our first day we arrived at Dubrovnik airport from London Gatwick around midday and jumped in a taxi for the 30 minute journey to our accommodation, located a short walk to the Old Town. Once settled we decided to take a stroll and explore the surrounding area. It was blisteringly hot and I have never experienced a city with so many steps. We walked down the hill and ended up at the Old Town’s impressive gates. Entry into the old town is free of charge and is an absolute must with its beautiful cobbled street...
Read more