Ask Jeeves: What's Ham? Barcelona tips

[blundercrush]

Realized I forgot to ask this here. Going to Barcelona for a couple weeks. Any tips? Unfortunately I get in literally the day Barcalona plays, and leave the day before they play again, so bad planning on my part. Things worth seeing, either in or around Barcelona is good. Like museums, like cathedrals, also like good food.

[govmentchedda]

I got suggestions. One of which is to see if they reschedule the Barça match for TV, or other reasons. When I was last there, the team shops advertised tickets for sale. If you are at all a fan of soccer, or FC Barcelona, I highly recommend taking the stadium/museum tour. I could have spent all day there. You could also see if Espanyol has a match while you're there.

Definitely go inside Sagrada Familia. I failed to do so the first few times I was there, but went in this last time and it's gorgeous. We did a day trip (an hour or so via train) from Barcelona to Montserrat, a monastery in the hills. You can hike it or take a funicular to the top.

I've never been to Girona, but it's a short train ride as well, and I've heard great things. Some Game of Thrones scenes were filmed there.

The restaurant Tickets is amazing, but reservations are hard to come by. I think they open them exactly one month in advance. If you can't get dinner reservations, try lunch. It's really great. If you go, make sure to get the olives.

The Poble Sec neighborhood has a ton of great tapas/pintxos places. Quimet y Quimet is a must. I really liked Koska, which is more Basque than Catalan, and Els Sortidors del Parliament was great too.

All of the meecados are great, Boqueria (just off Last Ramblas) is sort of the biggest and best of them. Las Ramblas is very touristy, watch for pickpockets. I'd suggest avoiding the Raval neighborhood for the most part. It's really the only sketchy area I've seen in Barcelona.

All of the Gaudi stuff is great, but I wasn't a huge fan of Parc Guell. The subways are safe and clean, use the FREE NOW app to hail a taxi like you'd hail an Uber here.

I've really enjoyed the four or five Context tours I've taken in Barcelona as well.

[Pruitt]

Take the metro to (I can;t remember the station), and take the funicular (or you can get on a cable car) up to Montjuic - which is a hill overlooking the city.

Great park, Olympic installations, castle which was a prison during the Civil War (very dramatic), Miro museum...

Stuff your face with pintxos and tapas!

I was there 5 years ago, so restaurant recommendations may be outdated - https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_R ... lonia.html

Santa Caterina market was fun.

We stayed in the Barrio Gotic and just wandering the streets was awesome. One night we stumbled upon a jazz concert outside the Cathedral and danced for probably the first time since our wedding. The area is that romantic.

Las Ramblas sucks - really no reason to spend more than a few minutes there. Walk it for a couple blocks and when you get tired of hanging with North American and German and British tourists go elsewhere.

Parc Guell was great - very crowded near the entrance, but as you climb higher it becomes an actual park.

[rass]

I friend over there right now and according to social media he hit both La Sagrada Familia and Camp Nou today. Looked pretty cool to me.

[govmentchedda]

Was he at the match? It was a good one.

[A_B]

I friend over there right now and according to social media he hit both La Sagrada Familia and Camp Nou today. Looked pretty cool to me.

That’s a full Barcelona day!

[The Sybian]

I only spent 8 hours in Barcelona, but it was enough to fall in love with the city. It was a stop on our honeymoon Mediterranean cruise, and it was by far the city my wife and I both wanted to return to. We've always talked about going back, and haven't mentioned any of the other cities. We had to walk through Las Ramblas to get off the ship and into the city. We spent maybe 15 minutes taking in the sites as we walked through, and it was enough. Super crowded with tourists. Way too many street performers. Some unique Cirque du Soleil shit, but not something to seek out. We planned on walking past La Sagrada Familia, as we didn't want to waste time in line, but there was no line and it was a nominal fee, so we went for it. Soooo worth it. The ground floor was still a major construction site at the time, dozens of workers, all full of scaffolding. We climbed all the way to the top, and it was amazing. The views of the entire city are amazing, and as the spires narrow, you are walking outside in a tiny circle upwards. It's really cool. I'm not big on art, but I could have spent all day looking at the sculptures and scenes carved into the walls. Truly unique style, and I absolutely loved it.

We had just seen a travel show about Boqueria, so we went. I love old markets like that, and it was my favorite one in any city. It was cooler having watched the show. We ate at a seafood counter that would have seemed like a scummy looking counter, but having seen interviews with the owners and knowing it was ike 5th or 6th generation family owned, and the history, it was a deep experience. The food was the simplest preparation, but mind blowing. Wish I could remember what I ate, it was some sort of shellfish and maybe the local sardines. That neighborhood was filled with fancy looking Tapas restaurants I wished we had time to eat at.

I don't remember the name of the area, but there is a section right off Las Ramblas that maintained the architecture from the 14th or 15th Century. We loved walking through the shops there. It was steps away from touristy shit, but almost no tourists wandered over there, so it was really quiet and cool to explore.

We got lost and ended up in some French district, which was very unexpected. We went into the French school to ask for directions, as my wife's HS French came in handy. Not many people spoke English way from the touristy areas.

[sancarlos]

I know nothing of Barcelona, but after our recent travels, I’ve grown to love the Rick Steves travel books. So pick up the one on Barcelona.

[A_B]

I say take full advantage of the siesta.

[govmentchedda]

They say the Catalan language is closer to French than Spanish, and the neighborhood Syb mentioned above is Barri Gotic, or the Gothic Quarter. If Las Ramblas ran east west exactly, BG would be north of Las Ramblas, and Raval would be south.

[blundercrush]

Sweet, thanks everyone. It is much appreciated. I will almost certainly avoid most of Las Ramblas.

[govmentchedda]

I enjoyed my meal at Los Caracoles in Barri Gotic. It's got a centuries old steakhouse feel to it.

[Nonlinear FC]

Espanyol plays on Sunday, but it's in Mallorca.