Barcelona ; 4 - 9th Dec 2016 ; Great city, watch your wallets and bags.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian, commissioned by the Spanish king to go and look for the East  

     The first city during our 2 week holiday in Europe was Barcelona ; it is the capital of the Catalan province and when we arrived there in the early afternoon, our first reaction to it was "Wow !". We stayed at the Dequesa de Cardona, an excellent 4 star boutique hotel located right at the waterfront, along the Passeig Colom overlooking the beautiful marina, and Port Vell. The hotel is overlooking Barcenoletta beach (about 1 km away), and directly fronting the marina and the yachts, some of which are quite luxurious. There is also a small swimming pool which would have been the highlight if it were not 13 deg C in the daytime ! 

     At one end of the Passeig Colom was the statue of Christopher Colombus, an Italian who was commissioned by the Spanish Queen to find new lands in the 15th century. That was practically the height of the Spanish empire during the last millenium and Spain was looking to expand her empire and colonize new lands. 

    Columbus thought that when he arrived in 1492, he had reached Asia, after seeing the indigenous peoples of the Bahamas. His travels and subsequent landing can be found in the film "1492".   

    There are many architectural sights in this beautiful city, not least the world famous Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi as well as the La Perdrera which is a famous unique building fusing nature and all the curves it has with the modern day structure. I will elaborate more of these in later posts. 

View of Barcelonetta and the marina from our hotel terrace

      Barcelonetta beachfront during the winter is pretty quiet, however, there are many street vendors from Africa and the Middle East, though I am not pinpointing tham as the perpetrators, the area along La Ramblas, Placa de Catalunya and much of the tourist section, Born and the Gothic Quarter we had to pretty much watch out for our wallets, handphones and of course passports.

      As we had many fine dining options at very decent prices, tapas restaurants were plentiful and were just next to our hotel at the Born district. We had many lovely meals at the Bodega la Puntal, address is Carrer Montcada 22, El Born. The Vermouth is really "to die for" ! Most meals for 2 cost us no more than EU 50 which was quite expensive by Singapore standards. The picture below is in the daytime but at night the square comes to life and there are literally hundreds of people out in the streets, meeting up after work, downing a Vermouth and some tapas and then heading off home. Its a time honoured tradition amongst the Catalonians. 

Placa de Santa Maria (beside the Santa Maria church one of the most beaufiful churches in Barcelona)

    There are so many fine small tapas restaurants (small meals that can be served and eaten with your fingers like canapes) that many people actually do the tapas crawl. For us though, as it was winter and temperatures fluctuating between 10 and 15 deg C, to be inside and eating excellent Spanish tapas would do it.  

c'est magnifique ! Pardon my French

      Practically all the service staff speak good English and the service generally is very good ! Perhaps I should qualify my statement by saying that the Service standards in Singapore restaurants, F and B establishments and boutique shops are really pathetic compared to European standards.

     So Barcelona is truly a magical and lovely city which we were most fortunate to visit.