BARCELONA, SPAIN – 7-12 October 2026
I have to say, if you were to pick one city in Spain to visit, I’d highly recommend Barcelona. We arrived on Wednesday evening and our luggage arrived on the same flight (although we had packed extra in our hand luggage to ensure we were prepared for loss luggage LOL). Our accommodation at H10 Catalunya Plaza is amazing, would definitely recommend as it’s right in the old part of town.
The restaurant is called “1892” – the building is obviously “historic”, I’m going to make the assumption that it was built in 1892, but it’s had a lot of work done to it to bring the rooms into the 2020s.
The view as you walk through the door to the apartment.
Our “sitting room” with a view over the plaza, a double room on each side of the room, I think they should have done with the table and chairs and put some comfy chairs in the room. It was still impressive though. Note the bottle of sparkles and some nibbles for us on arrival.
Ray and Rhonda’s bedroom (with an ensuite). Christine’s was as impressive, I chose one down the hall that had three lead light windows.
The view down into the plaza.
One of the two fountains in the plaza across from our hotel.
And the other fountain.
Our first stop was a small tapas restaurant. Was only 10 minutes’ walk from the hotel, and the food was excellent.
I was keen to try Tapas for our first dinner in Barcelona. the dish at the bottom was some sort of shellfish, the waiter recommended that we chop the head off as it was sometimes sandy. Ray & I were the only ones to try it, we couldn’t find which end was the head, so ate the whole thing – not bad, even if it was a bit sandy.
We came back to the hotel and enjoyed a night-cap – the “terrace” isn’t as good as the rest of the hotel.
There were many times that we were driven around the old city, and I was enchanted by the place, if I’d have travelled to Europe first back in the 1970s, and if I’d happened upon Barcelona, I could easily have lived there.
Here is a Google Earth snapshot of part of the old city. The roads are quite wide, which allows for two lanes, trees and good footpaths. Note on each block, the corner of the block is taken away allowing for a larger area at each intersection. The apartments at these intersections I’d imagine would have been in high demand. Each block holds a number of “buildings” joined together. The inside of each block was originally intended to be open space/gardens.
This district is called the Eixample (7.46 km², and could house 263,565 inhabitants. The district was created when the demolition of the old medieval walls in the 19th Century, because the old city in the medieval walls could no longer expand. A plan was drawn up by Ildefons Cerdà. It is a densely populated district and was a residential area where wealthy families-built homes after leaving the old part of the city. Back then, one person built a building in the block (they were all joined together), with space for a “shop” on the bottom floor, the family residence on the 1st floor and then apartments that they would rent out on the other floors (usually 4-6). Now-a-days, only the wealthy could afford to buy an apartment and a lot of the buildings have now been converted into hotels (such as ours).
A lot of the streets away from the centre are actually a bit narrow, allowing for only one way. I liked this one with the street lights, would have liked to see them lit up.
This was the only block that we found where you could use one of the arches to get into the middle of the block, and it had been kept as it was meant to be used as a plaza. On Google Earth, we only found this one.
Les Ramble is a “road” that runs for about 2k (starting at our accommodation) and ending close to the port. Christine was keen to show us this part of the city, only to discover that there were renovations going ahead and this was the only section that was as she remembered, so we took the time to have a drink at the outdoor cafe. The renovations will be finished next year LOL.
The International Hotel, built in 1894, about 6 floors, I’m guessing that the top floors were cheaper as no lifts back then.
A very ornate home, I particularly like the verandahs at the top, and the outdoor space on the 3rd floor down. Also, the dragon on the building next door and note the umbrella, these are part of the oriental building below.
This building had an oriental theme, note the umbrellas on the top two floors, and then the dragon (above), and when I looked closely at the floors below, the first level floor had beautiful porcelain panels with oriental flowers on it.
On one of my visits down Les Rambles I discovered the market and persuaded Christine to come and visit with me. Definitely this is a must see!
Dates, figs, dried other stuff and these “potatoes on a stick” which Christine assures me can be found somewhere like Leichardt.
Fish and shellfish galore. We’re not sure what the middle upper shellfish is, and I’m not sure that the red prawns down the bottom haven’t been genetically enhanced.
Nuts etc that are dredged in honey, lots of spices, and the shellfish that we had with our Tapas.
The tomatoes looked amazing, Christine bought me some pomegranate (and I didn’t have to peel them LOL). And, with a lot of stalls you can pick up a plate and a glass of wine and enjoy the food (∈10 is probably around A$14)
Some sort of fungus above, plus mushrooms in the middle and olives to die for.
And so began our five days in Barcelona – thanks Christine for making sure we had this on our itinerary. So, what “touristy” things did we see … watch this space!