Barcelona Tour 25 FEB - 03 MAR 2002 Heiko, Matt, Matthias, Michael, Ojo

Monday 25 FEB (Düsseldorf/Köln ==> Barcelona)
I took the tram and train to Düsseldorf airport (DUS) early and checked in at the new Airport Express Railway Station. This was a cunning move since I subsequently didn't have to queue for ages at the main terminal to check in my hold luggage (my large rucksack, approx 12Kg). The shuttle bus got me to the main terminal within 5 minutes and I got in the rather long queue for the security/x-ray checks at departures (that took 20 minutes!). I met Matthias outside the duty-free/travel value shop and, after some browsing and wondering at the high prices, we went into the Lufthansa lounge for champagne/coffee breakfast. Half an hours later we went downstairs and boarded our Lufthansa plane. The weather was awfull - rain and 8°C. On the plane I thought about the film Fight Club (safety instruction card).

We landed at Barcelona airport (El Prat - BCN) on time just before lunch, collected our luggage and headed for the hotel in a taxi for EUR 18. We had booked the Hotel EUROPARK (hoteleuropark.com) on the road Carrer Aragó 325, situated 3 minutes walk from the Girona Underground Station on Line 4. The hotel was medium price (approx. EUR 44 per person per night); we had one triple room and one double.

We headed out for recconaisance and lunch whilst the others were still at Munich airport. Michael, Heiko and Ojo were flying from Cologne (CGN) via MUC to BCN. Matthias and I headed down to the Cathedral where we had an excellent tapas (small Spanish dishes) lunch with some San Miguel beer at the Taverna del Bisbe. I has a mini octopus amongst other tapas. The weather was sunny and 18°C. After that we headed via the harbor up the Rambla - famous wide road with pedestrian area in the middle with many kiosk stalls and street artists/ (portrait-)painters. Half way up on the left is the large fish, meat and other foods market area.

The rest of the gang, i.e. Heiko, Ojo and Michael arrived at the hotel via Bus and on foot at about 16:00. We headed over to the most impressive structure of Barcelona - the architect Gaudi's LA SAGRADA FAMILIA church. It is still under construction and will soon have even higher towers. We then headed down the Passeig de Saint Joan wher we had a beer break at Bica Bica Bar (c/ Caspe 92) near the Tetuan Placa. We passed an arena and the Arc de Triomf and proceeded through the Old Town. In the evening we had dinner at Madrid-Barcelona - a very popular restaurant on the Carrer Aragó 282, with good quality Catalan food. It was recommended by the website Webarcelona. After dinner we saw the Gaudi house on the Passeig de Gracia just north of the Placa Catalunya, checked out the Ramblas and Placa Reial before ending up in an Irish pub (Molly's Fair City on Ferran 7) (with a strange open toilet). Crazy.

Tuesday 26 FEB (Barcelona)
Tuesday was a terrific day! The weather was hot and sunny the whole day long. We decided to go to the Port Olympic via Metro. When we arrived there, the first thing we saw was a really impressing big bronze statue in the shape of a fish rising above the port. It was glowing in the sun. Then we entered a stylish casino court where Heiko took a second morning shower (in the fountain garden). We strolled down the posh harbor promenade looking around and had a cold glass of San Miguel. Afterwards, Heiko and Ojo went down to the beachfront and spent some time on foot bathing in the Mediterranean Sea. The rest of us enjoyed the sun and the sea view. Continuing on, we visited the small streets of Barceloneta, where working-class people live. For lunch, we chose one of the several restaurants (Hispano) at the beachfront overlooking Port Vell. Ojo (the cat) had delicious sardines.

We then strolled around through the old town near the Gothic Quarter and Santa Maria del Mar, where we found a nice looking restaurant for the evening (Nou Celler). It was very full, but the food and wine were good and the atmosphere in the old cellar was worth the way. After dinner, we looked around and found a stylish cocktail bar (behind a dark red door), in which we had some perfect cocktails at a fair price in very pleasant surroundings. The ambience was somewhat similar to a London Gentlemen's Club

Wednesday 27 FEB (Barcelona)
Wednesday was even better and hotter than Tuesday. We headed for the famous Gaudi house 'La Pedrera' on Passeig del Gracia. Heiko, Michael and I bought tickets to visit the roof, which was very impressive. We could see the Sagrada Familia and much of Barcelona from there. The architecture of the roof and in fact the whole building was amazing - so dynamic and rounded.

The Metro took us to the port (Vell) from where we headed for the cable car base tower. The weather was incredible: 26°C at lunch time. From the cable car we had the best view of the habor and the main city of Barcelona. We crammed into a taxi which took us right to the top of the hill (MontJuic) where the MontJuic Castle was. We lazed around in the sun near the old canons. I observed the flight path of planes coming in to land on runway 25 of Barcelona Airport. We had a refreshing glass or cold beer or coke in the courtyard castle restaurant. On top of the castle roof we again had a spectacular view of the city.

Now we headed downhill on foot. We looked at the Olympic Stadium where there were many Japanese tourists visiting. Further downhill we had an icecream break before reaching the huge National Palace. Back at ground level we passed the exhibition center and reaced the Placa Espanya with its two huge columns. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called De Tapa Madre only about 10 minutes walk from our hotel. It had a selection of very oily tapas and main courses. We had some exciting local spirits to finish off the meal. N i c e. To finish off the evening a cockteleria ("La Taberna Bar" on Bruch 55) was selected, and although we were the only customers, the cocktails were excellent, good quality and value for money. By the time we left, there were quite a few other guests as well.

Thursday 28 FEB (Barcelona => Montserrat => Vilafranca)
Heiko had organized a hire car for us for the Day from Europcar. He was brave enough to drive it with us 5 in as well. After a quick breakfast at one of the nice small corner cafés across the road from our hotel, we picked up the car. It was a luxury Peugeot 607 (they upgraded us, which was nice). It took about 45 minutes and a winding hairpin road to reach the Montserrat Monastery built onto the mountainside. Inside the main church a couple were getting married. We saw the spectacular insides and the famous Madonna statue. Later Heiko went up the cog-railway to the viewpoint at the summit, whilst Michael, Ojo and I headed to the small chapel on the side of the mountain.

After recovering with drinks and a snack we headed in the car through many vineyards on either side of the road to Vilafranca del Penedés. We arrived at 16:30 and everywhere was closed. We actually wanted to find a nice winebar, but the whole town seemed deserted. At the tourist information office - which was open! - they gave gave us the advice to drive 5 minutes away to visit the wine cellars of TORRES. It turned out to be an excellent idea! They showed us around the whole complex for free, driven around in their road train-mobile. After that we had a couple of glasses of different wines on the house and we tried a couple of more expensice wines on our own cost. Before leaving we bought a couple of bottles of Aqua d'Or spirits. G r e a t !

We headed back to Barcelona in the car, and joined the huge rush hour traffic jam at 19:00. We failed to find the big church on the hill overlooking Barcelona from the north, but we did find a good viewpoint from where we took some night photos of the city. We drove to the Port Olimpic and strolled around, but we were much too early for dinner at 20:00. Most people only start dinner in Barcelona after 21:00. So we headed back and parked in the parking garage next to the hotel. At 21:00 we then headed out via Metro to the Gràcia region. We looked around for decent restaurants and eventually found the Folquer (on Torrent de l'Olla 3). This was one of the BEST RESTAURANTS of our stay. We chose the speciality set-meal which was a perfect combination of local and Spanish dishes. The service was very friendly and the lady even spoke German!

Friday 01 MAR (Barcelona)
Today we went of in separate groups to see different things. Heiko and Matthias went to the Maritime Museum, which had large models of ships (some real size parts) and was pretty spectacular. Michael went strolling round the north of the city and then to the Park Güell where he saw the Gaudi sculptures and some more Gaudi houses. Ojo and I went shopping in the large "English" department store on the Placa Catalunya. We then headed up north to the Avinguda Diagonal. I bought some "Camper" shoes (supposed to be cheaper here since they originate from Spain). We saw real parrots in the palm trees on the Av. Diagonal. Via Metro we arrive back at Jauma-I where we had a wine stop next to the Maria Del Mar church. Next was the Picasso Museum, which gave me a good overview of how he started painting. There were quite a few gaps in the chronological explanation of his life. Apparently the Picasso Museum in Paris is much better.

We all met back at the hotel and then headed out to the area Michael had recced earlier. We ate at Can Xapata (Casanova 213) which was outstanding. I think we all ate too much - I had a grill platter and a big dessert. We headed to a trendy area near by, where the bars were small and packed. We were all rather worn out by all the walking we had today!

Saturday 02 MAR (Barcelona)
On Saturday, we went off in separate groups to visit several museums. Michael and I first visited the perfume museum, which in fact is only a small room behind a perfume shop on thr Passeig del Gracia. Nevertheless, entrance is free and we saw some nice ancient perfume bottles and pots. We continued to the Foundation Antoni Tapies, a very nice but also small museum. In a special exhibition, pictures from Asgar Jorn were shown, which we identified as the first indicators of the nearby Pokemon age. Funny. Then we looked for the Museum of Contemporary Art which we supposed to be located somewhere near the El Raval area (dodgy area), but didn't find it at once. After some reorientation, we suddenly stood in front of the very impressive modern building. By then we realized that lunchtime had nearly passed, so we decided to first get something to eat and then visit the museum. We found an interesting place next to the museum called Pla Dels Angels, where we had wonderful food and a bottle of very good 'Toro'. I had octopus carpaccio, and Michael had honey-glazed meat and a heavy but excellent chocolate cake. Hhhmmmm n i c e. Inside the museum, we checked out a video experiment and watched parts of a concert and interviews with the famous Spanish band 'Dover'. The museum featured several exhibitions, one was most amusing by an American cartoon artist called Raymond Pettibon.

After that we headed back to the Ramblas, I did some souvenir shopping near the Cathedral and Michael bought several T-Shirts which turned out to be too small for him and everyone else he had bougth one for. Oh Dear - next time we'll be more generous with the sizes. We had a recovery break in a trendy bar
This was our final evening in Barcelona. We spent it in a crowed tapas bar (La Tramoia). After waiting for quite a long time, we finally got some very nice traditional tapas including small hot sausages, fried blood sausage, gambas salad and squid. This went well with San Miguel.

Sunday 03 MAR (Barcelona ==> Germany)
After checking out of the Hotel Europark, we took 2 taxis (for 5 of us) to the airport. We can recommend the hotel, the rooms were good, a bit small, but for Barcelona a reasonable price (EUR 44 per person per night). After breakfast at the airport we browsed around the many , very expensive shops before getting our respective flight. Matthias and I headed direct back to DUS. Whilst the other flew via MUC (2 hours stopover) to CGN.

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Updated 25 AUG 2002 (Text & Photos by Matt & Michael)