We stayed in a short term apartment -- Erik Vökel Suites -- that was lovely. The place was huge; larger than our apartment in Duisburg, with a completely separate bedroom, a very nice bathroom, adequate kitchen (well furnished, including a dishwasher, though the smallest I have ever seen), and a patio that would have allowed us to have a party for 20 people had we been so inclined. It was cheap, though I'm not sure whether that was a statement about Barcelona right now or about apartments vs. hotel rooms. It had fewer amenities than a hotel room (no maid service, though you could get cleaning once a week; receptionist only between 9am and 6pm, so we had to let ourselves in via a machine like an ATM that made us a key), but none of these were problems for us, so we had a delightful time. There was a bit of a crowd at the (hard to use) checkin machine, with 8 German college students checking into two rooms right ahead of us, and a woman I would have called a business traveler right behind us. It is in the Gracia neighborhood, which was recommended by a friend and a locale that I would highly recommend too. Not in the midst of tourist central, but close enough to just about everything that we walked everywhere.
The first day was supposed to be old Barcelona and Picasso, which we covered. The Barri Gotic (Gothic quarter) is quite nice, with the Basilica and lots of other old buildings to visit or just gawk at from outside. And the Picasso museum is highly recommended -- for the most part it is Picasso's early work (while he was in Barcelona), which is much more realistic (almost photo realistic in a few cases) than his later stuff. There are two paintings he did at age 15 which are incredibly impressive (The First Communion and Science and Charity). I don't think we had ever seen anything from that time in his life. There are a set of paintings from later, donated by Picasso himself, that are mostly rifs on a famous painting by Velasquez -- Las Meninas. Not as interesting, except maybe to an art student.
But we did find a small museum about the life and influences of Gaudi next to the Cathedral and we also went to Palau Guell, which is in that area (Gaudi's first major commission). But Sunday was all Gaudi, all day. We saw (not in this order): the Sagrada Familia (the church he spent the last 15 years of his life on, and which is unlikely to be finished in my lifetime). The external facades were the best (though hard to see well without a ticket) and his use of light in the sanctuary was fantastic; La Pedrera, an apartment complex, where the entire first floor (in the European meaning) was reserved for the wealthy owner and the other floors had apartments for renters (also well-to-do, but not at the same level), Casa Batllo, another apartment complex with a rich owner taking up the first floor. We also walked up and down Passeig de Gracia, looking at buildings by Gaudi and others that we couldn't go into.
Here are a few pictures.
La Pedrera (still a very fashionable address to have)
There are no straight lines to any of the walls.
Gaudi's trademark chimneys (here at La Pedrera)
Another La Pedrera chimney
View of Sagrada Familia from La Pedrera roof
(the two cranes are a permanent part of the landscape)
Trying to capture the light inside the Sagrada Familia
Another attempt to capture how he infuses the place with light
A random building by another Modernista architect (not Gaudi)
This was originally an umbrella store.
The chimneys at La Batllo
Gaudi makes even the gulls look good.
(That is a live gull, not part of the art)
OK, now on to food (of course). We mostly ate tapas, except for breakfasting on croissants and coffee/tea, of course. We found an excellent tapas place almost around the corner from our apartment -- Restaurant Tossa. Everything on the menu was great (we know this because we ate there twice, easily covering more than half the menu.) We first thought the tiny squid were the best, but that was before we tried the octopus. Even the croquettes (ground up meat and other stuff, in golf ball sized mounds, deep fried) were fantastic -- we only ordered them because the owner wouldn't take no. While they have a pseudo-English menu that somewhat overlaps the menu board in Catalan, they aren't particularly touristy, as evidenced by the fact that our waiter didn't speak English (apparently he knew the menu by location, and we called the owner over for complicated orders).
Otherwise, we ate while walking around I don't know that we chose particularly wisely, but we had several good things (mostly in the seafood direction -- some excellent sardines in vinegar) and some misses. I wanted some paella, and what I got was a soupy rice mixture, with some good seafood on top, but not the crusty, flavorful rice that I was expecting. If that had been my only paella experience, I would be saying "what's the fuss". But maybe when you order paella as a starter (meaning it's a small portion), you have to expect this sort of mass produced result.
Overall, we found Barcelona a lovely city to visit. The Gracia neighborhood allowed us to see ordinary Barcelonans going about their weekend errands. We left with more Gaudi to see than we had time for. So this is one city that is on our "we'll be back" list.
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