Barcelona Unveiled: Insights and Experiences

Perhaps the brightest, shiniest jewel on the Mediterranean, Barcelona is an amazing port city.

Ten minutes is probably not enough to talk about all that there is to see and do and eat here, but we're going to do our best.

David, how you doing this week?

I'm doing great, Tim.

Looking forward to getting into Barcelona and I know we're going to, we're going to talk about Barcelona this week and I think we're then going to get into Madrid next week.

So looking at two of the biggest sort of tourist draws in Spain, a little bit of a compare and contrast are our favorites to do in both cities.

Absolutely, yeah.

We're going to be in Spain.

We're going to be in Spain.

What could be better than being in Spain for a couple of weeks?

So very excited.

And I know I've been to Barcelona many times and quite recently I know you're more of the Madrid expert.

So we're going to compare and contrast and have a couple of really good conversations.

Sounds good.

And you've been what I think it's.

You were talking at least four or five times now.

You've been to Barcelona.

I have been to Barcelona four or five times in the last five years.

I would say I have.

I honestly, I mean, I'm not exaggerating, I'm not trying to, you know, showboat or whatever here, but I've been to Barcelona not more times than I can count, but more times than I can maybe remember.

One of the things is that I do as a travel writer, I cover cruises a lot and so Mediterranean cruises often leave or return to Barcelona.

In fact, it's in the new year now, in January.

I was on a Windstar cruise, great cruise.

And it was round trip from Barcelona.

So I was in Barcelona twice since Christmas, so.

So I don't know, maybe, maybe 10 times, maybe a dozen times.

But really one of my favorite cities.

So much to see and do here.

So your, your experience much more recent than mine.

Mine's probably a few more years back now.

But I had a great time in Barcelona.

I was there with our daughter when she was quite young and my wife there touring around.

We had about a week in the city.

But let's maybe start off with, with where to stay and what are some of your favorites?

What's your go to places when you're staying in Barcelona?

I got a whole bunch.

Well, not a whole bunch, I got four.

So let's start with Hotel Arts, which is a beautiful hotel, rises right by the sea.

It's a Ritz Carlton hotel.

It's called Hotel Arts, but it's Ritz Carlton might have the best pool in town.

I remember being there one time, I think I've stayed there twice and one of the times it was beautiful, sunny, hot and just getting sat in a cabana, got pours of champagne, looked out on the beach, absolutely beautiful.

I just kind of rhyme off a couple others.

Iberostar, which is on Paseo de Gracia, which is the most stylish street in the city.

Iberostar is kind of a mid market but still a beautiful hotel and you can walk to some of the best boutiques and the whole, in the whole city.

Radisson Blue is, it's not a budget option, but it is, it is not, you know, a super high end option either.

But it is very close to Sangrada Familia, which I know we're going to talk about later.

Rooftop pool.

You can sit up by the pool and look out and see the spires of that famous Gaudi church.

And then the last one, which is a hotel that I just stayed at two, three weeks ago is Hotel Majestic, which is probably the most historic hotel in town.

It's really an icon of the city, you know, but they haven't rested on their laurels.

So a lot, a lot there and I mean my room was beautiful.

Everything else of course, in a hotel like that, everything was perfect service, everything.

So what about you, David?

Where do you like to lay your head when you're in the city?

Well, yeah, I know you mentioned you, you thought you, you hit the best pool in the, in the city.

I don't know, I've got a rival, I think for best pool in the city which was, we stayed at the W Barcelona, which is really known for its architecture.

It is very much stands out on the skyline of the city, right down on the beach.

It's designed to look like a giant sail going out over the Mediterranean Sea.

It offers tremendous views of the city and the Mediterranean.

It's got a Michelin starred restaurant.

But by far my favorite part of this hotel was the scene and the vibe around the pool.

Very cool pool area where they had their own curated Spotify list and a DJ there that you could download the list.

The DJ was playing each day they had attendants who would come by with avian water in like aerosol versions of avian water.

They would spray you down with avian water.

If you were getting it too warm, they would bring Little gelatos to make sure you were.

You were doing all right as you cruised around there.

It was very cool pool scene.

And it's right on the beach as well, which, you know, definitely.

I know we're going to talk about the, the Madrid and, and Barcelona.

A bit of compare and contrast.

And that is one of the, One of the differences between the two is Barcelona is a great beach city and lots going on down on the beach, and the.

The W being right at the center of it made a great place to stay.

Well, I'll tell you what, David.

I'm a man who feels the heat, so, you know, having somebody spray me down with a mist is something that's, I'll be honest, that's very attractive to me.

I would take that on a daily basis when I'm in a.

In a hot climate.

So I don't know.

What do you want to talk.

Let's talk about.

Why don't we talk a little bit about things to do when you're in the city.

And maybe I'll.

I'll go first and just say Barcelona is one of my favorite cities for a walk.

You know, it is.

It's quite flat.

It's spread along the sea.

You don't have to.

Usually you don't have to walk very far to get to the Mediterranean.

One of my favorite places to walk, and it's right near Hotel Arts, the hotel that I talked about a moment ago.

And it's a boardwalk called Paseo Maritimo.

I think sometimes we forget that the Olympics, the summer Games, were held there in Barcelona.

Um, and you, you can walk right along the crescent of the beach.

So you can, you know, there's people who are rollerblading and biking.

Just this vitality that happens there.

And then you can look out and you can see all the people on the beach and the, the waves rolling in.

I don't tend to honestly be a huge beach person, go, like, going in the water, but I like being at the beach.

And that gives me kind of the best of both worlds.

Um, and then I'm gonna give you one more walk that I love to do.

I love going to Plaza Catalonia, which is kind of the biggest square in Barcelona.

Lots of shopping, lots of great.

You know, I mean, some of the shops are like, you know, like Apple Store, Primark, you know, that kind of thing.

But my favorite department store in the entire world is El Cortes Ingles, which is this huge.

I think it's like eight, nine story department Store, one of these classic department stores, you know, where you've got everything you can think of.

You can buy it in that building.

And my tradition when I'm in Barcelona, maybe not every time, is to buy a new pair of shoes.

So I go from there.

I go to Plaza Catalonia and I go all the way down La Rambla and La Rambla again, everything that you could, you know, see in the city, all the different personalities, all the different elements are right there on La Rambla.

This, this boulevard all the way down to the Columbus statue, that's right on the sea.

And that's one of my favorite walks to do.

So great walking city.

I don't know, what about you, David?

What do you like to do when you're town?

I mean, my.

I, I found for what to do in Barcelona, a lot of it for me revolved around, you know, the architecture.

We talked a little bit about the architecture with the, with the W Hotel, but also, you know, probably one of the most well known sort of architectural masterpieces in the, in the city.

And, and definitely a very unique, you know, church from a, from an architectural standpoint, very much worth spending some time to, to go and check out.

And very much a classic sort of example of, of G's artwork.

Picasso, you know, spent a lot of his time in, in Barcelona and the city is also home to probably the, well, the most extensive collection of his artwork in the world over.

I think it's something like 4,000 pieces of his art to really tracing every, every aspect of his career that you can find there as well.

So it's certainly a city when it comes to art and culture.

You're going to find no shortage of things to do there.

In terms of the walking piece you mentioned, some of the squares in the city, one that we really enjoyed in the evening was there's all kinds of fountains and stuff around the city.

One central fountain whose name I am going to butcher, but it's something like Font Magica du Mon, maybe something like that.

Known for kind of these nightly late shows, music shows in this massive sort of water fountain, you know, right in the center of the city.

And they do those Sort of light shows on, on an evening basis there as well.

So that, that would be another one I would call out in the.

The what to dos.

For sure.

Very cool.

Any.

Any.

You know, Barcelona is really a great city for, for eating, for, for culinary experiences.

I, I'm just going to go with, with two.

You know, when I, when I was putting together my notes for this episode, you know, the, the possibilities were, were endless and I just, I just, I thought, you know what, I'm just going to narrow it down to two, two very, very different places.

So for me, there's a, there's a place called Can Joseph.

J O S E P like Joseph.

And it's small, simple Catalonian cuisine.

So we're talking about, I mean, like it or not, fried anchovies, blood sausage, this kind of thing.

But again, a locals only type of place.

And so definitely, you know, I encourage our listeners when they're in town, seek it out.

And then the other place, I mean, this is probably my favorite place to go when I'm in the city is El Nacional, which is kind of like, like a big, I don't want to call it a food hall because it's more upscale than that.

It's all glass and chrome and beautiful.

And there are several restaurants, I think there's four.

I might be wrong on this, but four main restaurants under that one roof.

But you can find selections from across the Iberian Peninsula.

So you've got, you can.

And a lot of it is open concept.

So a chef will steam a lobster right in front of you and then serve it to you.

Or another chef will grill a steak right in front of you and serve it up.

And if I remember correctly, I was with a group, with a group of travel writers and they would actually just bring things around and they say, hey, anyone wants paella?

Anybody want whatever?

And you know, you just had to put up your hand, they put it on your plate.

Obviously you had to pay for it when you, before you went out the door.

But just a, just a great way to sample the best, not just the best of Spain, but the best of that whole peninsula.

I don't know.

What about you?

Yeah, for food, definitely no, no shortage of great choices throughout the city.

We, on our first night there, you know, talked to the concierge at the hotel.

We're looking for a good, good recommendation.

And he had actually suggested an Italian restaurant.

We were a bit disappointed, thinking, oh, this is our first night in.

And he's recommending Italian, but it was this Michelin starred place called Bacaro near La Boqueria market.

It offers, you know, really authentic Venetian cuisine in a very sort of cozy setting.

Probably some of the best Italian food we have had.

I mean, we've traveled extensively around Italy and it was some of the best Italian food we've had anywhere in the world was here in Barcelona.

I remember one dish in particular.

It was this, this sort of ravioli, but it came with a single ravioli that almost looked like a flower.

It was handmad filled with ricotta.

It was phenomenal.

It was just a tremendous meal and highly, highly recommend that.

And then of course, tapas.

You know, Spain is incredibly well known for.

We, we tried a ton of tapas places throughout the city.

Probably my favorite was one called Tapas24.

Kind of a popular modern twist on tapas.

Really lively atmosphere, creative dishes as well.

So that was definitely a good spot to check out as well.

Fantastic, fantastic.

And before we end this episode, I know that we always have a Can't miss one thing.

If you do one thing before you leave town, what are you gonna do?

And so for me, you know, Barcelona is so fantastic for markets.

There's markets all across the city.

Honestly, some of my favorite markets are some of the smaller markets.

But the one, if there's one really can't miss market, it's La Boqueria.

So this is a market where on that spot they've been trading, selling things.

That's been there for, you know, what are we looking at, 8, 900 years?

And it really is this, just this grand covered market selling everything, you know, from flowers to cheese to fish to produce.

And the best part is that there's actually little restaurants in there.

If you want to go grab lunch, you can browse around, grab lunch.

And then the, when I was there one time, they actually have a culinary school so you can take a cooking class in traditional.

I think it's Catalonian cuisine in one of the most, you know, amazing iconic places in the whole city.

So for me it's Lebo Korea.

What about you, David?

My campus, I mean, if you're going to be in Barcelona, soccer or football I guess as they, they call it there, huge part of the culture, huge part of the city.

You know, the, the iconic Camp Nou stadium.

It seats over 90,000 people.

They've got the FC Barcelona Museum located within the stadium.

If there's not a game that happens to be going on where you can, you know, find out all about the club's history and trophies and memorabilia, but if you're lucky enough to be there during a game itself, that is a campus experience for sure.

We, we happened to be there the day of the Spanish National League Championships.

It was FC Barcelona.

Lionel Messi was playing for them at the time.

So this is a few years back.

And the other.

There's actually two city teams in Barcelona.

So it was the two very much huge rivals playing for the national Championships.

The stadium was sold out.

There was not a seat to be found anywhere.

We happened to just show up at the stadium the day of and, and see if they might release any tickets that day and got super lucky.

Where at face value, we got seats right at the very front row.

I mean, you could, you could smell messy sweat as he ran by you.

We were so close.

It was.

And 99,000 people on their feet from the moment the game started.

Well, for actually probably an hour before the game started.

Chanting, cheering until well after the game was done.

It is a cultural experience that is definitely, definitely worth checking out.

Sounds amazing.

You know, I did go to Camp Nou once, this maybe a couple years ago for a game.

Not.

It was Barca, but not, not the same experience that you had.

I mean, it was a good game.

They play.

I think they played Valencia in a stadium.

I don't know what a hundred thousand people or whatever can fit in that stadium.

Maybe there were like 50 the night I was there.

Maybe 40.

I think Barcelona won four.

Nothing or something like that.

But it was still, it was still worth it.

So even if it's kind of an off game, I can totally agree, you know, that, that it's, it's worth it to go.

And even the game day atmosphere of, you know, I went a little bit beforehand and there's no traditional sort of tailgating, but all the little tiny bars around the restaurant, you know, in true kind of Spanish style, these tiny little bars, everybody was in there with their, with their Barsa jerseys on, you know, you know, drinking whatever Spanish people drink or little cups of coffee, cortados or whatever.

And, and even for me, you know, was like, your story is fantastic.

But even for me, that was, that was a good experience.

So, any other thoughts or should we say farewell for this week?

Well, I think I think that that probably covers it for, for Barcelona.

But I'm looking forward to getting into our discussion next week on Madrid because I think a lot of people, you know, if they're going to Spain, I think Barcelona tends to be the one that most people go to first.

That definitely draws a few more few more visits in terms of tourist traffic.

I actually probably preferred Madrid a little bit over Barcelona.

But they're both great cities.

And looking forward to getting into that in our convers next week.

Absolutely controversial, by the way.

You know, two, two very, you know, hot rival cities.

But, but, but anyway, very much enjoyed talking about Barcelona with you this week, David, and looking forward to chatting about Madrid next week.

Have a great week.

You, too.