Barcelona, Spain

We visited Barcelona in March (March 23 – March 31), during shoulder season, spending eight nights. The weather in Barcelona this time of year was unpredictable - we did experience several days of heavy rain, a few thunderstorms and for the most part, cool days in the 50’s.  On the last two days of our Barcelona trip, the weather turned sunny and warmer with daytime highs in low 70’s.  

As expected, we both loved Barcelona.  Chris liked Barcelona as much as Rome while Mike still puts Rome at the top of favorite places visited to date.  Chris could communicate with the locals in Spanish so we never had a concern about communication.  Most of Barcelona speaks Catalonian and Spanish.  English was widely spoken so no need to worry should you not speak or understand Spanish or Catalonian.  

One thing that surprised both of us was how big and spread out Barcelona is. We spent majority of time in Gothic District very near our hotel but you’ll definitely want to use the local forms of transportation to get around. In our case, we found the Hop-On-Hop-Off tour bus invaluable in getting around large spread out city while seeing all of the major sights at the same time.

Traveling with friend is an experience that we were new to and we had to adjust our normal routine.  Typically, we are on the go from the minute we arrive until the time we leave.  We both love exploring and getting to know the area we are staying in.

Our hotel was in an excellent location right off Plaza Catalunya, one of Barcelona’s main placa’s (plaza or square). It was central to most of the city sights. 

Among Barcelona's must see sights are Sagrada Familia, Mont Juic, Park Guell and La Boqueria. We found that after nine days in this beautiful city that we had not come close to seeing all that it has to offer so we will be returning soon to see more of beautiful Barcelona.