Day: January 20, 2024

Found a great coffee bar here in Eixample, just a block from our apartment. All they do is coffee (plus one or two pastries) so they have to be pretty good, they have nothing to hide behind. This morning was a lovely sunny morning (although brisk being winter). So I had my coffee sitting in this lovely little square near Girona metro station.

We booked a tour that took us out of Barcelona for a day, out to the Montserrat area (Serrated Mountain) where there is a Monastery / church a few cafes, an art gallery / museum and some amazing walks.

The tour walked us around the area for 15 minutes showing us what we could do, then let us explore for 2.5hrs. We had a Quick Look in the church (Surprise! It’s a massive European church), then we had coffee. Sharon went into the Gallery, Emma and I chose a walk around some of the paths and views are stunning.

Bus then picked us up and took us to a winery for lunch and wine tasting. The property has been in operation for over 1000 years, but only making wine for the last 30.

Lunch was served in a modern building and the food was fantastic. Then a look around the wine cellar and tasting was in a building that’s a few hundred years old. The atmosphere of being in a castle like building drinking wine was fantastic. All the others on the tour were fantastic and we had an amazing day. Our guide Lesly was fantastic, telling us all the local history, about the wine, the food and her own amazing stories about moving from Cuba to Spain.

This tour was through https://www.castlexperience.com/en I would highly recommend a tour if you are coming to Barcelona.

After our food tour, we did a tour of the Gaudi designed church, Sagrada Familia.

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of the outside design, it’s very “busy”, but the inside with the light coming through the stained glass is stunning. I read the best time to see it was near sunset, so we did just that.

One of the most interesting things was the school Gaudi built for the workers children. It was only designed to be temporary but the building is such a great design and example of his work they have kept it.