Bella Barcelona - Oct 2021

Barcelona - what a beautiful city! Jacob had been before, so he already knew some of the good sites and experiences. We looked forward to delicious tapas, intriguing architecture, and cool vibes, and we were not disappointed.

But we almost didn't even make it. Our flight from Copenhagen was delayed by an hour, which meant we would miss our connection. We were informed that there was no other option that would get us to Barcelona that day, but we already had tickets for a flamenco show that night and didn't want to miss it. The airline also wasn't willing to let us keep our return flight if we could find an alternate route out there, which was frustrating. But they did let us cancel, so Jacob rebooked us and we were on our way!

After arriving and checking into our very chic hotel, we decided to track down some tapas before the show. The area was super pedestrian friendly and the vibe was very urban cool - with a few small parks sprinkled in for good measure. We eventually found a tasty tapas spot - peppers de padron, ham, cheese, chorizo, sangria, how can you go wrong? We finished up with just enough time to walk to the beautiful, historic theater.

The Palau de la Musica Catalana is gorgeous (just check out the photos above)! The exterior and anterior have such a beautiful attention to detail, it is stunning. And the flamenco show was fabulous, too. A group of about 8 musicians, singers, and dancers put their heart and soul into the performance, it was incredibly moving. And don't get me started on the dresses - those skirts are magical.

After the show, we meandered back to the hotel, where we took advantage of the "honesty" bar - where you server yourself and add what you had to a list to be charged to your room. And there were three different types of chocolate, free to snack on - now, we're really talking!

Day 2 - our surprisingly extensive tour of Barcelona, brought to you by Antonio Gaudi and friends. We started the day with a tour of the magnificent Sagrada Familia. The audio tour gave us real insight into just how much thought went into the design of this church, and it was incredible.

Turns out we were just getting started. I had a DIY walking tour on my phone, so we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the architecture and sights of Barcelona.

A personal favorite was the Mercado de la Boqueria, it was so vibrant. And the mango juice was the freshest I've ever tasted. Yum!

We capped our second day off with another flamenco show. This time at a smaller, more intimate venue. It was another beautiful, emotional performance, with intricate footwork and haunting vocals. Barcelona may not be known for flamenco, but both shows were fantastic, I would highly recommend catching one if you're into the arts.

Speaking of the arts, there was a group of street performers that we kept running into as we toured the city that day. They were doing group acrobatics and really working the crowd - and we kept finding them just in time for their final act. Go figure!

We didn't have as much time for exploring on day 3, so we tried to find a few new spots to walk around and grabbed some final tapas before heading to the airport.

Alas, we didn't see any Barcelona parrots up close, though we heard them pretty constantly. Luckily, we found the next best thing!