Barcelona

A whirlwind 3 night city adventure.

Day 1

The Grimaldi ferry docked on time just before sunset and we spent the first night settling into our apartment and grabbing dinner in the neighborhood. We had one of the best steaks ever at Don Martin, an absolutely perfect medium-rare solomillo. We were still talking about it the next morning! 

The next morning we enjoyed a Rick Steves free walking tour through the Gothic and El Born neighborhoods. 

The first walking tour started in Plaza Catalunya, then led us to the Rambla, but fairly quickly turned off and into the old part of the city. We stopped for a quick coffee and croissant.

One guy was having coffee next to us, while his cat sat on a chair glancing around as if he was judging the other patrons. It’s a quirky city and on two occasions we saw folks walking their cats on a leash.

The architecture is amazing in Barcelona, even the old Roman stuff and “newer” churches from the 1400’s.

Once in El Born we stopped for tapas and vermouth at Bormuth. It was a nice cafe with fast tapas and good vermouth. It was also just opening up for lunch at 1 PM. 

Our stroll continued through the historic streets. We stopped by the old El Born market, currently a museum with an incredible view over the old city ruins. There were elevated paths above so that it was easy to see the old home layouts and avenues. It reminded me a lot of Pompeii. 

We made another tapas stop in El Born at a tiny joint called El Chigre. We sat at the little bar and the server told us about their zero-kilometer (0 km) philosophy. That is to say, all their food is hyper local. 

We paired vermouth with: dates stuffed with chorizo and blue cheese, sausages in cider, and cheesecake from a smoked cheese aged 30 months in a cave. It was a delectable experience! 

Spain is well-known for their vermouth and it’s one of our favorite things to drink when in Spain! It is wine that has been mixed with herbs and fortified. Antich is the oldest vermouth to be produced in Barcelona, and we tried it at El Chigre.

We finished the walk down by the harbor and went back home to enjoy a siesta. 

Corey and I explored the area again that night. Just before the sun set, we began the Rick Steves walking tour of the Eixample (Expansion) neighborhood. We heard some interesting stories about the architecture and city design. 

With no midday heat and many crowds gone, it was pleasant to walk around. In fact the only small horde of tourists we saw was in front of the iconic Block of Discord. 

Not too far off our course, we had dinner at Betlem. It was another small place and initially seemed like a locals spot, until we heard many of the tables around us were also speaking English! It’s disappointing to hear that brash American accent surround you when in a foreign establishment. We wrapped up our walking tour and the evening with a beer at Garage Beer Co, where we saw a sign for Yakima Chief Hops, a grower cooperative from Washington State. As we tour the world we often find PNW hops being featured.

We really enjoyed the Eixample. The art nouveau (modernista) design makes it beautiful, approachable and an obvious choice for those with money to live. Uniform blocks laid out evenly, with the buildings low and angled so that all streets have natural sunlight, and with chamfered corners on the buildings to create wide and open intersections with large corners and smaller streets. All areas have green space and shops distributed throughout.

Day 2

Late morning we rode the metro back into downtown and went back to the Rambla. We walked down a few blocks and visited the Boqueria market. Once popular with locals, now it’s overrun with tourists buying overpriced food. It’s also now known for having a lot of pickpockets. We only walked around for a short time as there are other Spanish markets that we really enjoyed in other places like Bilbao and Valencia. 

The narrow streets just off the main avenue are charming and once you are two blocks away it is quite an enjoyable area. 

We stopped for lunch to have a menu del día at Elisabets. This was an authentic place with locals sitting with newspapers and being served generous portions.

After the large meal we were grateful to meander east through various neighborhoods of the Eixample. Some streets were tree lined and pleasant and others felt a bit dodgy. I can see how these avenues could be a little scary at night. After a walk through the Mercat de Sant Antoni (local-focused neighborhood market), we stopped first for horchata, and then for spritzes.

Eventually we arrived at the Mount Juic tram to get up to the mountain. From that station we walked up to the castle. There are splendid views over the city and port. In fact, we saw the cruise ship docked that we would be taking to us to Norway after we leave Spain. 

We rented a car our last night and parked it near the apartment for an early morning road trip down south.

Catral

We had plans to stay in Peniscola, a quaint Spanish coastal village on the beautiful coast near Valencia. But a housesitting assignment popped up to watch a lovable Spanish Water Dog named Zeus, and it fit well with our other dates. 

If you’re interested in housesitting, use this link to join Trusted Housesitters and get 25% off. We receive two free months for anyone who signs up using our link.

Catral is in “Little Britain,” a term we coined because there were so many British expats around. Chip shops, English and Irish pubs, and so many English-language signs and English conversations. Not at all what we expected! The actual area is known as Costa Blanca, and while we think that was named for the sand, it could also apply to the pasty Brits who flock there on holiday. No offense to the nice pasty Brits!

It is a lovely place and everyone we met was friendly. While looking to play tennis at the municipal sports center, we ended up meeting a number of expats who were playing a game of “walking football.” This is a joint-friendly version of soccer where no running is allowed and the ball must be passed or shot within three touches. They invited us to join and it was so much fun! We went to their after-match session at the pub, learned more about the expat scene in Catral, and then later joined up for a pub quiz night.

Renting a car was key to enjoying the nearby cities and sights and the Spanish highways connect all the cities really well. We were a limited on time since we did not want to leave the dog alone too long but we were able to get a taste of the different cities around the area.

Elx/Elche 

This is a cute little town with narrow streets and a grand church. We enjoyed a few hours on a Sunday and ate tapas at a wine bar while waiting for the burger joint across the street opened up. Both dining experiences were fantastic and we liked the feel of this city. I would definitely go back and spend more time in Elx.

Cala Capitán Beach

As we drove down to the coast, we noticed loads of billboards in English lining the highways. It was congested with houses like Orange County, California and pubs with names like the Randy Leprechaun. It did not feel like Spain at all. 

We were surprised that it was still pretty busy on a weekday. The hillsides along the beach were congested with condos and it just didn’t feel like our vibe. With a great pool and backyard at the house in Catral, we decided to not go back to the beach on this trip. 

Murcia 

Murcia is a town of about 500,000 with a river running through the middle and a number of things to see. We only had a couple hours there before having to get back to the dog, and we wandered around and along the river the for two hours. It felt like a real city. There were some quaint cute areas and some general ordinary blocks. 

We liked that there were many green spaces and parks distributed around the city. That seems to be a thing Spain does well. It does get quite hot in the summer so these tree-covered areas provide necessary shade. 

Alicante 

This is a charming port city that we will likely get back to on a cruise stop. We didn’t have a lot of time so just enjoyed a Sunday drive up to the castle that overlooks the city. Enjoyed the viewpoint then cruised by the coast again and drove up the Rambla. Such a charming city with large palm trees and wide walkways. It was the last place we visited before packing up the car and heading north. 

Road tripping!

With a one night buffer between Catral and Madrid, we decided to use the car to our advantage. 

We drove three hours, up from the coast and onto the high plains. As we heard it described, Spain is like an upside down cereal bowl, with a bunch of coastlines surrounded by a center of high elevation.

The roads through La Mancha passed through various terrain: olive groves, vineyards, and meadows of wildflowers.

Parador de Alarcón

We were on our way to a medieval village of Alarcon, home to an old castle that was converted to a hotel, the Parador de Alarcon. The castle was chosen because of the proximity to two rivers. And now those rivers are dammed, creating a reservoir of brilliant blue water.

We rounded a bend in the road and the old fortification took our breath away when it came into view. As we arrived the car started to feel too large for the old roads, especially when we had to pass through the ancient castle gates. The castle was exquisite and we really enjoyed our one night stay. Here’s a short video of our room and the grounds.

The parador program is a Spanish government program to renovate historic buildings as hotels and restaurants and provide affordable and luxurious lodging options to tourists.

The village of Alarcon was rather quiet and uninteresting. It may become more lively in the summertime. There are some hiking opportunities in the area around the castle, with a number of viewpoints. We tried to hike the morning before leaving for Madrid but a long snake on the trail spooked me too much and we turned around.

Cuenca 

From Alarcon, we took a side trip to city of Cuenca, a city nestled in the cliffs between two river gorges.

The historic part of the city is quite difficult for parking, even on a Tuesday. We continued through it to the top viewpoint, where spring was in bloom with poppies and other wild flowers. We enjoyed a picnic at the viewpoint and admired the amazing views.

Back in the car, we went away from the city on a scenic drive to the other side of canyon. The road took us lower, to the bottom of the ravine where it was bright green and leafy along the river bed. 

The facade of the Cuenca Cathedral was impressive, and we were determined to get back to the main square (Plaza Mayor). We drove back up the narrow roads and found a garage with open spaces. After making a circle through the small alleys, we stopped in the square to drink vermouth as we admired the old buildings.

We were so impressed by Cuenca. If you’re headed to Spain anytime soon, you should add it to your list of places to visit! 

Madrid 

With a car, this trip seemed like a great time to squeeze in a land-locked city. We’ve never visited Madrid before and even though it’s a little pricey, there’s a ton to do. It is also a good airport hub to use as an entrance/exit point.

Quick geography tip! Madrid sits at elevation and is actually Europe’s second tallest capital, after Andorra La Vella. 

Day 1

The plan was to drive into Madrid, drop off our luggage, and return the rental car to the Madrid airport. This was more hectic than we thought it would be. We missed a few turns with taxis honking, buses hogging lane space, and motorcycles ignoring traffic controls and zipping past too quickly. It was an overload of all the things we hate about driving. After a few wrong turns we ended up following Google’s directions into the entrance of an underground parking garage. But it was a perfect plan, you see, as the exit from the garage put us exactly where we wanted to be!  

There was no parking at the hotel and no loading zone to drop bags. It was stressful dumping all our luggage on the side of the small one lane street but we did and the kind hotel staff at Casual del Teatro helped me lug it in while Corey literally drove around in circles.

After check-in we were off again to drop off our wheels at the airport. With only 2.5 days in Madrid we were eager to begin sightseeing. So we took the metro from the airport right into the city center. It required 3 trains but in under an hour we made it to Puerta Del Sol. We did our usual and followed a Rick Steves audio walking tour. Unlike other city tours this one felt very food heavy. So there were several stops for food, wine, and vermouth (no complaints!). Finally we found a place that provided free tapas with a round of drinks (and not just chips or nuts).

Our walk led us to the Royal Palace, where the walls were full of folks watching the sunset. Sunset was around 9:30 and it was a pleasant walk with cooler, comfortable temps. 

The audio tour brought us back to the Puerta del Sol plaza, and then it was only a five-minute walk back to our hotel. We went to end early by Spain’s standards but we were a little pooped by 10:30. We didn’t even have the energy for a hot chocolate!

Day 2

The next day we had the breakfast that was included with the hotel. It felt like an airport lounge as we kept making our own espressos from the machine and going back to try to fill our bellies for the day. We had a big day at the Prado Museum and didn’t want to have to break for lunch!

It’s been ages since we visited a grand art museum. The last was probably the Uffizi in Florence.

Prado was exceptional! We spent six hours walking around and saw just about every painting. Toward the end we more briskly walked through rooms but we did get to almost everything. A lot of great art to see! And it’s such a great deal for only €15 per person. Plus no photos are allowed so it was a pleasant day of admiring art without phones lifted in the air blocking the views.

We left the Prado a little shaky from lack of food and drink as it was already past 5. So we walked to get something quick, but one of the hardest things about Madrid is deciding where to eat!

We grabbed a late lunch and took a short nap. Then we met up with a nomad friend, Karen, and conversed for hours as we crawled around the city ordering vino and eating tapas.

Day 3

The next morning we walked to the Reina Sofia contemporary art museum. It was a free admission day so when we arrived there was a line around the block.

But even with the line, the crowd was tolerable, and we saw some pretty interesting and famous works by the likes of Picasso and Dali. 

We popped out for lunch at a local spot with 20 wines on tap and local beers. The menu of the day was 17.50€ and a fabulous deal.

With a second wind, we went back to the museum to wrap up the collections we hadn’t seen yet. I really enjoyed the temporary exhibit on Nestor (aka Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre), a Spanish artist born in the Canary Islands who we were unfamiliar with. It was comprehensive and I enjoyed the vibrant colors of his portraits. 

After a Spanish-style siesta, we got organized and enjoyed an early Friday night in the city. We had some vermouth in typical bar in Chueca. Free tapas and nobody else was speaking English. 

As always we wish we had more time as three nights went by too fast!

Madrid thoughts

I am so impressed with the architecture of Madrid. It’s so pretty! The streets are lined with grand buildings with ornate domes and golden spires. Plus there are many green spaces and wonderful shady trees that line the boulevards.

I was also really impressed with the food scene. The small establishments spill out into the lanes with plenty of alfresco dining. We stopped at a few places for vermouth and most provided free tapas with a round. We have always heard about Spain offering complimentary tapas, but generally we have found that to be the exception to the rule.

We had just a sample of the city and would definitely return to see more but lodging there is expensive! 

How to eat like a Spaniard

When we were in Tarragona a couple years ago, we had a hard time finding an authentic place for dinner. We tried going out even later and there were even less choices. Food was available, but it was all tapas, ham, etc.

The key is that the Spanish not only eat a late lunch, but that is basically the only meal they eat! Everything else is snacks of one sort or another. Embrace that and the culinary possibilities open up.

You’ll eat a snack for breakfast (pastry probably). Then maybe a second breakfast around 11 AM, also just a snack (another pastry, or a slice of tortilla). Whatever you need to do to get to you lunch time.

Lunch service starts at 1 PM. Except it doesn’t. You might see menus at 1 PM, but the kitchen is just getting their act together then. Expect to eat between 2 PM and 4 PM, exactly the same time as everyone else in the country.

But this is also your opportunity to eat the menu del dia, the menu of the day! Somewhere between 10 to 20 euros for a starter, a main course, bread service, a drink (beer and wine included!), and either dessert or coffee to finish. It’s a heck of a deal, it is where restaurants shine, and it will leave you completely stuffed. Then you go home with everyone else and you take a nap.

Then just forget about dinner being a thing. Yes, some fancy places serve dinner. But you don’t need it, you had a giant lunch at a great price! Instead, dinner is also snacks! Order vermouth or a glass of wine and you’ll get a tapa with it. Share an order of patatas bravas, anchovies, or an order of ham with the table. Eat and drink into the night and you’ll never miss having a big dinner.

Spanish coffee

We found Spanish coffee to be very similar to the offerings in Italy in quality and price, with Spain being slightly less expensive. Almost every bar has an espresso machine. A Spanish cafe solo is the same as an Italian caffe normale, and a cafe largo is a caffe lungo. It costs one euro and change, no tipping expected. On the road we stopped off in some small villages and it was still easy to get a great, quick cup of coffee.

Other thoughts on Spain

The lisp was hard at first but with a bit of practice we were able to drag our tongues to speak with a more local affect. 

We adjusted easily to afternoon naps and slow starts to the day. I now fully embrace an afternoon relax time – even if it’s just for 30 minutes. 

We were shocked by how much English we heard and read around Spain. Obviously we are not the only foreigners that love spending time in Spain.

The Parador program is outstanding and should definitely be looked at for your next trip. Unique, beautiful and affordable options are available throughout the entire country.

Lodging seems to be the most expensive thing in Spain and higher than we typically want to pay but eating and drinking is so affordable that it balances well. Having a car meant we got to see a lot of Spain that we hadn’t before and it was great to travel on the excellent highway system. We experienced smooth roads, good signage, and nice rest stops.