Photos from 7 Days in Barcelona, Spain

Elizabeth Weintraub at Montjuic Castle overlooking the port in Barcelona

Barcelona was the last stop on our 3-week vacation this summer. After spending 4 days in Portugal, then cruising to Casablanca, the Rock of Gibraltar, on to the island of Ibiza, followed by Mallorca, plus a few towns south of Barcelona, we finished our holiday with 7 days in Barcelona, Spain, and it was not enough time. When is a vacation ever enough time?

It’s been said that Barcelona is a place where you can throw your passport into the sea and never go home again. I can understand that sentiment.

A bridge of sighs off La Rambla in Barcelona

Our first day, we walked along La Rambla, securing our belongings as we heard pickpockets were ubiquitous. One tourist had her bag snatched from her side as she stood between two men. But the shops, the people, the restaurants, the florists, the music, provided enough nonstop action that I felt like a labrador surrounded by squirrels. Sensory overload.

I discovered an exquisite leather shop where I bought a couple of handmade bags as gifts. Mostly I shopped for my team members. Nearby is the Barcelona Cathedral, beautiful gothic architecture, but I was too tired from shopping to go inside.

Soap bubbles tumble by an ornate fanal in Ciutadella Park, past the Arc De Triomf

Just past the center of the city is the Ciutadella Park, a long stretch of a public park that goes on for blocks and blocks leading up to the zoo. You can see soap bubbles in the photograph above because guys were standing in the middle of the sidewalk waving giant soap wands to entertain the kids. Off to the sides of the park, we saw a tennis player practicing with a portable device that let him whack the tennis ball and it came back to him.

Others pushed baby carriages, daughters sat with older relatives to enjoy the warm weather and young couples played ball with their dogs. Everybody was out and about, yet it wasn’t crowded. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon to visit the Barcelona Zoo, which is at the end of the Ciutadella Park.

Many exotic birds can be found at the Barcelona Zoo like this red and yellow barbet from East Africa

I cannot count the number of photos I shot of the exotic birds at the Barcelona Zoo. We were inside the building with the birds for a long time. The Zoo sports the normal animals, too, like meerkats, rhinos, elephants, giraffes and all sorts of monkeys and gorillas. Can’t say lunch was much to speak of as there were no good restaurants at the Barcelona Zoo, but I definitely recommend the Zoo for a visit if you have 7 days in Barcelona.

Elizabeth Weintraub at the Torre d’Alta Mar Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain

You can’t miss the Torre d’Alta Mar Restaurant in Barcelona. It rises 75 meters high, and is located at the top of the cable car tower. You can take a cable car there during the day or you can ride up in the elevator at night. We chose this restaurant because it has a Michelin star and we love tasting menus, coupled with wine pairings.

The Torre d’Alta Mar Restaurant offers panoramic views of Barcelona

Our dinner was fabulous. The first course was served in a small shell, followed by several creative presentations, but my favorite was the sea bass. I don’t usually like the skin of fish but the skin was more lovely than the flesh. As expensive restaurants go, this place was fairly reasonable. We choose a 6-course dinner which, with wine, wasn’t even $200.

No visit to Barcelona is complete without a visit to the La Boqueria market.

During our 7 days in Barcelona, we knew we had to see La Boqueria market. It was picking a day and time when we could get there in early morning to late morning to enjoy the marketplace before it closed up around 2 PM. We sampled chocolates, pastries, wild strawberries, sniffed the dragonfruits, took photos of goat heads and settled into a cafe out back for lunch.

Part of the ceiling of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain

The reason to come to Barcelona, for many people, is due to one person and one person only. That person is the amazing architect Antoni Guadí. You see his distinctive style everywhere. Apartment buildings, homes, lampposts, and one of the first places we walked to upon the inception of our 7 days in Barcelona was Casa Batlló and La Pedrera.

The most viewed tourist attraction in Barcelona is Gaudi’s Sagrada Família, a Roman Catholic church that Gaudi worked on from 1883 to his death in 1926, leaving the project unfinished. It is now a Unesco World Heritage site. Workers are still finishing the building, and it is expected to be completed in 2026, another 10 years from now.

We learned from our travel agent that we could buy tickets online, which we did before leaving Sacramento, so we did not have to stand in line. You can go up in the tower via an elevator, but you have to walk down the nautilus snail stairs all by yourself. This is a place where you can spend hours studying the various facades and marveling in the glory.

Although touristy on the sandy beach, Barceloneta is a neighborhood still populated by Catalan locals.

The last of our 7 days in Barcelona were not spent at the Barceloneta Beach, which I lamented as we walked by. We didn’t spend any time at the beach, which I thought we would. It was the beach or the Picasso Museum, and we both preferred Picasso. We’ve been to the Picasso Museum in France but much of that is his later stuff. The museum in Barcelona features his early work.

Just to stand and admire the painting First Communion makes your spine tingle. You feel like you can almost reach out and touch the lace on the white dress, it shimmers. And then you realize Picasso was 14 when he painted it, and you want to pass out right there on the floor.

I bought a small print from his series of pigeons, which we now have hung in our family room, and every time I look at the print, I am reminded of our visit to the Picasso Museum.

Photos: © Elizabeth Weintraub