Kro Picks Places to Go In and Around Barcelona

My wife and I have lived in Barcelona twice. We lived there in 1992 during the Summer Olympics and then again in 2001 when I was finishing up business school doing a semester abroad at IESE. (I went to grad school at Cornell, but then my wife, son, and I went off to Spain for about four months to add a little international flavor to round out the ‘ol education).

Over the years we’ve received numerous requests for things to see and do in and around Barcelona. So…for once and for all, here are my suggestions…

> The Maritime Museum at the end of Las Ramblas. It’s very cool and very under visited. It's a great naval history of Spain over the last 500 years. Ferdinand and Isabella were extremely instrumental in getting the voyages of exploration off and sailing, so there's lots of cool stuff.
> There’s also an “open air” market on Las Ramblas which is cool to check out.
> Noveja Negra (Black Sheep) is a great bar just off Las Ramblas. It’s like 1200 years old or something.
> Campejano is a dive stand-up-only-restaurant in Barceloneta…they only serve champagne (white and pink) and small sandwiches. Throw your trash on the ground when you’re done and just go ahead and get a full bottle of the house pink champagne, it’s cheap and it goes down like punch.
> La Gran Bodega is on Valencia in the E’xample (sp) neighborhood…the best tapas (get the pan con tomate for God’s sake!) in the City if you ask me. Fantastic sangria too.
> Visit the Gaudi stuff too…Sagrada Familia, Parc Guel, etc…but the best Gaudi thing is the apartment building on Paseau de Gracia. There’s a tour of a typical, upper class turn of the century apartment on the top floor of the building. Very cool.
> Dali has a great museum just north of Barcelona in a small town called Figueras – it’s an easy train ride from Barcelona and is a nice day trip. The museum is small, manageable and weird.
> Monserat is an overnight trip (train). It’s a monastery in the mountains…you take the train from Barcelona and then a tram to the Monastery. If you’re there in the off season you should stay in the hotel overnight and listen to the boys choir and the bells. It’s a bit pricey in high season (summer), but very reasonable in low season (winter and early spring). If you’re Catholic this is one of the big pilgrimage places in Spain. There’s a black carved wood Virgin Mary that was reported to have tears coming out of the eyes of this small “statue.”
> Obviously, you could get lost for days in the alleys in “old section” of Barcelona, called the Barri Gotic (Barria Gotica), visiting the Ciutadella (the main church in this ancient walled city within a city) and the hundreds of stores, bars and restaurants – so you’ll want to reserve a full day or two for this too.
> A couple of other nice overnight trips include adventures to Sitges (a BIG all night party destination) or Cadaques (a small fishing village, and the birth place of Dali, near the French boarder). Train to Sitges, but rent a car for Cadaques.

If you have any other questions or comments on Barcelona, just add a comment or two below!