Dateline Discovery

Surreal art and dreamlike buildings fill the capital of Catalan culture.

Outdoor cafes, winding alleys, and awe-inspiring architecture intermix in Barcelona, where Catalan creativity fuses with Mediterranean living.

FRIDAY

We landed in Barcelona at around 9:45 a.m. and arrived at our hotel, Hotel Denit (Carrer d’Estruc, 24) in the Barri Gòtic, by taking the Aerobus to La Plaça de Catalunya and then walking 10 minutes. After dropping our bags off, we set out to explore this beautifully preserved neighborhood, the “Gothic Quarter,” that started as a Roman settlement.

Our first stop was Barcelona Cathedral, which pays homage to Spain’s religious history and still functions as the Barri Gòtic’s spiritual hub. We wandered through the peaceful cloister, which was completed in the 14th century and depicts palm trees and roaming geese.

What To Know
Airport location: El Prat airport is nine miles southwest of the city. The A1 and A2 buses, R2 Nord train and L9 Sud metro lines all take 30 minutes, but buses run more often.
Walkability: 7/10. The best way to take in the scenery is often on foot. Use transport to move between districts.
English: Spoken and understood enough to help you get by.
Must-See Attraction: Spaniards and Catalonians love their soccer, so catching a Barcelona game is an experience you can’t miss.
Traveler’s tip: Barcelona’s most popular sites are often flooded by tourists, so try to arrange as many entry tickets and time slots as possible — especially at La Sagrada Família.

We passed the Palau de la Generalitat, the seat of the Catalan government that dates to the 15th century, and ducked into the Plaça del Rei, one of the city’s best-preserved medieval squares. Surrounded by historic buildings like the Palau Reial, tradition holds that this is where Columbus returned from the New World to meet Ferdinand and Isabella.

It was only natural, then, to exit the neighborhood and walk to the Monument a Colom, an enormous bronze statue of Christopher Columbus pointing resolutely out to sea to commemorate his return to Spain after discovering the Americas. Built in 1888, the 197-foot column now includes an elevator, where visitors can get stunning views of the city and harbor.

From there, we wandered down Barcelona’s most famous street, La Rambla, lined with enticing shops, cafes, and tapas bars. We saw Joan Miró’s colorful mosaic work symbolizing the cosmos laid into the pavement and did some window shopping before finding a spot for lunch at Mercat de la Boqueria. Barcelona’s most famous food market, which dazzled with stands bursting with fresh fruits, vegetables, seafood and cheeses.

After lunch, we continued down La Rambla, walking by Palau Guell, Plaça Reial and Casa Bruno Cuadros, to the Font de Canaletes, where we sipped the water said to ensure all who do so will fall in love with Barcelona. Nearby is La Plaça de Catalunya, the city’s version of Times Square, where we arrived on the Aerobus hours earlier and grand boulevards radiate from the bustling square.

For the afternoon, we headed to Montjuïc, which was transformed from an overgrown hillside into a sprawling park for the 1929 International Exposition. After taking the L3 line on the Metro from Plaça de Catalunya to Paral-Lel, we hopped aboard the funicular to Parc de Montjuïc and rode the Teleferic de Montjuïc cable car to Castell de Montjuïc, the imposing medieval castle that was later used by Francisco Franco as a prison and execution site but has been developed into an international peace center.

The castle’s ramparts offered incredible panoramic vistas over the city below. We then headed back down to explore more of Montjuïc, stopping at the Fundació Joan Miró to see the brilliant surrealist works of Barcelona’s most famous modern artist. After the Miró museum, we ambled by the Olympic Stadium grounds and through the botanical gardens on our way to Poble Espanyol, an imitation Spanish village with arts and crafts workshops.

Because the sun had set, we were able to marvel at the magically colorful Font Màgica, with its choreographed water jets and lights dancing to music. Exiting the park, we found a small tapas bar, Jube (Carrer de Sant Fructuós), for dinner before returning to our hotel via the L1 metro to Urquinaona.

SATURDAY

It’s always best to get to the most popular sights as soon as they open, and we arrived at La Sagrada Família right as it opened at 9 a.m. — with the tickets we bought in advance — to join one of the guided tours to get the full background on Antoni Gaudí’s mind-boggling unfinished masterpiece. This epic project was started in 1882 and was expected to be done by 2026, the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death, though the coronavirus pandemic pushed completion back until around 2028.

The basilica’s dizzying spires span forever skyward while fantastical sculpted façades tell biblical stories in stone. Cranes and scaffolding litter the site, with stonemasons actively carving on the soaring columns and sculptors dangling from the spires. Watching them work reinforced the sheer ambition and scale of Gaudí’s vision. The architect devoted more than 40 years of his life to the project and was even living on the grounds in his final days, when he was struck by a tram at age 73 while crossing a nearby street. He now lies in the crypt, and his tomb is visible from the museum.

After a few hours at the church, we walked 15 minutes to Els Encants, which dates to the 14th century, is one of Europe’s oldest flea markets and is still going strong beneath its metal canopies. We rummaged through the dizzying array of goods looking for hidden treasures before continuing to the Museu Picasso, which we chose over two other intriguing venues — the Palau de la Música Catalana, a beautiful concert hall that opened in 1908, and the Museu d’Història de Catalunya, which tells the story of Catalonian history.

The Museu Picasso opened in 1963, opened nearly a decade before Pablo Picasso’s death and highlights his early works. We took a cursory spin through, but we should have instead taken our time and opted for the English tour offered on Sundays at 11 a.m.

The reason we were in a rush was because we headed to Camp Nou for a Barcelona game. We walked 10 minutes back to La Rambla, rode the Metro’s L3 line from Liceu to Palau Reial, then walked the last stretch. If it’s not a match day, you can take more time at the Museu Picasso, visit the concert hall or Catalonian museum, check out its successful women’s team, or take a tour of Camp Nou and its museum. We were lucky, though — the buzzing crowds and vendors hyped us up before we entered the hallowed stadium. Though Barcelona lost 1-0 to Real Betis in the 79th minute, we relished chanting and cheering alongside the passionate fans.

After the final whistle, we took the L3 line back to Passeig de Gracia and walked 25 minutes to Casa Batlló, another Gaudí’s creation, but got there too late to be the last visitors allowed inside before it closed. Gaudí’s fantastical apartment building did not disappoint, even at night, with its dragon-back roof and skull-masked balconies representing the story of St. George and the dragon.

We then had a traditional Spanish dinner at one of the largest restaurants we’ve ever seen, El Nacional Barcelona (Passeig de Gràcia, 24 Bis), before calling it a night. There, we learned to ask for cava, a type of sparkling wine from the region southwest of the city.

SUNDAY

We took a more relaxed approach on our last day in Barcelona. We started the morning browsing the fascinating assortment of books, comics, videos and curiosities at the Mercat de Sant Antoni flea market — even though, as we found out, the food stalls are closed on Sundays.

Next, we walked 10 minutes to the seaside, strolling along the harborfront promenade and crossing the Rambla del Mar, an eye-catching curving wooden bridge, before making our way past the Barcelona Aquarium.

We didn’t go in, but instead looped back around to the Barri Gòtic in time to catch the 11:15 a.m. performance of the Sardana, Catalonia’s traditional circle folk dance, in the square outside Barcelona Cathedral — a fitting end to our Barcelona weekend.

Verdict: The legend says that we’ll now surely fall forever under Barcelona’s spell — and it’s hard not to, given the whirlwind of excitement this extraordinarily unique city provides.

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Disclaimers: The vendors named herein had no editorial oversight of this piece. Photograph of La Sagrada Familia by Alexander Popovkin on Pexels. Photograph of Passeig de Gracia by User 8300 on Pixabay.