After we completed the dreamy trip around the Mediterranean Sea, we came to Barcelona, Spain. Spain is one of the rich historical European countries and it’s the country where the love of my life spent 4 years living in Madrid, so the chance to come back again was very special to him and to me! Also the Spanish wine is beyond heaven to us and so are the tapas.

Barcelona, the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region, is defined by quirky art and architecture, imaginative food and vibrant street life. Although, it has medieval roots, seen in the maze like in the Gothic Quarter, but also has a modernist personality represented by world famous architect Antoni Gaudi’s fantastical La Sagrada Familia, which is well over a hundred years old.

I must say from what I experienced that Barcelona is a pretty fun and cool city and has become one of my favorite cities on the list. We stayed at the hotel Condes De Barcelona on the Passeig de Gracia, which is the major shopping street and the centre of many attractions in town. At the hotel, there was a nice famous roof-top terrace bar Alaire and nice music as well. We enjoyed sipping wine at night and watched the lighting on one of Guadi’s building across from the hotel. And, this is an alert for all shoppers that shopping in Spain late July through the month of August is heavenly with sales up to 50%-70% discounts. They are called Rebajas. I hate to say that the phrase "shop till you drop” is real and that happened to us. We had some serious shopping in Spain which we don’t normally do while traveling and I do mean major shopping. I went nuts through the entire month. I better stop shopping for a while. Anyway, we walked around the area where we stayed through Las Ramblas, Barcelona's most famous street and then continued to Plaza Catalunya.

Barcelona is a real joy to walk around especially in the Gothic quarter (which you will also hear the Spanish musician playing live guitar around the corner somewhere — so nice & relaxing), I am always in awe to walk on the cobblestone streets which probably remain from centuries ago until present. I am very fascinated by the medieval era. Not just the old buildings that are hundreds of years old but we were speechless and stunned by the beautiful buildings by the genius architect Gaudi. His work just came out of the fantasy world.

The summer weather was so nice overall while we were there (can't really complain since we live in the summer heat in Arizona... urgh). In fact, there were a couple of days that were chilly and breezy. Love the fact that we got up, walked to our favorite side walk cafe on La Rambla and had a good cup of coffee paired with a homemade pastry. Every day and night was wonderful, the food and the wine were amazing! We were in Barcelona for 5 nights and then we headed to our temporary life for one month in Madrid.

My journey in Madrid will be post up very soon ;)

#Barcelona #Spain