Astrovelo

After spending 6 wonderful days in Barcelona, we were supposed to come back home on day 7 but, American Airlines had a different plan. Our scheduled flight on Jan 1st was initially delayed and then canceled because of airplane issues. The plane that we were supposed to fly on, never made it to Barcelona due to mechanical issues and was diverted to Lisbon. We were put up in a hotel near the airport and was booked on a flight on the following day.

On Jan 2nd, we got to the airport, checked-in and waited to board but again there was no plane to board. This flight was canceled too. At this point, instead of automatically re-booking, the airline asked us to call customer service and find alternate booking by ourselves to go back home. What a disaster! Again we were put on a bus instead of a plane and sent to another hotel near the airport instead of back home. Fortunately, we found seats on a flight going non-stop to our destination on the following day.

On Jan 3rd, we woke up early to get to the airport but received a notification saying the flight was delayed by 3 hours. At this point, we were numb and didn’t really care about what was happening. We made our way to the airport 3 hours later with full expectation that the flight will be canceled. To our surprise, there was a plane for us to board that took off from Barcelona and brought us back home!!!

One takeaway from this experience… Never fly on American Airlines (or any american airline) to international destinations. It seemed like they had bare-bones operation in Barcelona with no capacity to deal with the issues we faced. I can imagine the same situation at most of the airports around the world. Probably a good idea to use an airline local to the country of travel. They definitely have enough staff and infrastructure to help customers when there are problems.

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On the last two days we decided to take it easy. Planned only one activity per day in the afternoon leaving the mornings free. I used this free time to rent a bike and went riding around town on both mornings.

We decided to make use of public transportation and took the subway and a funicular to go up on Monjuic. It is a hill just outsider of city center and a good place to take in the views. There are clear views overlooking the harbor area and the Mediterranean but not towards the city. It was a nice easy walk on the hill while we chatted. The weather was nice and we had a good time.

On the last day of the trip, another architectural showpiece by Antoni Gaudi, Park Guell, was on the schedule. It was supposedly a failed residential venture on a hill on the north side of town. No one bought the houses proposed to be built. All the work done to create the neighborhood was then turned into a park. This was kind of underwhelming compared to all the other places we visited in Barcelona. Being on a hill it had some nice views of the city. All the walking around helped build a good appetite for a nice Spanish dinner New Year’s Eve party that we had planned for.

Overall, it was a great trip. We had a wonderful time in Barcelona. I have a feeling that we will come back for another visit in the future.

This must have been the most touristy day of our trip. We started off with a visit to one of Antoni Gaudi designed houses - Casa Battlo. Our timed entry ticket was at 8:45 am. Considering that the sunrise time here is around 8 am, we were ready and out getting breakfast when it was still dark.

Casa Battlo is a very beautifully designed house with inspiration from nature. It is amazing how the air flow and natural light is controlled through design (not by devices). There are many (at least 3) such buildings around Barcelona and visiting one is probably good enough unless you are an architecture student/enthusiast.

Second stop for us was Mercat la boqueria. It is a huge food market with many many small shops selling everything from fresh and cured meats, fish, shellfish, vegetables, fruits as cooking ingredients. There are also numerous shops ready to eat foods such as ham, cheeses, fried fish, empanadas, burritos, juices and more. The whole place is a feast for the eyes and tongue.

In the afternoon, we made our way to the Picasso Museum. As the name suggests this consists of only Picasso’s art. It is great to see his evolution as an artist over the years. Some of his paintings (first few photos below) from the time when he was 13-14 years old are truly fantastic. They also had a special exhibition of art made by Miro who was Picasso’s friend and artist. They both influenced each other.

The last activity of the day was to attend a flamenco performance at Tablao Flamenco Cordobes. This is supposed to be the most authentic flamenco in Barcelona. It was my first time seeing such dance and it was impressive. Only a guitar, clapping and foot stomping provided the music along with singing that is influenced by cultures from Northern Africa. I highly recommend watching a flamenco if you haven’t already.

We went on a day trip to Montserrat. It was a guided tour that took us about an hour by bus to go to a monastery in the hilly areas called Montserrat (serrated mountain) near Barcelona. There is a nature park near the monastery where we hiked for an hour or two which was very nice. We had some snacks at a farmer’s market set up near the monastery.

There is not a whole lot to see in the monastery as the monks live there. The church there houses the famous black Madonna that many pilgrims come to visit. Most tourists were non-religious like us and seems like the monks make a lot of money by running restaurants and gift shops for the tourists. The hills are quite pretty and views of the surrounding areas are spectacular. Totally worth a visit if you have enough time in Barcelona and want to get out of the city.