Barcelona

[joema]

Great City but watch out for pick pockets there everywhere and most of them are respectably dressed. me da had his wallet snatched by a rafa benitez look-a-like

Yeah Ive heard that alright. Cheers for the advice, definitly wont carry all of my money at once when Im there.

[Dodge]

Hands in pockets, money in front pocket, and without question nothing in your back pocket

Job done

[Raheny Red]

Heading over there on Monday with the missus for 2 nights. Never been before so just looking for places to head for something to eat, have a drink, go to visit and the usual holiday stuff. Any suggestions - cheers.

[endabob1]

2 days isn't much so; do the bus tour, it's really good hop on hop off jobbie, go to the Gaudi Cathederal Sagrada Famillia. Maybe Nou Camp tour?
The gothic quarter is nice, find a cafe and gorge on tapas, it's the decent thing to do.

[Dodge]

Merged you into this thread Raheny. Think most of it is covered.

Seeing as you're going midweek I should point out that a lot of bars still do happy hours, which could be anything from 5pm to 8pm. One of my drunkest ever nights started at 5pm in Barcelona with bottles of beer only a euro

[stann]

Heading over there on Monday with the missus for 2 nights. Never been before so just looking for places to head for something to eat, have a drink, go to visit and the usual holiday stuff. Any suggestions - cheers.

Without doubt RR do the hop-on-hop-off bus circuit at least once, it's a must. If your hotel is anywhere near one of the 'bus turistic' routes, then get the two day ticket as it doubles fantastically well as your transpost around the city.
IIRC there's three tourist bus routes (colour coded), but one (that mainly goes to Olympic sites and the beaches) only operates in the summer. The other two go all day right around all the sights of the city that you'll want to see, in two big circuits with a few intersecting points, and are a brilliant way to get around. They do have a nifty and cheap underground too, but I never needed to use it.

Some of the spots to make sure you get to:
Camp Nou, of course,
The stunning cathedral,
Parc Guell which is lovely and quirky for a stroll around if it's fine,
Some of Gaudi's melty, wavey houses :D (Casa Mila for example),
Montjuic, it's lovely up there on a hill to the side of the city, loads of interesting places on the bus route there, and Miramar has the best views of the city and harbour I think, and has a nice looking cablecar ride which I regret not going on,
and Ramblas del Mar, the sea front at the bottom of Las Ramblas which again is lovely to stroll around in the sun, and has plenty to see also - Columbus' Column, the Maritime Museum and the Aquarium are all around there.

Didn't go into too many pubs to be honest, only a tiny one next to the hotel, run by a rabid Barca fan with half a dozen words of English and a shrine to Kubala and Stoichkov who would chat all night about them. :)
The only thing to say about food & drink is - drink Estrella, it's the perfect beer, and eat tapas! (the patatas bravas, the croquettes, and the creme catalunya should all be tried)

[Dodge]

Oh definitely, another vote for Estrella and Patatas Bravas (even the version sold in a Catalan sandwich chain "Pans" is gorgeous)

[Raheny Red]

Cheers lads. Anyone ever been to zoo over there? The girlfriend always has to go to a zoo whenever where are abroad. Is it any use?

[Closed Account 2]

It's supposed to be decent enough, I never went to it but my mate did, I think there is a white albino gorrilla there, I'm not sure if it's still alive.

Also if you take the Blue Metro line to Peu Del Finicular, you can get a mountain train thing up to the hills and you'll get a fantastic view of the city and the sea - well worth doing on a sunny day. I read somewhere you can even see the mountains of the Baleric Islands (Mallorca etc) from there on a clear day, but I think that's unlikely. If you go round the back of the mountain railway you can see the pyrenees. You can then get a quick bus to a place called Tibidado and another metro down, all in all should take under 1hr from central Barcelona.

These are pics taken from there not mine.

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/2053197.jpg
http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/504751.jpg

[Raheny Red]

Cheers for the pointers lads, very useful - had a great time. The weather was perfect on the first two days, at one stage it reached 22 degrees, p*ssed down on the Wednesday though. Did the Aquarium, Zoo, Red Line Bus Tour, and the Nou Camp. Out of the four the Aquarium was the most expensive and was easily the worst attraction we visited. If that's the second largest Aquarium in Europe I can safely say I won't be visiting another one on this continent anytime soon, give me Bray's anyday :D. While it was great being just a few feet away from massive sharks it wasn't worth the €17.50 entry fee. The Zoo was great and I'd highly recommend it. The highlight being the dolphin show which lasted 50 minutes and it really was excellent. There are two shows a day both starting at 11.30 and 1.30. The bus tour was Ok, it was great to see so much of the city in a couple of hours but I'm the type of person who prefers to go inside rather than looking from the outside. For instance, I fell asleep on a bus tour of Vienna :). The Nou Camp was good but I was expecting better for some reason?! It was surreal walking out into the stands at first and being swallowed up by the size of the ground but I was hoping for more, in terms of the tour. I thought the home dressing was ****e, for a club of its size - the seating was appalling in the changing room. Overall, it was a great trip and would definitely head back.

[Wolfie]

Heading to Barca in early September with the Missus.

Anyone got a specific Hotel that they'd recommend that's relatively near to City Centre, 3/4 Star etc etc.

Thanks.

[John83]

Heading to Barca in early September with the Missus.

Anyone got a specific Hotel that they'd recommend that's relatively near to City Centre, 3/4 Star etc etc.

Thanks.
Here's a 4 star I stayed in once.
http://www.holidaycityeurope.com/hesperia-sant-just-barcelona/index.htm
It's a stone's throw from the local equivalent of the LUAS. I forget exactly how long it took to get into town, but it wasn't too bad.