Spain Trip - Part 1: Barcelona

We went in high summer due to being limited by summer break from high school for my sister. But if at all possible, I would suggest to go in Spring or Fall for many reasons:

1. The prices for lodging etc. will be lower in off season.
2. It won't be as crowded. Many Europeans including the Spanish themselves do vacation in summer.
3. Most importantly: it will not be so HOT. It was very hot and we had to do some sort of siesta due to that, which will take off a few hours out of you day. Luckily the Spanish are used to that and many things are open late, but it will be dark.

Transportation

Unless you plan on camping or road tripping, getting a rental is not very useful and so expensive. We had one and most of the time we had to park it in a garage for a steep fee.

The public transport is great and many downtown/historical parts of the city are just not reachable via car.

For this trip we decided to go with vacation rentals instead of hotels because we were meeting my family and travelling with them. And I am very happy we did. It is about the same price if not cheaper than hotels and allows you to have some private area to sit with the family, have breakfasts and dinners together. We also enjoy cooking and didn't want to have to go out to dinner every night.

another perk was, that we were able to stay in some more historic areas of some cities that may not have a hotel or may have been expensive and quickly booked.

So I can definitely recommend this if you travel with family, other than if you do camping.

But now let's get to the things we were able to see in Barcelona.

The first day we spend visiting multiple spots within the city with architecture by Antoni Gaudí, a famous Spanish architect of the Catalan Modernism. Many of his buildings are in a Modernisme or Art Nouveau style and greatly influenced by flowing, organic themes of nature - aka they have a lizard or ginger bread house feel to them. Ceramic tile mosaics were a huge part of the designs.

First we visited this large Roman Catholic church in a mixed style of Gothic and Art Nouveau. This project is still under construction and was only a quarter of the way at the time Gaudi died in 1926. No work was done until the 50s and is said to have had its half way point in 2010. Quite a project!

After a stroll through the city we stopped at Casa Batlló, one of Gaudi's masterpieces. The local name is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones) because it looks like some sort of animal with bones. The roof definitely makes me think of a dragon. You can also go inside for a tour for a fee.

Just down the road is another of Gaudi's building, the Casa Milà. It is so impressive because the stone front and columns are self-supporting and it has no load-bearing walls on the inside. It can be visited from the inside and also has an interesting spiral shaped roof terrace. In 1984 it was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.

Just a hop away is the port of Barcelona.  It is Spain's third and Europe's ninth largest container port. This is not the only port in Barcelona, as there are also two additional yacht harbors and marinas.
We took a little boat tour of the port during which we could refresh and relax from all the walking.