Found this online 3 day guide to Barcelona
DAY 1: BARRI GÒTIC AND LA RAMBLAStart your day with a cortado at your local café, and head down to the Plaça de Catalunya, the nerve center of Barcelona and home to Barcelona's biggest shopping venues. El Corte Inglès is Spain's mega-market, peddling everything from clothes to CDs and books — it even has a travel agent! Nearby Zara is Spain's answer to the Gap. If you aren't carrying too many bags, visit the Palau de la Música Catalana (C/ Sant Francesc de Paula, 2; +34-93/295-72-00; www.palaumusica.org), just down from the Plaça, for a tour of the Modernist masterpiece. The music hall's inverted stained-glass dome is not to be missed. Advance tickets are required; buy them at the box office or check with your concièrge. For lunch, enjoy classic Catalan dishes at the nearby Els Quatre Gats (Carrer Montsiò 3 bis; +34-93/302-4240; entrées: 13-25 EUR), a beautifully restored Modernist café best known as the venue of Picasso's first art show in 1900.
After lunch, head back to the hotel for a siesta — nothing's open in the mid-afternoon anyway. Once refreshed, head back to the Plaça de Catalunya and take a relaxing stroll down the famous La Rambla, the tree-lined boulevard that carves a jagged line through the heart of Barcelona. Admire the various street vendors selling everything from books to birds, but keep a watchful eye open — La Rambla is infamous for pickpockets and gypsies. The Rambla's open-air cafés can be a nice place to stop and people-watch, but the food is generally overpriced and mediocre. Note the Canaletes Fountain (a drink insures you'll return to Barcelona), the teeming Boquería food market, and the Miró-designed pavement, Take a detour through the twisty streets of the Barri Gòtic and poke your head into the Cathedral (Avinguda Catedral; +34-93/315-1554), in all its gothic splendor. Continue meandering through the Barri Gòtic and on to the adjacent Borne district, full of galleries, shops and funky restaurants. It's Barcelona's answer to SoHo in New York. Again, be careful of pickpockets.
DAY 2: MARKETS AND MODERNISM
Begin your day at — you guessed it — Plaça de Catalunya, and stroll up the Passeig de Gràcia through the Eixample, enjoying some of the finest window shopping anywhere. Even with the stronger dollar, Spain can still be expensive, especially for clothes. Here you'll find upscale boutiques as well as in the chic mall Bulevard Rosa (Passeig de Gràcia 53-55; www.bulevardrosa.com), an arcade with men's and women's fashions, shoes, leather goods, jewelry, and gifts. Nearby Rambla de Catalunya is also a paradise for shoppers (or window shoppers, depending on your budget); designer Antonio Miró's showcase, Groc (Rambla Catalunya 100), features trendy fashions; his outlet (Carrer Consell de Cent 349-351) has a great selection for women.
The Eixample is also home to a myriad of Modernist buildings, most notably those by the city's greatest architect, Antonio Gaudí. You'll first encounter Casa Batlló (Passeig de Gràcia 43), with its fishscale-like roof tiles. The $15 entrance ticket to Gaudí's La Pedrera (Passeig de Gràcia 92) includes a tour, but the highlight is the rooftop of abstract chimneys, like an alien landscape, from which you can steal views of the Sagrada Familia (Plaça Sagrada Familia; +34-93/455-0247; www.sagradafamilia.org), Gaudí's unfinished church. A trip to the church is recommended, but as it is a work in progress, there is little to see inside.
For lunch, grab a quick bite to go at the Catalan version of McDonald's: Pans & Co., scattered throughout the city. Hip and spotless, they serve sandwiches, salads, and gazpacho. Take your sandwich and a cab up to Parc Güell (Carrer Olot, up the giant escalator from Av. Hospital Militar), Gaudí's crowning creation, with its own phantasmagoric plaza (with a great view) and a spectacular entrance. Stroll the grounds, or just hang out and people-watch for the afternoon.
DAY 3: GET HIGH!
For a change, do not start your day on the Plaça de Catalunya (unless you're staying there); rather, fetch a cab and get thee to Montjuïc, a hill above the city with great views of the port. There you will find two parks, the Jardins Mossèn Costa i Llobera, with a large cactus and succulent collection, and Jardins Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer, with over 100,000 plants year-round. Don't miss the Fundació Joan Miró (Parc de Montjuïc; +34-93/329-1908), housing over 200 paintings and nearly as many sculptures by the 20th-century Catalan abstractionist. A highlight i s Calder's Fountain of Mercury (1937) which recirculates five-and-a-half tons of mercury. Lunch options are few in Montjuïc, though the café at the Fundació Joan Miró is not bad and fairly reasonably priced. You may want to pack in another sandwich from Pans & Co. Take the funicular up to the Castell de Montjüic, the fortress perched atop the hill, for sweeping vistas of Barcelona and the coast. If you're still hankering for an outdoor ramble, descend to the Parc de la Ciutadella, the largest in the city, with tree-lined paths, an enormous fountain, a lake, and the Barcelona Zoo. Or, for the best view of the city, head up Tibidabo, easily reached by public transportation
Evening falls, and it's back to Punto for the nightly fix of drinks and party planning. For dinner, Citrus (El Passeig de Gracia 44; +34-93/487-2345; $8-18) is right down the street from La Pedrera and still within easy reach of the activities in the Gaixample. Situated on the second floor and boasting large windows, Citrus offers great views of the main street.
posted by Freddy @ Friday, March 31, 2006
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