My name is Mat, I’m 39yrs old and I live in Southampton. (I moved down here from South of London 20yrs ago and have stayed ever since).

My first trip to Barcelona was for La Noche Vieja (New Year’s Eve) in 2004. It was around this time that the “no frills” airline boom really started to take off (no pun intended), and quite a number of my then work colleagues booked short breaks to Barcelona via Ryanair’s  Bournemouth to Girona service.

Tying in with this my family normally had a couple of nights somewhere in the UK or France for NYE, so given the great things my work colleagues said about Barcelona I suggested to the family we went to Barcelona… and that’s where my 10yr (ok, its 11yrs and counting) obsession with Barcelona started.

View from the Museu d’Història de Catalunya

Read the rest of this article…

Enrique Tomás on Carrer de Pelai

My perfect day in Barcelona would definitely start with an Iberian ham sandwich, no tomato please, I might be the only Catalan that doesn’t like pà amb tomàquet – no one is perfect.

Food is a big part of a perfect day, and I would start with Iberian ham from Enrique Tomás on Carrer de Pelai, there’s nothing like good quality Iberian ham.

I would walk down las Ramblas in the morning after breakfast at around 10am, any later will be a battle between tourists and locals. It is a pity that the city centre has become a forbidden place for locals since you know how crowded it would be so you don’t want to fight every step you make. Although this changes with the season, I certainly hope that Barcelona tourism is sustainable and tourism in the future combines the local needs with tourism growth. Read the rest of this article…

Barcelona beachfront

The thing I love about Barcelona is that there are so many areas which offer a different experience of the city. If you need a bit of space away from it all, you can walk down to the port on a quiet morning or if you fancy a browse and a coffee you can head up to the cool neighbourhood of Gràcia and people-watch in one of its sunny squares.

My perfect day in Barcelona involves coffee stops, wandering around, a little shopping and definitely a bit of rooftop drinking. I love it when I have family or friends visiting and I get to share all of this with them. Read the rest of this article…

Monica, who first shared her perfect day with us 3 years ago, writes about all that Parc de la Ciutadella has to offer.

Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona

Barcelona has quite a few parks scattered around the city, some less known waiting to be discovered, and some more popular where some days it seems that all people of the city gather. One of these such parks is Barcelona’s main green oasis: Parc de la Ciutadella.

Parque de la Ciudadela (or Parc de la Ciutadella in Catalan) is a 70-acre green space built on the vestiges of the old city fortress from the 18th Century. In preparation for the 1888 Universal Exposition of Barcelona, the city council transformed the whole area, from an old military fortress to the main park of the city, including various buildings and displaying diverse landscape. Read the rest of this article…

Have you ever wondered what Gaudí’s masterpiece, the Sagrada Família, will look like when it’s completed? And even when it will be completed.

Well I’m afraid the current completion date is 2026. So just in case you’re not around then or you’re already fed-up of waiting, the architects of the Sagrada Família have created this video of what the basilica will look like once finished.

It’s pretty impressive stuff! Read the rest of this article…