Hola Barcelona!~
Jie booked a 3 days 2 night trip to Barcelona for my mum and I on Easyjet (budget airline) from Geneva. The airfare was pretty cheap, only $100 plus for both tix as she booked it in advance so we got a good deal.
Next was to settle our hotel accommodation during the trip. I did some research on Tripadvisor and other travel websites and decided to book the H10 Montcada Hotel at Barcelona using agoda. The hotel is located at the Barcelona Gothic district and its near the metro station (Jaume I). From the hotel, you can walk easily to La Rambla, Placa de Catalunya. Price was very reasonable too! It was less than S$100 a night which i thought was a good deal but in general, i find the hotels in Spain are very reasonably priced! (of course compared to Singapore where hotels cost a bomb lol).
We were hoping my sis could join us on the trip but she couldn't cuz she had to take care of the baby. Never mind, next time we will all go when baby Alba is bigger and she will join us too ^^
To get to the Geneva airport, we took a train from Lausanne to Geneva. So we took a train in the wee hours in the mornning (woke up at like 5am plus!) to catch the early train.
On the train boh liao so took pic haha..
Soon we were on board the flight to Spain!
the fluffy clouds look like giant white marshmallows against the blue blue sky :)
When we arrived at the Barcelona airport, we decided to take the RENEFE train to the hotel instead of taking a cab cuz we thought it would be quite easy to transfer. Turned out to be a bad decision cuz we were lost after coming out from the train station. The directions said to transfer to the metro and take to Jaume I but we couldnt find the bloody metro station! The directions made it seem like Passig de Gracia train station was connected to the metro but to our dismay, it was not. We spent almost more than an hour walking around in the freezing cold with our luggage in tow trying to find the station and asked quite a few people for directions(most didnt know how to speak English lol). Finally, we managed to find the metro and found the hotel after a while to our relief. Was so happy to finally be able to check-in at the hotel!
H10 Montcada hotel
We were given welcome drinks (tasted really nice) and then we checked into our room. We asked for a corner room on high floor (i think highest is 8) and was given a corner room on 5th floor which wasnt too bad i guess!
our hotel room, nice deco and was quite cozy - the sheets were abit too thin though and we were quite silly, didnt realize there were thick blankets in the wardrobe till the last night haha
pretty flowers and fluffy bathrobe gave the toilet a nice touch
Went upstairs to the rooftop and saw the jacuzzi which was pretty cool!
After resting for a while we did some exploring and walked around to take in the sights at night.
Passeig de Gracia
think this is some official government building
cute candy shop spotted near La Rambla
we decided to have dinner at a random Spanish restaurant and ordered paella with tapas to share.
Tapas with the mixed vegetables and olives tasted pretty good, the meatball tapas was ok only. My mum didnt really like the paella though hahaha
After dinner and walking around for abit more (we also had dim sum supper at a Chinese restaurant but it wasnt very good lol), we headed back to the hotel to sleep.
Was woken up by bright sunlight streaming in from our hotel window, was quite a lovely sight.
Went up to the rooftop to have a bird's eye view of the city. The view was amazing!
Our hotel was located just opposite the famous Gothic Cathedral
In the center of the Barri Gòtic (Gothic district), the heart of Barcelona, is the city's Gothic cathedral, known as La Seu. The first stone of the current church was laid in the 13th century, but it would last until the early 20th century before the cathedral was fully completed.
Source: http://www.aviewoncities.com/barcelona/barcelonacathedral.htm
Shopping time! We wanted to check out an outlet mall called Heron City which has outlets like Lefties (which carries leftover stock from brands like Zara, Mango, Bershka etc), Mango, Pull and Bear. Found out about this shopping mall from this useful website link:
http://www.goforbarcelona.com/en/winkelen.html
Heron city Outlet, Av. Rio de Janeiro, 42
Heron city Outlet is a big shopping centre filled with outlet stores: Mango, Bershka, Lefties, NoEsLoMismo, Diesel, Funky Fish, Pull and Bear, etc. The must go destination when you're hunting for bargains!
Metro stop: Fabra i Puig
On our way to the mall, saw this gorgeous view of trees lined up along the street pavement
Took some other pics enroute while finding the mall
Heron City at last!
Brands: Mango, Diesel, Pull & Bear,Bershka, Desigual, Lefties
We were kinda hungry so we grabbed breakfast at Macs haha.
We managed to buy quite alot of stuff at really good prices (got a cute Bart simpson tee from Pull & Bear at like 5.99 EUR!!) and my mum bought even more stuff than me lor! Quite happy after all the shopping haha.
Next stop: Passeig de Gracia where you can find all the high end stores like Chanel, Prada, Chloe etc.
Some expensive looking jewellery shops along Passeig de Gracia
Did some shopping at Mango and got a couple of items :)
Oh yes..If you come to Barcelona, you must visit Antoni Gaudi's works!
Casa Milà Barcelona - one of Antoni Gaudí's greatest masterpieces
Source: http://www.aviewoncities.com/barcelona/casamila.htm
Its located along the Passeig de Gracia area and you can spot it quite easily
Casa Batlló - another architectural wonder designed by Antoni Gaudí
Source: http://www.aviewoncities.com/barcelona/casabatllo.htm
Also along Passeig de Gracia
We didnt know where to have dinner at so we went back to our hotel and explored the many restaurants near La Rambla.
Spotted this small bar-restaurant Compostela where they had a dinner set menu displayed outside which seemed like a good deal and reasonably priced.
You can choose from any of the entrees + main course + bread + beverages and dessert all at only EUR 17!
Giant octopus and seafood displayed at the store front
I chose the melon with ham for my entree, the portions were gianormous!! The rock melon was soo sweet and there were so many pieces of ham i almost couldnt finish it lol. Tasted really good. And the beverages, you can choose a bottle of white wine, red wine or beer. OMG right?? EUR 17 only and still got alcohol included??? I ordered the white wine which was quite good and my face turned red quite fast after drinking it hahaha.
My mum had some huge tuna salad for her entree and beer for her beverage.
For my main course I chose the veal cutlet in pepper sauce which tasted really yummy too. My mum had the lamb ribs which i felt the lamb taste was abit strong but my mum loved it lol.
Dessert: chocolate cake. It was sooo good too!
We were so stuffed and satisfied after our generous meal and could hardly walk back to the hotel because we were so full! I only finished half of my white wine and i was so sleepy and tipsy that i fell asleep almost immediately after taking a hot bath.
The next morning, we were due to check out from the hotel so we woke up early to walk around our hotel area somemore.
Had breakfast at a small cafe nearby, we ordered some coffee and pastries.
More pics of the grand Gothic cathedral
After walking around randomly and crossing a few streets, we found to our delight that there was a huge shopping area near our hotel called Plaça de Catalunya
There were like all the high street outlets like Bersha, Zara, Mango in that area and we didnt even know till our last day in Spain!! So we did some last min shopping again before we had to quickly go back to our hotel to catch a cab to the Barcelona airport to head back to Geneva.
When we arrived at the airport and checked in, we found out that our flight was delayed for more than 2 hours due to bad weather conditions and we got some voucher from Easyjet for compensation which we used to buy snacks and drinks lol.
Really enjoyed the trip to Barcelona and even though its sometimes not easy travelling with my mum, i found that she was quite accommodating and it was was really nice that we were able to go on the trip together.
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