Barcelona City Break - Mini Adventure

Barcelona City Break

For the boys birthday in August I booked us a little suprise getaway to Barcelona. I booked it all on his laptop and the browser pre-filled all of my details however it used his phone number. The next day I had a text from him saying "Some guy just rang me about a Barcelona trip?" so yeah it wasn't a surprise any longer!

Even though I booked it in August I really can't believe how quickly the time has passed! January tends to be such a long grim month and it was lovely to have something to look forward to.

We were flying on Sunday evening and leaving on Tuesday afternoon so it really was just a short little getaway. Unfortunately our flight was delayed by over two hours on the sunday, so by the time we got to the hotel it was 11pm and most restaurants near the hotel were closed. We managed to find a little bar/eatery and both had some delicious spanish omelette before making our way back to the hotel.

We stayed near the famous Sagrada Familia church, which is simply breathtaking. We went exploring around the area of the hotel and had a good look at the Sagrada Familia, you can pay €15,00 to get inside the church but we skipped it. I personally much prefer the external decor of churches.

We started our day by finding a really cute cafe near our hotel and had cake for breakfast! Well I had gluten free carrot cake but the boy had a spinach, ham and cheese roulade.

Barcelona is really big and because we didn't have very much time we decided that a good way to see the city would be by hopping on a sightseeing bus which allowed to hop on and off at different locations all day.

One of our first locations was Park Güell. It's a public park full of stunning gardens and beautiful arcitectures. You can see more of the architecture by paying €7 but all the gardens are free. I'd definitely recommend the park!

The city of Barcelona seems like one giant piece of Art, there's so much detail everywhere, even on door shutters! The architecture is absolutely beautiful, especially as you get closer towards the centre of Barcelona.

After exploring the park we found a cafe of the Rambles ( main tourist street) that did a lunch time tapas menu. You can see the decor of the cafe in the video below. We got 3 tapas dishes each, a coffee and freshly squeezed juice for €10.95 which was a bargain. However, unfortunately I forgot to write the name of the restaurant down!

After some lunch we went exploring around the harbour area. It's absolutely stunning up there, and the sun had finally come out so it was a really nice spot to sit down and just absorb our surroundings.

We then decided it was time to go find some desserts, now if you love ice cream then you're in for a treat as Barcelona is full of amazing ice cream parlours.  We went to Gelateria Italiana Giovanni where I had a combination of delicious coffee and caramel ice cream and the boy had a hot kinder egg waffle. Now unfortunately because we were so busy eating I kind of forgot to take a photo, but I promise you it was good!

Once we were full of dessert we made our way to the Gothic district ( which is beautiful!) we had a look around the cathedral and then went on a free walking history tour. The tour lasted just over 2 hours and was really interesting. Some bits were a little too historical for me and I would have preffered to learn more about the culturue but overall I would recommend it. 

We spent the rest of the evening exploring, eating and walking around and finished it off by a trip to Zara and then a lengthy walk back to the hotel.

Day 2

We only had half a day to explore as we had to go catch our flight. The morning was pretty unsuccessful as we spent almost an hour walking around trying to find somewhere that did breakfast food which I could eat. Everywhere just seemed to serve pastries and pancakes and due to my gluten intolerance that just wasn't an option for me. In the end, I settled for a banana and an apple and then we were on a mission to find a gluten free bakery that I spotted on the bus tour. Jansana Gluten Free bakery was honestly one of my favourite things about the whole break. For the first time since having to go gluten free I was able to have a croissant and tiramisu, I forgot how much I missed them! I bought two more ham and cheese croissants for the airport and also some absolutely mouth watering apple cheesecake. If you're coelliac or sensitive to gluten, then this bakery is a must stop on your visit to Barcelona!

We finished off the day with some more walking around and some delicious lunch which you can see in the video below.
I hope you've enjoyed this post and my first ever vlog!

If my post has inspired you to visit this beautiful city yourself can find flights and hotels here.

Until next time,

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