Welcome To Barcelona

Our flight to Barcelona was close to schedule arriving about 20 minutes late which is the norm. It is about a ten hour flight from gate to gate. We flew on a Boeing 777.

Thankfully we already had a concierge service arranged to meet us at the jet bridge to expedite us getting through the airport. We did this before considering that  Europe has rolled out the new biometric check for passengers arriving from certain locations including the USA I had a concierge service.

Let us tell you this was a very wise decision.  We would say the line to get through the Biometrics looked to be like a two hour process. This is because there are not many kiosks, some of them don't work and you go through a three step process including scanning your passport, taking finger prints and a photo. This is a one time requirement.

In our case we bypassed the lines to passport control where they scanned our passport, took our photo and we just had to do our finger prints. 

Our luggage was one of the first off. We waited an extra ten minutes as they had to substitute the driver taking us to the hotel as there was a lot of traffic as the Pope had left Barcelona this morning after having arrived on June 9.

This is our first time staying at the Monument Hotel in Barcelona. The hotel opened its doors in 2016 and is located within the historic Casa Enric Batllo, a Neo-Gothic mansion. The original construction was between 1895 and 1896, and the mansion was designed as a private residence. On our first visit with the family, we stayed at the Hotel Arts part of Ritz Carlton. We had considered it but ten months before arrival it was all booked up for one of the nights we needed. There are so many hotels in Barcelona to consider at all different price points. We liked the location of this hotel along with its amenities.

This has the charm and look of a boutique hotel and we have a lovely room which has two bedrooms, two full baths and two guest bathrooms along with a living area and small kitchen. Essentially, it's like an apartment and has a lovely view of the city.
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Barcelona is located on the northeast coast of Spain. It is the Capital of Spain and is the second most populous city of this country.

Barcelona is a major tourist destination attracting visitors arriving by car, train plane and passenger cruise ships. It hosted the 1992 Olympics and on our first visit we stayed at Hotel Arts which is located close to where the athletes stayed.

Some of its attractions include:

Sagrada Familia which is the unfinished masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Gothic Quarter which is a maze of narrow streets with lots of Roman and medieval history.

Park Guell, a whimsical park designed by Gaudi.

Las Rambla & La Boqueria Market. The street is iconic and one which we have walked many times and the market with all sorts of food including items to purchase and cook at home and items already prepared to eat. You see pretty much of every part of some of the animal meat.

There are numerous areas we have not mentioned to visit and also Barceloneta Beach which is the main beach of this city with lots of seafood restaurants, bars and beach life.

​Barcelona has been very busy the past few days with the Pope in town. He left this morning for the airport to fly to the Canary Islands.


Once settled in the room we went on a walk to find a nearby grocery store to pick up some items and also found some wine from Spain. 

​We have early dinner reservations knowing that we would sleep very little on the flight and we were right so we will post about this tomorrow.  

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Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith